The Lakers are not just handing the keys to Luka Doncic. They are also rebuilding the machinery around him.
That reset is showing up in three places at once: Doncic is being described as the team’s undisputed leader, Rob Pelinka is expanding the front office’s scouting operation, and JJ Redick is keeping the starting lineup open enough that no one can assume a job is safe.
Doncic has already been in a leadership role since arriving in Los Angeles, even while sharing the floor with LeBron James. Now the Lakers are moving into a season in which James is gone, leaving Doncic as the clear center of gravity. The franchise has also committed to him financially, signing him to a four-year, $180 million deal, the richest contract in NBA history for a player who went undrafted.
That makes the rest of the organization’s moves feel less like background noise and more like part of the same project.
Pelinka said the Lakers would be expanding their scouting department as part of the front-office buildout, and specifically noted that the team will be adding more scouts in player personnel, draft scouting, G League scouting and NBA scouting. The Lakers have also hired Pooh Jeter as director of pro scouting, one of the first major additions in that area under new assistant general manager Eric Amsler.
Jeter’s path to the job included work with the Portland Trail Blazers as a player development coach and as assistant GM of the NBA G League Rip City Remix. The Lakers are also coming off a summer in which they made around 15 hires, a sign of how much of the organization is being reworked at once.
Redick, meanwhile, is not treating the roster as settled.
That competition is not abstract. The Lakers have nine new players who were not on last year’s roster, and two starting spots remain open around Doncic, Austin Reaves and new center Walker Kessler. Redick has also shown he is willing to make significant rotation changes during the season, which means the first version of this team may not be the one that lasts.
The uncertainty is part of the point. Redick said after the Lakers’ first practice, “We had a really productive August and September with our small group works,” a reminder that this group has already spent time trying to build chemistry before the season even starts.
Doncic has done his part on that front too. He organized a four-day minicamp in Slovenia for a select group of players, another sign that the Lakers are leaning on him not just as their best player, but as the player around whom the next version of the team is being formed.
The challenge now is that the Lakers are trying to define themselves in real time. The front office is adding scouts. The coaching staff is sorting through a roster with nine new faces. The lineup still has openings. And at the center of it all is Doncic, who is no longer sharing the top of the hierarchy.