Los Angeles Lakers: What will Jeanie Buss do this offseason?

Magic Johnson’s resignation from the Los Angeles Lakers provided the team with a golden opportunity to move the franchise forward.

Magic Johnson ended a bumpy tenure as the Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations by resigning at a press conference two weeks ago. Fans and most everyone in the NBA thought that Jeanie Buss would then conduct a thorough search for the right man to replace him.

It was assumed at the very least that Jeanie would reach out to former Lakers Jerry West and Pat Riley, not only to gauge their possible interest in re-joining the Purple and Gold, but also to pick their brains and solicit their advice.

It was also believed that she’d contact David Griffin, the former Cleveland general manager, who enjoyed a positive relationship there with LeBron James and who is also widely-regarded as a man with a smart, creative basketball mind.

A third common assumption was that Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka might be dismissed from his position, or at least kept dangling, depending on who Buss hired for the position directly above Pelinka’s.

Finally, Magic indicated that one reason he quit was the inner turmoil he felt about wanting to fire Lakers coach Luke Walton while knowing that Luke was a favorite of Jeanie’s. Therefore, it seemed fair to believe that once Magic was gone, Walton could well be retained.

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But what has actually transpired since then has surprisingly run contrary to conventional wisdom:

1. Buss apparently did not contact West, Riley or Griffin (who instead took a similar position with New Orleans) or any other possible candidate, such as Golden State’s Bob Myers. Or at least if she has done so, knowledge of such calls or meetings have remained remarkably secret.

2. Walton decided he’d had enough non-support from both the team’s front office (other than Jeanie) and from star player James, so he and the Lakers arranged a “mutually agreeable” split. In near-record time, he was swiftly hired to coach the rival Sacramento Kings, a team with an attractive up-and-coming young roster… much as the Lakers had at this time a year ago.

3. Rather than being fired, Pelinka was given the authority to hire the Lakers next coach, and currently seems positioned to run the team going forward. This is especially surprising because when he was a player agent, Pelinka burned bridges with several current GMs and rival agents.

What exactly is Jeanie Buss thinking? She has yet to address the public in any way other than press releases. This is what the public knows about her:

• She revered her father, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who taught Jeanie many of the finer points of the business world, but not very much about the basketball side of things. Jerry hoped that his son Jim would step up and eventually run that side of the operation. As a result, Jeanie is regarded as a relatively astute businesswoman who is not too savvy about basketball. There are several other NBA owners who share those qualities. The best ones surround themselves with top basketball people and allow them to run things.

• Jeanie places an extremely high value on loyalty and trust. She felt betrayed by brother Jim and fired him when he made basketball moves without consulting or explaining his actions to her. She replaced him with the man she trusts most, Magic Johnson, a Lakers icon as a player but a man who had zero experience running a basketball operation. She then introduced him to Pelinka, with whom she had a strong relationship from the days when he represented Kobe Bryant, and convinced Magic that Rob should be his GM- even though Pelinka also had no front office basketball experience.

• Jeanie Buss apparently trusts a very small circle of people. One of her main confidants is her best friend Linda Rambis, the wife of former Laker Kurt Rambis. Linda’s influence on Jeanie extends far beyond her job title of Executive Director of Special Projects for the Lakers. Just how much power Linda wields is tough to know, but she is an integral part of Jeanie’s decision-making process.

With all this as background, where does the Lakers franchise really stand now? The truth is that the Lakers ship is adrift at sea and can move in either of two directions.

On the one hand, the team has many attractive roster components, including James, who is still one of the best offensive forces in the league, and promising young players who are just starting to realize their potential in Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball. Plus they will likely have the #11 pick in the upcoming draft.

This gives the Lakers the potential to become a title contender in the not-too-distant future. But to achieve that status, leadership must move it in the right direction and provide the right responses to many important but as-yet unanswered questions for Buss, Pelinka and any other decision-maker.