Recent Lakers rumors have been about the departure of Ryan West from the front office.
Despite the offseason being quite for most teams, recent Lakers rumors have been about the surprising departure of Ryan West.
For the past 10 years, West has been an important part of the front office for the Los Angeles Lakers. West has been the Director of Players Personnel for the Lakers, and has played a major role in helping the Lakers draft well the past few years.
While the Lakers have had some struggles in recent years, one of the things that they have done well in is drafting. Despite not having what should have been some of their early picks, the Lakers have done a good job finding some talent later on in the first and second rounds. A lot of that credit has to go to West.
Due to the success of the Lakers’ drafting, they have the assets necessary to trade for Anthony Davis. Shockingly, West and the Lakers have agreed to part ways according to Ramon Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski.
Ryan West and the team decided to part ways in the last few days. His contract was up & they mutually agreed he’d reached a ceiling w/ the team in the role he’d been in, league sources told ESPN. https://t.co/vEuCRSfCT3
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 28, 2019
Seeing West leaving the Lakers is certainly a blow to the franchise. West has been regarded as having one of the best eyes for talent in the NBA, and losing him could hurt the Lakers a lot in the scouting department.
According to the report from Shelburne, it seems as if West was looking to move up from the Director of Player Personnel. However, it is unknown as of now if the Lakers weren’t willing to give him a promotion, or if he is looking to start somewhere new.
Considering his father is considered one of the best front office minds in the NBA, West might be poised to become either an assistant general manager or general manager somewhere else.
It will be very interesting to see what happens with West in the future. Since he had a lot of success with the Lakers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see that continue wherever he lands next.