The Los Angeles Lakers have undergone a lot of changes over the last couple years with multiple ownership sales.
When Mark Walter bought the team, he had a vision of building out the team’s front office to give the organization every advantage possible. Included in that is hiring of two assistant general managers to work under Rob Pelinka, the first of which was Rohan Ramadas as assistant general manager of strategy and data systems, overseeing basketball analytics and strategic initiatives for basketball operations.
After Walter sold the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, there was an expected grace period where hirings were put on hold. It appears the Lakers have now added that other assistant GM though, bringing in Miami Heat executive Eric Amsler, per Shams Charania of ESPN:
While it took the Lakers a little longer than expected to hire their second assistant GM, they finally have their guy and it’s someone who comes with a ton of front office experience.
The NBA is a salary cap league, but there is no cap on front office executives and bringing in as many smart people as possible has been a clear priority for the Lakers this offseason.
Rob Pelinka & Lakers emphasizing player development
Under the NBA’s new CBA, drafting and developing talent is more important than ever. The Lakers clearly know that as this hiring is to help in those areas, and Pelinka recently discussed the importance of player development.
“I think in this salary cap system, player development is going to be a huge thing to lean into for success ultimately,” Pelinka said. “We’ve seen that. I think you could look at veteran players that have come here and developed. I’ll use Rui as an example. When we traded for him, and who he is now, he’s a different player. That’s a testament to JJ’s player development, staff, I see coach Bo sitting here, he’s poured in so much.
“So I think there can be development of veteran players too that are still young. I think we have Adou Thiero as another example. Had some bumps with his health this year but once he got healthy, JJ trusted him enough to put him in a playoff series, and got some big rebounds and made some big plays. Those are just examples. We have to continue to find young talent and develop them.