Los Angeles Lakers roundtable: 4 questions about front office, next coach
2. Who should be the Lakers president of basketball operations?
Pruna: Masai Ujiri. Masai Ujiri has been one of the most industrious, intelligent, and highly respected NBA executives of the last decade.
Under Ujiri, the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors attracted and re-signed quality talent, drafted well (Pascal Siakam at No. 27), and made smart trades despite being in two of the least popular NBA markets. Ujiri simply played the best hands with the cards he was dealt with.
If given the keys to the Lakers franchise, Ujiri would finally have the resources to make the Lakers an annual contender. I would select Sam Presti of the OKC Thunder as a close second choice for similar reasons to Ujiri. Also, the fact that Presti helped impress Paul George to re-sign with OKC without even meeting the Lakers is impressive.
Wade: Bob Myers. I firmly believe that the next Lakers president of basketball operations has to be one who is established in the league and also somebody who isn’t connected to the Lakers. I previously wrote about the Lakers targeting Bob Myers to replace Magic and I really do think that he would be the perfect fit in LA.
Torres: Not sure. I think it’s hard to say since there is a vague amount of executives available to hire for the Lakers. What I honestly and truly want for this organization is them to hire an experienced and competent manager to run the entire team who is not directly associated with the franchise.
Again, it is difficult to assess due to the fact the person must have experience and some level of charisma to be the “final hammer” in free agent negotiations. R.C. Buford, Sam Presti, Bob Myers; someone of that entire field is, in my mind, perfect to bring in as LA’s POBO. I also would not be opposed to forward thinkers of Daryl Morey’s school of modern basketball such as Sam Hinkie.
Hinkie deserves a chance to run an actual NBA team. With the Lakers being so behind in terms of building a franchise and internalizing themselves with the modern technological revolution of analytics, him bringing that into Lakers’ basketball could be a fresh start into a new era of the franchise.