Soon after the surprising sale of the Lakers to the Joshua Kushner/Bob Iger group was announced, hiring reportedly paused in both the Lakers’ front office and business side. Under Mark Walter, the Lakers began reorganizing and growing their basketball operations, adding analytics staff and much-needed personnel on the scouting side. The Lakers had already hired Rohan Ramadas away from the Pelicans as an assistant general manager focused on analytics.
Now comes the report that the Lakers are going to hire Eric Amsler, who has spent 22 years in the Miami Heat organization, to become an assistant general manager focused more on scouting, a story first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Both Ramadas and Amsler will report to Rob Pelinka, who remains the head of Lakers basketball operations.
Why this is good news for Lakers fans — beyond Amsler being highly qualified for the job — is that it signals that the much-needed fleshing out of the front office and scouting departments will continue. Under the Buss family, the Lakers might have had the smallest scouting operation in the league and were considered a small front office. That started to change under Walter and apparently will continue.
One other thing that will not delay the sale of the Lakers is the Buss family infighting, which is heading to court, league sources have told NBC Sports. Five of the six Buss siblings voted to exercise a tag-along clause and sell their remaining 17.8% of the franchise to the Kushner/Iger group. Jeanie Buss, who has served as team governor under Walter’s ownership and wants to continue in that role, opposes the sale. That will be settled in court, but whether or not the Buss family portion is ultimately part of the sale, the rest of it will go through (if ultimately approved by the Board of Governors, as expected).
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