In a stunning move, the Los Angeles Lakers announced a drastic shakeup to their front office on Tuesday. Gone are longtime head honchos Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, and in their place is former Lakers great Magic Johnson. Johnson was promoted from an advisory role to become the teamâs president of basketball operations, leaving the Lakersâ general manager role vacant.
Yet with the NBA trade deadline just days away, you would think that the Lakers would have a plan in place to fill that role. According to multiple reports, they could hire Kobe Bryantâs agent, Rob Pelinka.
Nothing concrete, but I'm hearing strong indications Rob Pelinka, Kobe's longtime agent, will be the Lakers' next general manager.
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) February 21, 2017
Agent Rob Pelinka has emerged as a front-runner to become Lakers GM under Magic Johnson, sources tell @TheVertical. Reps Harden, Kobe.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 21, 2017
Pelinka represents several high-profile players like James Harden, so his relationships with stars and understanding of contracts and the salary cap makes him an interesting candidate. Also, adding Pelinka could lead to Bryant joining the Lakers in some capacity, which is what Johnson ultimately wants.
Also, Magic wants Kobe Bryant to come back on board with some sort of player relations role. He recently intimated as much publicly.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) February 21, 2017
Pelinka going from an agent to a front office role wonât be unprecedented. In 2015, super agent Arn Tellem left his agency to become an executive with the Detroit Pistons, so perhaps Pelinka will be doing the same with the Lakers.
