NBA: Are These the Final Days of the “Old” Lakers?

• Regardless of how the NBA season and playoffs go, there are major changes coming for Lakers fans and the organization
• New owner Mark Walter is already taking steps to “Dodgerize” the Lakers with the 2-time reigning World Series champs serving as a template for the future
• The Lakers are in a reasonably safe playoff position, but this is likely the final days of the Lakers’ “old” way of doing business as it did under the Buss family

Lakers Have the 10th Best Odds to Win the NBA Title

A New Regime is Here for the Lakers

The Lakers are reasonably safe in their playoff position, currently the Western Conference #5 seed, jockeying with the Rockets and Nuggets slightly ahead of them, and the Timberwolves and Suns right behind them.

According to oddsmakers, they have the 10th-best chance in the league to win the title this year.

Is that due to the star power of Luka Dončić and LeBron James, and that they could conceivably turn it on at playoff time after coasting in the regular season and somehow claw their way to the Finals? Could the Thunder grow complacent? The Spurs show their youth and inexperience?

Or is it the Lakers’ history of Magic, Shaq, Kobe, et al, that is giving pause that maybe their aura could carry them through when it’s least expected?

In context, it doesn’t matter. They are almost assuredly not going to get beyond the second round. And independent of the team results, the new ownership is going to go in a radically different direction than when Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 and passed the power along to Jeanie Buss, his daughter.

There have been a few down years here and there, but few franchises have been as resilient while changing their core and getting back to championship caliber, and it’s because they’re the Lakers.

Players always want to play for them for no reason than that they’re Showtime of Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and now Doncic and, to a lesser degree, LeBron. And they always will be.

But Walter buying the Lakers automatically changes how they will do business. It might not happen immediately, but it’s going to happen. Just looking at how the Dodgers changed when Walter took charge is an indicator.

Lessons for the Lakers Gleaned From the Dodgers

When Walter bought the Dodgers in May 2012, he had various minority investors, including the aforementioned Lakers legend Magic Johnson. While there might be a perception that the team immediately pivoted from how it operated under former owner Frank McCourt and others before him, it didn’t.

Through 2014, they left the inherited baseball operations team in place, led by old-school GM Ned Colletti. They retained manager Don Mattingly as well. They won the NL West title in 2013-14, though they lost in the playoffs.

After 2014, they coaxed Rays head of baseball ops Andrew Friedman to leave Tampa and take over as their President of Baseball Operations. For a year, they maintained the status quo. After 2015, Mattingly and the team mutually agreed to part ways. This was largely because Mattingly did not want the front office interference that Friedman and his staff would put upon him.

It was not up for debate. The manager would work “collaboratively” with the front office. Subsequently, they hired Dave Roberts because Roberts was not as resistant to being told what to do as Mattingly was (and is). And Mattingly was not going to stay quiet about it. Roberts does. He’s got the championship hardware to show for it and could be replaced tomorrow with the team not missing a beat.

That’s what they want.

In addition, while they kept the scouting staff, minor league managers, coaches, and tactics in place for a year after Friedman came onboard, they cleaned house after 2015 because they wanted alignment from top to bottom.

They also overhauled the analytics department and exponentially expanded it.

Agree with their proliferate spending on players or not. Think what you will about their contractual sleight-of-hand where they’re staying under the luxury tax with deferrals, seemingly to infinity, to sign megastars like Shohei Ohtani and, according to the luxury tax, pay him a million a year. Roll your eyes at them giving Kyle Tucker $60 million a year when he’s a very good player who is not by any stretch a top 10 player. But they manipulate the rules and have built the dominant team in baseball and conservatively quadrupled Walter’s investment when he bought the franchise.

Friedman and assistant Farhan Zaidi are assisting in the Lakers’ transition, so expect them to follow that blueprint.

What to Expect from the New Lakers Ownership

Under Buss, the Lakers were frequently a dysfunctional mess like a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster that somehow ended up being a critical and financial smash. It was an image he created where the Lakers somehow just ended up with superstars and won championships.

The Dončić acquisition from the Mavericks last year was a prime example of a trade where it sounds like something an 8-year-old would come up with and had no chance of happening in reality…but it happened for the Lakers.

That will continue under new ownership and the pending changes to basketball ops. While Jeanie Buss will remain as the team’s governor and oversee club operations through 2030-31, this is likely more of a ceremonial position because once Walter is in charge, he’s not listening to her on how to run the team, if she stays that long.

President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka will also stay onboard…in theory.

But if he stays, it will be while Walter’s people make the same changes they made to the Dodgers, only in a basketball context.

It is a different situation, to say the least. MLB is less player-centric than the NBA could ever be. NBA players run the show and can dictate where they want to be. They can get coaches fired if they feel like it. Even hard-liners like Pat Riley needed to adapt to this new world, against his will.

The NBA salary cap is harder to manipulate than baseball’s luxury tax, but given their reputation and willingness to pay (and that it’s the Lakers), they will still attract the biggest stars. In contrast to how it’s been, those stars are not going to be viewed as running the team as was the case with Magic, Kobe, and a diminished LeBron. LeBron’s son will not be on the roster if he can’t contribute.

With that, the Lakers will be the Buss Lakers for a while longer. But once Walter has his people in place, he’ll act swiftly to empty the current bus without even looking to see if anyone he pushed off ended up under it or not.

It worked for the Dodgers.

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