The Los Angeles Lakers made a change in leadership earlier this season, with longtime owner of the franchise Jeanie Buss deciding to sell the majority shares of the franchise to Mark Walter, who is now instituting some changes to the team's brain trust. In recent days, the Lakers announced that executive Lon Rosen would be the team's new president of business operations.
Rosen was the Los Angeles Dodgers' executive vice president & chief marketing officer, and Walter called upon him to take on the role as president for the Lakers. With the connections he made during his time with the Dodgers, Rosen will be enlisting the help of Dodgers executives Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, the combo who spearheaded the operations for LA during their back-to-back World Series title-winning seasons.
What this means for Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka is that he would be working closely with those two, collaborating with them on matters of roster personnel. As per Dan Woike of The Athletic, Pelinka “will continue to handle basketball operations” while working within an “expanded front office”.
The next few years are going to be pivotal for the Lakers; they have to start fully building around Luka Doncic, which should take a year or two for them to do.
Lakers front office gears up for pivotal next few seasons
The Lakers' trade for Doncic is one they would make 10 times out of 10, but the roster they had constructed was geared towards maximizing the James-Anthony Davis led core. They lack so much defensive infrastructure that it would take a year or two before they emerge as a legitimate contender in the West.
The team has been gearing up for the free agency period of 2027, when the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic could conceivably hit free agency. It's not quite clear if Pelinka would still be with the Lakers by then, but it's clear what the intention is from their front office.
