The Los Angeles Lakers made global headlines this June when controlling ownership of the team was sold by the Buss family to Mark Walter and his Guggenheim-led consortium for an estimated $10 billion evaluation, the largest sale of a professional sports franchise in history.
With the ink barely dry on the historic transaction, many around the league expected a complete organizational overhaul to follow. And based on what longtime insiders have recently revealed, it may be long overdue.
Despite their prestige, championships, and Hollywood reputation, the Lakers have long operated like a “mom-and-pop shop,” according to respected NBA voices Howard Beck and Zach Lowe. Appearing on The Lowe Post, the two insiders pulled back the curtain on decades of frugality that may have cost the franchise dearly, not in star power, but in infrastructure, technology, and long-term decision-making.
Howard Beck: “It’s a very streamlined organization, but sometimes to their detriment, you have probably heard, as I have over the many years, whether they were fully staffed in the front office or in their analytics department.”
Zach Lowe: “They were not. They didn’t have Synergy Sports, like when the other 29 teams had it. They weren’t paying for it.”
Howard Beck: “They have been lean. They pay their players. They’re always gonna pay their players. Phil Jackson was the first coach that they really paid when he first got there in ’99. They had been known to not necessarily go all out to pay coaches.”
“There were tensions between Jerry West and Jerry Buss over Jerry West’s compensation way back when I first got on the beat. They have lost good employees over the years in various capacities because of it.”
“I will never forget the moment that they waved Brian Shaw in 2002ish, because Brian Shaw was making like I think was making $2 million and it was a non guranteed.”
“They could waive him and sign him back for 1 million and duck what was then the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax, which now seems like nothing, but they didn’t want to pay the luxury tax.”
“They have cut corners over the years, they have run it like a mom and pop shop, it is the only source of income for their family. That will not be the case under Mark Walter.”
Zach Lowe: “Here’s why that matters. I mean, the Lakers just get stars. They’re in Los Angeles, they have this built-in market advantage, stars fall into their lap, whoopity-do.”
“They’re going to spend more on analytics and scouting and whatever, all this stuff on the fringes, does it really matter when they already have these built-in advantages?”
“And there will be years when they whiff on the fringes, and they still make bad draft picks, or they drafted very well in the second round, or whatever, their bad free agency signing.”
“In the big picture, over twenty years, thirty years, if you staff up like that and you get smarter people, better people, more expensive people, more expensive technology, you will in the aggregate make better decisions on the non-star roster spots.”
“And we are watching Finals right now, where Indiana built a lot of its team by making smart decisions on non-star roster spots. Where the Thunder are giving rotation minutes, huge rotation minutes, to Alex Caruso, who they had in their G League. Cason Wallace, mid first-round pick.”
“Hartenstein, the backup center that they poached from the Knicks when he was a starting center. This stuff matters. And if the Lakers should get smarter as an organization, not that they’re not smart now, but more smarter. More smarter. SMRT, as Homer Simpson once said, is better.”
For those unfamiliar, Synergy is a widely used analytics and film platform that helps teams prepare scouting reports, break down in-game decisions, and evaluate performance. Not investing in it meant the Lakers were literally playing catch-up in areas where other franchises were evolving rapidly.
Examples of this frugality are jarring.
In 2019, negotiations with Tyronn Lue to become head coach fell apart because the Lakers wouldn’t meet his salary demands. Lue asked for $7 million annually over five years, a standard figure for a championship-level coach. L.A. countered with just $6 million annually over three years.
In 2021, Alex Caruso, a homegrown fan favorite and defensive ace, left the team because of luxury tax concerns. The Lakers offered $21 million over three years. He signed with the Chicago Bulls for four years, $37 million. That same Caruso is now an essential piece for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who just gave him an $81 million extension.
The trend continues: The Lakers had not taken back money in a trade since 2013 until the February 2025 blockbuster for Luka Doncic, which saw them absorb $55,000 in salary. Yes, $55,000.
Other examples border on absurd. A Lakers assistant coach wasn’t allowed to stay at the same hotel as a player he was training with during the offseason, because the room was deemed too expensive.
Former assistant GM Ronnie Lester’s contract wasn’t renewed during the 2011 lockout for financial reasons, part of a pattern of layoffs and non-renewals.
Then there’s the now-infamous incident from the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. The Lakers, valued at billions, applied for $4.6 million in federal relief via the Paycheck Protection Program, money meant for small businesses. After the backlash, they returned it, but not before severely damaging public perception.
Perhaps the most telling moment came in 2013. The Sloan Analytics Conference is a prestigious event where NBA teams send scouts and analysts to discuss the future of data in basketball. The Lakers were the only team that didn’t send anyone. Not because they didn’t want to. They simply didn’t have anyone to send.
While things have changed under new head coach JJ Redick, who reportedly pushed the team to expand its analytics staff, the Lakers’ history of running a barebones operation stands in stark contrast to their glamorous image.
It’s clear the Lakers’ past cost-cutting habits have come at a price. While the franchise has always banked on stars and market appeal, the modern NBA is an arms race not just of talent, but of information, infrastructure, and innovation. And in that race, the Lakers have often shown up underdressed.
With Mark Walter’s new ownership group expected to bring deeper pockets and a more modern structure, the Lakers may finally turn the page. But the scars of past penny-pinching still linger, a reminder that even dynasties can be held back by saving dimes at the cost of dollars.
