The Los Angeles Lakers are changing owners again, and it sounds like some people inside the building are probably not too upset about it. A new report from The Athletic's Dan Woike revealed that multiple current Lakers employees expressed optimism/relief about the incoming Bob Iger/Josh Kushner ownership duo.
The reason for this reaction? Some felt the Los Angeles Dodgers' influence on the Lakers under Mark Walter's directive was "pushing too hard toward analytics and doing so with an arrogance that turned off some people in basketball operations and the locker room," in the words of Woike.
In other words, critics of the Walter regime's analytical vision weren't sad to see a new group come in and take charge, even if it's still a bit of a mystery as to how it'll all shake out.
Certain Lakers employees didn't like excessive Dodgers influence under Mark Walter
The Dodgers have built a developing dynasty due to many factors, but being a progressive MLB franchise, their use of analytics is known to be forward-thinking and expansive. But translating that model to an entirely different sport/league -- the NBA, where the overuse of analytics is often frowned upon -- comes with complications.
This is not to say that analytics aren't important for NBA front offices to leverage, especially in the year 2026. But it sounds like it was also the tone of Walter's team that turned off many people inside the Lakers' building.
The Lakers are still in a period of transition from an upper management standpoint. The new ownership group hasn't been formally approved, although there shouldn't be any problems in that regard. Jeanie Buss's future as governor is completely up in the air. Who knows how safe Rob Pelinka's general manager job is? There are a lot of moving parts, and moving away from analytics to an extent might be a nice change.
Challenging an analytics-first model is a refreshing stance (in the NBA, at least)
I personally like the idea of people within the Lakers' front office pushing back against an analytics-heavy approach. I'm of the mind that analytics are useful but not the be-all, end-all way to evaluate players or run a franchise. What's more valuable than analytics are experience, knowledge, wisdom, and feel for the game and talent evaluation that former players and coaches who have been around the league for decades have accrued. These are the people who make the best decisions for a franchise, not analytic experts.
Analytics are good source material, but they are just another voice in a room that should take into account basketball IQ and the aforementioned qualities before bowing down to numbers.
It bothers me when I hear phrases like, "basketball is just math" or "we won that game analytically" ... this type of thinking is eroding the beauty and essence of the game. If the Lakers are wary of diving headfirst into MLB-style analytics and getting lost, I'm confident that they're headed in a good direction.
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