Kobe Bryant

Magic Johnson's Impact on the LA Lakers Thus Far

Earvin "Magic" Johnson has committed his time and focus to being the Lakers president of basketball operations

In between the Los Angeles Lakers' 17-point defeat in Oklahoma City on Friday night and Sunday's 21-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center, coach Luke Walton managed to wrangle his entire team into the Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo on Saturday afternoon.

By the time the team met on Saturday, Earvin "Magic" Johnson had traveled with the Lakers, met with his coaches, observed practice, addressed the players and pulled off a couple of trades in his first week as President of Basketball Operations.

But had anything actually changed?

Yes, obviously, Lou Williams had been traded, so the Lakers had given up their leading scorer and best player in the current season for a future first round draft pick. That trade, however, expected to happen without the front office changing hands, as demand for Williams was high. In subsequent interviews with select media members, Johnson publicly voiced his intentions of holding onto the team's core of young players, which echoed the policy practiced by the previous administration.

So, if Johnson's arrival has not exactly shaken up the front office's dealings and philosophy, has it offered any tangible changes within the team's philosophy, coaching method, practice style or anything solid?

"No, what we do down here (on the practice court), it doesn't really have anything to do with what goes on up there (in the front office)," Lakers coach Luke Walton said on Saturday. "We go about our business the same we have before the change happened."

After taking control, Johnson voiced his approval of Walton on both his television and radio interviews with the team's official broadcast partners, ESPN Radio and Spectrum Sportsnet, but that didn't mean Johnson had no impact on the coach and the team, right?

"Am I coaching differently since we hired Magic?" Walton said with a tone that straddled the line between bemusement and bereavement.

"No, we have our vision and our goal of what we're trying to do," Walton explained with a slightly defensive rant in the hopes to end the line of admittedly annoying questions. "We've had great talks, but that's one of the great things (about) working with Magic. He's said multiple times, he's not going to come down here. Coaching is my job and my staff's job. Why would he, in his job, try to come down here and tell us how to coach and what he thinks what we should do?"

Walton added, "We're doing the same stuff down here. And yea, we definitely bounce ideas off each other, what he sees. Of course, I value the opinion of some that is one of the all-time greats in this game, but it's not going to change the way we coach this team."

Based on Walton's words, Johnson isn't changing the coaching style of the team, unless he plans on replacing the coach. To be clear, Johnson has repeated that he supports Walton and thinks the Lakers have the right coach in place.

While on his television and radio interviews, Johnson said he would huddle with Joey Buss and Jesse Buss, along with Walton and Ryan West to get their thoughts prior to the trade deadline. In effect, Johnson used the same resources that former general manager Mitch Kupchak and former Vice President of Basketball Operations Jim Buss used at their disposal. The two younger Buss sons have been involved with the basketball side of the business for some time. Jesse Buss has been a scouting asset with the team and is officially in his second season as Assistant General Manager/Director of Scouting, while Joey Buss runs the LA D-Fenders, which is the Lakers' Development League affiliate.

If the Buss family holds onto the Lakers for the long term, either Jesse, Joey or both will likely take over as President of Basketball Operations one day.

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West, who is the son of former Lakers general manager Jerry West, is serving in his second season as Director of Player Personnel after spending three seasons as Assistant Director of Scouting. Suffice to say, West was an integral part of the scouting operation for the Lakers under the previous administration. During his ESPN Radio interview, Johnson made a point to single out West as doing a great job leading the scouting effort, and certainly, the Lakers have found gems with late first round and second round picks in recent years: Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Ivica Zubac. Both West and Jesse Buss have been notable figures involved in Lakers' draft war rooms and free agency meetings.

In effect, Johnson turned to the same brain trust that advised the previous administration, and he doesn't appear interested in overhauling the scouting department. So, what is he trying to change, exactly?

In his ESPN Radio interview, Johnson also insisted that the Lakers were behind other teams in terms of analytics. While that may have been true three, four or five years ago, LA recognized it was behind the times and segmented out a Basketball Analytics Department prior to the 2015-16 season. Yes, the switch to analytics began during the Byron Scott era.

Former Head Advance NBA Scout Clay Moser switched over to become a Director of Basketball Strategy in the Analytics Department, while retaining his assistant coach title. With Yuju Lee serving as Director of Basketball Analytics for the second straight season, the team employs the father and son consulting combination of Rudy and Trey Tomjanovich. After stepping down as coach into his first season with the Lakers back in 2005, the older Tomjanovich stayed on as a consultant for a period of years and provided reports to former coach Phil Jackson. As time went on, the nature of those reports turned more and more statistical in nature. Meanwhile, the younger Tomjanovich, who studied Computer Science, has provided the Lakers with statistical software in the past.

In addition to the Tomjanovichs, Moser and Lee, the Lakers also hired Lorena Martin as a Director of Sports Performance Analytics prior to the 2016-17 season. Also, Lakers athletic trainer Marco Nunes works closely with Martin and the Analytics Department to monitor usage and avoid putting players in overworked zones where injuries are more likely to occur.

At this stage, one should point out that no Lakers' player averages even 30 minutes per game, and that is no accident. Julius Randle leads the team with 28.3 minutes per game with other young core members Brandon Ingram, Jordan Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell next in line averaging 28.0, 27.4 and 26.8 minutes per game, respectively.

Needless to say, the Lakers have been addressing their analytics dysfunctions of the past, so Johnson's change is likely not expected to have any meaningful impact in that department. Further, Walton arrived in LA from the pro-analytics culture of the Golden State Warriors, so one would expect that he would have an idea of the type of information he needs to see in order to make the best decisions on the bench and in preparing for games. Sixty games into the season, Walton and his staff should have sorted out any shortcomings. As far as analytics go, the previous administration had already taken steps to create and advance the department.

Approaching a full week on the job, Johnson's name and presence offer the only notable changes to the organization thus far.

Of course, Johnson offers a far more charismatic and vibrant personality than either Kupchak or Jim Buss could have possibly delivered in free agent meetings, so he should be an asset in the room when the summer arrives. Also, the Lakers appear to be nearing the public reveal on hiring a new general manager, Rob Pelinka.

When Pelinka finally finishes divesting from his company to avoid possible conflicts of interest and arrives to assume his post, more tangible changes to the structure could be on the way, but Pelinka's hire appears to be based on three criteria: his relationship with other NBA front offices; his relationship with players; and his understanding of the new collective bargaining agreement.

One should probably add a fourth item to that list in that Pelinka was formerly Kobe Bryant's agent, so Johnson's publicly stated desire to bring Bryant back into the Lakers' fold should not be ignored when analyzing the Pelinka pick. Hiring Bryant's former agent surely can't hurt the Lakers' chances of bringing Bryant back in some capacity.

Before going any farther, one should point out how ridiculous this whole saga reads. The same agent that negotiated with the Lakers and got Bryant a two-year extension that ultimately doomed the Lakers to their two worst seasons and cost the general manager and the basketball executive their jobs will now be hired by the new basketball executive to be the new general manager of that same team. And yes, Lakers president Jeanie Buss, who fired the front office for under-performing over those handcuffed years, approved the Bryant extension and publicly defended it.

Moving past all that, one can argue that the Lakers have not improved nearly enough. However, another more logical argument would point to the fact that the Lakers have changed to a young and progressive coach, modernized their basketball operations to address analytics, made sensible draft picks to accumulate blossoming talent and already won more games than the previous season with 22 games remaining on the schedule.

Appointing Johnson may well prove to be the best decision the Lakers ever make, and Pelinka may turn out to be the best general manager in the history of the organization, but the facts remain that the previous regime had already weathered the harshest portions of the storm, modernized the organization to the current culture of the NBA, hired a forward thinking coach that relates with players and set the team on a viable path to recovery by accumulating young, promising talents via the draft.

Approaching a full week on the job, Johnson's lack of notable impact in shaking the foundation of the organization is a positive sign for long-term stability. In terms of changing the organization, however, the Lakers already appear to be heading in the right direction, and Johnson would be wise to simply ride the wave.

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