In less than a year, the Lakers pulled off an extreme franchise makeover, adding a new head coach of the future in JJ Redick, a new superstar of the future in Luka Doncic, and a new owner of the future in Mark Walter.
The Lakers extreme new makeover started one year ago next Tuesday when the team hired JJ Redick to be their head coach of the future. We didn’t know it then but that was Jeanie’s first public transition move. Jeanie’s true first transition move came back in 2021 when Mark Walter purchased Philip Anschutz’s 26% minority share of the Lakers and was awarded first right of refusal should the Busses decide to sell the team.
What’s obvious in retrospect is Jeanie Buss has just given the professional sports industry a master class in how an owner of a legacy franchise like the Lakers should handle the sale of the team to a new ownership group.
Jeanie Buss choreographed the hiring of JJ Redick as the team’s head coach of the future, the blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic to be their superstar of the future, and now the sale to Mark Walter, their new owner of the future.
Jeanie Buss negotiated the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers for $10 billion. That’s $4 billion more than was paid for the Boston Celtics a few months ago, making it the biggest sales price in history for a pro sports franchise.
More importantly, Jeanie leaves the Lakers with a dynamic new young head coach, a elite new young top-3 megastar point guard, and a proven new young owner committed to building teams and winning the right way.
As the NBA undergoes a chaotic changing of the guard with new teams and superstar vying to take over the league, Jeanie Buss has done a masterful job as trustee of the Lakers in choreographing the franchise’s transition.
What New Owner Means for Rob Pelinka & JJ Redick?
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While Jeanie is staying as governor during the transition, the days of running the Lakers like a small-time family business on a shoestring are over and Pelinka and Redick will be held accountable for their jobs.
Using the Dodgers’ turnaround since being bought by TWG Global as a guide, Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick can expect to be given a fair opportunity and every possible tool or benefit to help them best perform their jobs.
Mark Walter has been a minority partner since 2021 so he’s been intimately involved in all the Lakers have been doing, which is why he is comfortable with Jeanie Buss remaining as the team’s governor during the transition.
But Walter clearly plans to follow the same blueprint he used to rebuild the entire Dodgers’ organization, which means Pelinka and Redick will finally be held accountable to a championship standard for their performances.
While Walter won’t be able to buy an NBA championship by overpaying players, he will certainly pour finances and resources into every aspect of running the Lakers from player development to analytics to training.
Rob Pelinka will be under heavy scrutiny and will likely see his front office team dramatically expanded. There won’t be any excuses accepted if the Lakers start the NBA season without a legitimate starting quality center.
Same for JJ Redick. He may be a rookie coach but he will be given every opportunity to show he has the chops to become a great NBA coach. In the end, JJ needs to grow up, develop quickly, and, most importantly, win.
Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick will enter the 2025–26 NBA season secure in their positions but also clearly aware that they would be held to very high performance standards, for which they will be personally accountable.
What New Owner Means for LeBron James & Austin Reaves
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On the surface, one of the reasons Mark Walter wants Jeanie Buss to remain governor during the transition is to insure that the team continues the strong personal relationships with LeBron James and Austin Reaves.
Since Walter is already a minority owner, he’s likely up-to-date on what the Lakers are planning with respect to LeBron James and his player option and with respect to Austin Reaves and the continuing trade rumors.
Could the sale to Walter motivate LeBron James to play for more than just one more season? Could Walter veto Reaves untouchable status and use him to make an offer to Utah for Walker Kessler the Jazz cannot refuse?
While having a rich owner still won’t allow you to exceed the second apron, expect Mark Walter to dramatically raise the bar on what is acceptable to be a Lakers player. Count on better scouting, analytics, and development.
What you won’t see is a Lakers team where critical roster needs like a shot blocking center to protect the rim gets kicked down the road and ignored for multiple seasons. Accountability is how you win championships.
How the Lakers address the LeBron situation will be interesting. Do they want LeBron to play more seasons or would they prefer that next season be his farewell tour season so they can plan how to move on from the King?
Could the Lakers decide the smart move was to trade Austin Reaves now in an attempt to get Walker Kessler or move him to the bench to open up a starting role for a defense-first point-of-attack defender like Marcus Smart.
Mark Walter will probably allow Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick to proceed with their previously planned strategy this summer but if the Lakers are not playing championship basketball, expect major changes at the deadline.
Nice post Tom, by the way. mark is 65. But I guess that’s young for you. Lol.
Thanks, Michael. Young is a state of mind.
AGREE LT. Body? Not so much. lol!
Michael H, I don’t know the discussion about age, but Mark Walter is going to be 66 in January, Jeannie Buss will be 64 this coming September…..sounds young from my POV.
The revisionist history of the “Great Job” that Jeanie has done during her tenure is…..quaint. Maybe I’m mis-reading the tea leaves but it doesn’t seem like the conversation was Mark saying “I’ll buy the team if you stay on as Governor”. Seems like it was more Jeanie saying “I’ll only SELL the team if I stay on as Governor and I want it in writing so I can’t get the boot like Cuban did”.
EXACTLY. What I do give Jeanie credit for is agreeing back in 2021 to give Mark Walter the first right of refusal to buy the Lakers. That was a smart move that made this sale actually happen.
Fortunately for Lakers fans, the Lakers lure was enough to get LeBron and win the 2020 championship so she doesn’t strike out despite the mom and pop running of the franchise.
I do give Jeanie credit for choosing Mark, approving the hire of Redick, letting Rob pull off the Luka trade, and getting her family to agree to sell the team at the right time. Lots of luck and good timing involved, but in the end maybe one of the best transitions of ownership of a legacy franchise ever. At least so far.
What’s different about Mark and the Lakers is this was a sale to a guy who is essentially an insider. That’s a lot different from the sale of the Mavs to an outsider. Mark didn’t make Ishbia type moves when he took over the Dodger and I don’t think he will do that with the Lakers.
What he will do, however, is make smart business decisions about the GM, the coach, and Austin Reaves, which was not something we could confident was being done in the past.
Lakers run like a $10B business is going to be something to watch.
The NBA is definitely not MLB but there is a synergy.
Can Mark do for the Lakers what he did for the Dodgers?
That’s what we’re going to get a chance to find out.
Real quick…
-LeBron came here to raise his family on the West Coast, work with Magic, and build his business empire. Very little to do with Jeanie.
-Jeanie gave the job to Dan Hurley who then gave it back when he realized what a shitshow our front office was…that’s why Reddick is here.
-Luka is here because Nico Harrison is an idiot.
One thing I give her credit for is being good at self-preservation and self-promotion.
Definitely a lot of luck involved in getting where we are. But that’s how it always is in life. Luck always has a big play in where we end up.
But being lucky doesn’t elevate you to “Master Class ” status.
Interesting read and takes. I think that, taking into account what a shit show the Timberwolbes sale has been, this was as clean frankly out of public eye until details were concluded, as one could expect: if Magic were more fully involved Jimmy Kimmel would have reported the same first 2 months ago or something like that.
My take is this: everyone’s margin for error just shrunk. A lot. Hyperbole rote, corporate spin and poor choices will (hopefully) result in the people in question finding employment elsewhere.
Rob won’t last if he keeps crafting rosters with gaping holes at multiple positions and tossing draft picks into deals that don’t merit their inclusion. Bob Meyers is out there, Pelinka will need to be a lot smarter/luckier than he has already been. We’ve seen GM’s and coaches let go who have won banners more recently than we have.
JJ won’t last if he keeps losing his on-court composure and mistaking annoyance for grit in post game interviews. With able-bodied assistants in the waiting his leash will be very short. Coaches, fair or not (often not) are the first casualty in these kind of rebuilds. Better learn the lessons available or go back to podcasting.
The LeBron question is an interesting one. Everyone needs to be careful about what they say, text and email in regards to this. Wouldn’t surprise me if, suddenly, LeBron was to take more of a pay cut than he previously hinted at. Not the vet minimum, let’s not be absurd. But maybe something in line with opening up the spending tools in conjunction with getting some of James’ people on the team payroll.