Lakers Rumors: No plans to replace Magic Johnson

Recent Lakers rumors are that there are no immediate plans for Jeanie Buss to hire a replacement for Magic Johnson.

With the offseason here for the Los Angeles Lakers, there have been plenty of Lakers rumors surrounding what will be next for the team.

As of now, the Lakers are without a head coach and a president of basketball operations. The surprise resignation by Magic Johnson left the team with a hole to fill that they weren’t expecting this offseason. While it was widely believed that Luke Walton was not going to be the coach next season, nobody saw the Johnson news coming.

Now, the Lakers are searching for both a head coach and a president of basketball operations. Or so we thought. According to a recent report by Tania Ganguli and Brad Turner of Los Angeles Times, the Lakers might not be seeking a replacement for Johnson. Here’s what they had to say.

"Buss has no plans to hire someone to replace Johnson, who is still expected to be part of the Lakers’ free-agent recruiting this summer in some capacity."

This is certainly some surprising news for the Lakers, as the president of basketball operations is usually the person running the show. However, the Lakers seem to be more focused on finding their head coach first rather than finding a replacement for Johnson.

If the Lakers do indeed pass on getting a new president of basketball operations, that will mean more responsibility for general manager Rob Pelinka. Pelinka has already reportedly met with Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams, who are believed to be the two front-runners for the head coaching vacancy.

If the Lakers were to hire a new head coach before a president of basketball operations, it would be safe to assume that they will be heading into the summer without one. Any potential candidate for the role would likely want to have his head coach and general manager in place. This is something that doesn’t seem likely as of now.

For the Lakers, this is a huge offseason. With the ability to sign a max player in free agency, they need to show some stability. As of now, they do not have that.