Mark Walter selling the Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner might be the headline, but what’s really cooking down in LA is a full-blown hiring freeze that’s stopping their front office buildout cold. Seriously, with Buss family in-fighting still swirling over whether they’ll even join this new ownership group, the constant stream of rumors has become relentless. And honestly, this latest info is wild, especially when you think about what it means for the team’s future on the court.
No Moves Before The New Bosses Take Over
Man, you know how it goes when a company gets bought out. Chaos, uncertainty, and usually a total stop on any new hires. Well, apparently, the Lakers are right in the middle of that mess. The Athletic’s Dan Woike dropped the scoop on Tuesday: the buzz around the league is that LA isn’t making *any* front office hires until Iger and Kushner officially take the reins. According to a couple of anonymous league sources, there’s a real belief across the NBA that this team simply cannot finish building its basketball operations department until the ownership situation is fully resolved. They had this vision for two assistant general managers, right? One for analytics, one for player scouting. They got Rohan Ramadas on board for the stats side, which is huge, but that other GM, the one focused on scouting and development? Crickets. They haven’t made any inroads in pro scouting, and with preseason games kicking off in just over a month, trying to fill out a staff and get everyone on the same page already felt like a long shot. Now? It’s looking like a distant hope more than a reality. That missing scouting and development GM is going to be the biggest problem.
Walter’s Big Moves And The Future Vision
So, what about Mark Walter, the guy making all these moves? Selling the Lakers seems to be just the beginning. Roughly around the same time the Buss family news dropped, Liam Twomey, Simon Johnson, and Matt Slater of The Athletic reported that Walter is also set to sell his stake in the English soccer club Chelsea. He and Todd Boehly are in talks to sell their shares in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital. It’s not a sudden thing either; these buyout talks have been happening at various times over the past two years, ever since relations between Boehly and Clearlake reportedly broke down. You might remember, the BlueCo consortium, which included Boehly and Clearlake, bought Chelsea for a staggering £2.3 billion from Roman Abramovich back in June 2022. It tells you Walter is moving big pieces around.
This all begs a huge question for the Lakers: those initial front office moves, like hiring Ramadas and the vision for two GMs, were made by Walter, probably with insight from the Dodgers’ front office. Will Iger and Kushner have that same vision for how to build out the team? Will they ever hire that crucial second assistant GM for scouting and development? Until that ownership situation is finally buttoned up, the Lakers are stuck in limbo, and that’s a tough spot to be in as the season quickly approaches.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Silver Screen and Roll.
Leave a Reply