Lakers execute brutal offseason layoffs after devastating NBA Playoffs run originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Los Angeles Lakers are set to make big changes for the offseason. They will obviously await the full recovery of guys like Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. LeBron James’ free agency is also a concern for the team. To gear up for all of these, Rob Pelinka and the organization seem to be cleaning house through layoffs.
Lakers go through layoffs and organizational overhaul
The Lakers have laid off numerous employees in various departments in pursuit of reorganization after their NBA Playoffs run, per Dan Woike of The Athletic. Apparently, members of the Lakers organization had no other descriptor for the day except for calling it ‘brutal’.
Notably, the organization is restructuring in a vast majority of their departments. The Lakers organization made it known that the layoffs are not necessarily due to cutting costs but there is some doubt to that. See, the bulk of the employees leaving the Lakers have primarily been identified as members of the content, marketing, corporate partnerships, and media relations.
There has also been a trend of cutting costs when an organization gets bought from their previous ownership group. For instance, the Portland Trail Blazers are cutting a lot of their costs throughout their NBA Playoffs run due to their new governor, Tom Dundon. The Lakers face a similar situation after Mark Walter acquired the franchise for $10 billion from the family of the late Jerry Buss in 2025.
This is also not the first time that the Lakers laid off their employees under new management. They also executed the same strategy when they moved the G League affiliate South Bay Lakers to Coachella Valley.
Clearly, this will affect how they are able to bridge relations with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. It may also impact the certainty of LeBron James re-signing with the Lakers given how the organization has been run in the past year or so.