The Los Angeles Lakers’ $10 billion franchise sale may have reset the valuation bar in professional sports, but long-standing concerns about how the team is operated behind the scenes persist.
On The Zach Lowe Show, veteran NBA journalist Howard Beck described the Lakers as “streamlined to their detriment,” citing a lack of internal infrastructure under the Buss family’s ownership.
Beck said the organization lacked standard tools used by most other NBA teams, such as Synergy Sports, and operated for years without a properly staffed analytics department or even a basic flowchart for decision-making.
I’m almost certain they did not actually have one,” Beck said regarding the absence of operational charts. “They’ve been lean.
The Buss family, led by Jeanie Buss since 2013, has continued its tradition of investing in player salaries while staying frugal elsewhere.
Beck noted that Phil Jackson was the first high-priced head coach the Lakers paid significantly, back in 1999. Until then, even coaching salaries were kept modest compared to league standards.
This insight comes in the wake of the Lakers’ record-setting sale to billionaire Mark Walter, a longtime associate of the Buss family and owner of the Dodgers. Despite the change in majority ownership, Buss will remain as team governor for several more years.
Unlike the Mavericks’ sale that saw Mark Cuban step back, the Lakers are staying the course structurally. That decision reflects the trust Walter and the Buss family have built since he first acquired a minority stake in 2021.
However, critics have long pointed to the Lakers’ off-court approach as a weakness. Despite producing a 50–32 record this season and securing the Pacific Division title, the team suffered a first-round exit to Minnesota
Front office limitations have come under renewed scrutiny following the team’s inability to build sustained playoff success despite strong top-end talent.
While Buss has delivered results, including the 2020 championship, insiders question whether the organization’s bare-bones staffing model can support consistent deep postseason runs.
With Buss remaining in control for the foreseeable future, it remains to be seen whether the Lakers will invest in modernizing their infrastructure to match their competitors.
