Lakers hire ‘literal rocket science’ as front office overhaul begins

The Los Angeles Lakers under the Buss family is often called a family business. They ran one of the leanest front offices in the NBA, spending big on stars and coaches but cutting corners in the invisible parts of their organization. That worked very well in the low-level NBA they’ve had, but it’s been a big problem over the last decade as the league has modernized around them.

Enter Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He built Major League Baseball’s biggest power through aggressive spending in every conceivable area. The Dodgers bring in stars, yes, but also finally in almost every aspect of team building. They’ve won three of the past six World Series, but they also remain one of the most respected farm systems in baseball. When he bought the Lakers last seasonit was only a matter of time before he brought the same approach to the NBA.

This exchange really started during the offseason, when the Lakers reportedly fired most of their scouting staff. That included Joey and Jesse Bussa former scout and operations coach for the G-League team. They hired Lon Rosen, Magic Johnson’s former agent and long-time manager of the Dodgers, to run their business operations, but in terms of building a basketball team, basketball president Rob Pelinka revealed after the season that the two most important employees will come as assistant general managers.

However, the Lakers hired their first on Monday as former New Orleans Pelicans vice president of strategy and operations Rohan Ramadas will be one of those assistant general manager slots, according to ESPN. “He’s a real rocket scientist,” one source told ESPN, as Ramadas spent more than a decade working for the Aerospace Corporation before joining the NBA.

Ramadas’ role will reportedly focus on strategy, revenue management and statistics. The next assistant general manager vacancy to be filled will focus on the draft, player evaluation and player development. There are no candidates for that position, although specifically, Yahoo reported that the Lakers have offered Minnesota Timberwolves assistant general manager Steve Senior the title of vice president of basketball. He chose to stay with the Timberwolves. According to Yahoo, while Pelinka and Kurt Rambis led the interview process for the Lakers, Dodgers managers Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi also participated.

The NBA draft is less than a month away, and the Lakers hold the No. 25 overall pick. More importantly, they are heading into an offseason where they can create about $48 million in cap space and must decide how to use it to improve on last year’s program. Austin Reaves is headed for unrestricted free agency. So is LeBron James. What the list will look like long-term remains a mystery.

But the movement to build it is at least starting to take shape. There is still a way to go, but the Dodger-fication of the Lakers seems to be progressing well.