The Los Angeles Lakers made what could end up proving the most consequential NBA trade of the 21st century when they acquired Luka Doncic ahead of the February deadline, and another major move could be coming in the near future.
The 2025 calendar year has been a seismic one for the league’s premier franchise, as the Buss family also agreed to sell the majority stake in the organization at a valuation of $10 billion over the summer. Part of that agreement involved Jeanie Buss remaining as governor, i.e. lead decision-maker, for the team for at least the next five years.
Given her status and the way NBA governorship works, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on the Friday, November 21 edition of his podcast that it must have been Jeanie Buss’s decision to remove younger siblings Joey and Jesse Buss from their roles as the co-leads of the Lakers’ scouting department earlier in the week.
Los Angeles also dismissed most of the rest of the scouting staff who operated under the younger pair of Buss brothers, which led Windhorst and co-host Kevin Pelton into a discussion of what that might mean for the Lakers’ first-round pick in the 2026 draft — namely to the notion that the team may be leaning toward trading it.
Timing of Lakers’ Decision to Fire Majority of Scouting Staff Highly Unusual
GettyLos Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss.
Windhorst explained his thinking during a conversation with Pelton Friday.
“They also let go, reportedly, the majority of their scouting staff, which kind of makes sense on one hand because if you’re going to fire the two guys who are head of the scouting department, you’re going to fire their staff because they’re going to be loyal to them,” Windhorst said.
“What is unusual is to run your scouting staff out at the end of November because this is scouting season, and if you wanna hire other scouts, they work for other teams,” Windhorst continued. “You can’t just build your scouting staff. And [the Lakers] actually have their draft pick this year. They’re hoping it’s going to be in the 20s.”
What Windhorst implied is that L.A. hopes/plans to be good enough that the team has a lower first-round pick, which means it’s less valuable and thereby potentially less in jeopardy because of the unorthodox timing of the mass firings throughout the scouting department.
“Or perhaps [it’s] an indication that they’re planning to trade [the pick] on draft night,” Pelton responded.
“Well, that may be true,” Windhorst replied.
Lakers to Employ Multiple Dodgers Executives as Consultants
GettyLos Angeles Lakers majority owner Mark Walter.
New majority Lakers owner Mark Walter, who also owns the two-time defending MLB champion Los Angeles Dodgers, brought over two front office people from that organization to advise the Lakers shortly after the Buss brothers got the ax.
It is merely speculation at this point to say whether Walter wanted the Buss brothers out, or whether Jeanie Buss wanted her younger siblings fired and Walter agreed. However, Windhorst offered educated speculation that it was the latter.
“What this indicates to me — and this is my feel, no one has said this to me, this is not a report, this is just my feel, this is me looking at the situation — this is done with venom,” Windhorst said. “This is blood is thicker than water here. Because you would not fire your scouting staff [at this point]. Even if you hated your director of scouting, you would not fire them in November, and certainly [not] their whole staff. You would say, ‘Okay, I’ll fire you one day after the draft.’”
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