Back in the day, the Los Angeles Lakers were seen as something of a model franchise in the NBA. Former owner Dr. Jerry Buss set the general vision and ran the financial side of the organization, while he delegated the actual basketball operations and personnel decisions to his basketball people: Bill Sharman, Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak.
During Buss’ 34 years as the Lakers’ owner, the team won 10 NBA championships and went from a bridesmaid franchise to the worldwide gold standard of basketball.
But ever since his death in 2013, the franchise has come off as anywhere from a lacking operation to an outright clown show to the rest of the league, as well as to basketball fans, including even Lakers fans.
Jeanie Buss, the daughter of Dr. Buss, has been in charge since the latter’s passing. Although the team won the 2020 championship, during the younger Buss’ 11 years as controlling owner, it has missed the playoffs seven times and lost in the first round of the playoffs twice, despite having LeBron James for the last six seasons.
It has all led to a perception that the team’s front office doesn’t know what it is doing. Charges of nepotism (the main people in the front office are general manager Rob Pelinka, who was the late Kobe Bryant’s agent, and Kurt Rambis, a former player and head coach) have been made, and some feel there is no clear vision or plan.
Perhaps that is why the younger Buss and Pelinka made a generous offer to Dan Hurley, the decorated head coach of the University of Connecticut, to be not only their head coach but also a program-builder of sorts. Hurley said no to a reported $70 million over six years, which has led some people to accuse Lakers management of being cheap, an accusation that has been made multiple times in the past.
If the Lakers realize they need to bring in someone such as Hurley to be a program-builder and improve their reputation, as well as give them some much-needed gravitas, there is one other man they should aggressively go after — Bob Myers.
Myers, of course, is the former general manager of the Golden State Warriors. Like Pelinka, he started out as an agent under Arn Tellem, Bryant’s first agent. When Myers was hired by the Warriors in 2011 to be their assistant general manager (he was promoted to general manager in 2012), they had been considered a laughingstock for many years, but they had a promising young star named Stephen Curry.
Not too long afterward, they won their first NBA championship since 1975. Three more would follow in the next seven years, making them a legitimate dynasty.
Myers decided to hire Steve Kerr to be their head coach in 2014 instead of sticking with Mark Jackson. In three years under Jackson, the Warriors had improved, but he had reportedly divided the locker room by flaunting his devout religious views.
Myers also resisted the calls to break up the starting backcourt of Curry and Klay Thompson and trade Thompson for a big man such as Kevin Love. Instead, Myers stuck to his basketball vision, and it ended up changing the NBA from a league dominated by slowdown basketball to one where pace and space offenses have become the norm.
If Myers were ever to join the Lakers, he wouldn’t necessarily have to be the main man or dislodge Pelinka. They could keep Pelinka, who is reportedly unlikely to lose his job, and the two could work in tandem in some type of arrangement where both could focus on their respective strengths.
Myers could help handle their ongoing coaching search while crafting a coherent plan to turn what is currently a good roster into a championship-caliber one this summer. He could also craft a plan to retool once James leaves and make Los Angeles a contender again soon afterward.
More than anything else, Myers could at least give the appearance that the franchise has gotten its you-know-what in order, which would make it that much more attractive to prospective free agents right away.
Since leaving the Warriors last year, he has been a part of ESPN’s NBA broadcast crew, and he has also served as an advisor and consultant to the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
The Commanders are another pro sports team that, like the Lakers, used to be a flagship championship franchise but has been considered a laughingstock for a while. Now, with the help of Myers and a new ownership group led by billionaire investor Josh Harris and Lakers legend Magic Johnson, they seem to be headed on the right track.
Perhaps Johnson should encourage the younger Buss, who was his boss when he was the Lakers’ president of basketball operations from 2017 to 2019, to go after Myers for a similar role.
