When Jeanie Buss took a hammer to the team’s basketball operations staff by relieving Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak from their respective positions in favor of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, there was a lot of talk about guys like Ryan West and Jesse Buss and what role they would take under the new regime. As holdovers who had some name cachet and noted influence, specifically as it related to the draft, this made a lot of sense.
One holdover’s name which did not receive a lot of mention as the team transitioned to the Magic/Pelinka era, however, was Assistant GM Glenn Carraro. Well, maybe there was good reason for that. It seems Carraro is not in the team’s plans for the future.
Lakers assistant GM Glenn Carraro has resigned, league sources tell @TheVertical. Carraro had been with franchise since 2000.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 6, 2017
As Woj notes, Carraro has been with the organization since 2000. He served in a variety of roles, including Director/General Manager of Camps for the Lakers, General Manager for the D-Fenders, and VP of the D-Fenders, before coming back to the Lakers side of the house as Assistant GM before the 2015-16 season.
As with the Magic and Pelinka hires, Carraro’s resignation is not necessarily a surprise but the timing is a bit strange. I understand there is little left to play for in the Lakers’ season and, with that, having one more shakeup in the FO — especially one beneath the top level — is not necessarily the biggest deal. If Carraro was not going to have a future with the team, him seeing the writing on the wall (or maybe some in the organization pointing him to the wall). Still, though, I imagine something like this could have waited until after the end of the season (which is only 10 days from now).
I am interested in seeing who fills Carraro’s role within the FO. Jesse Buss was elevated to the 2nd assistant GM (next to/under Carraro) before last season, so I could easily see the Lakers doing nothing and just letting Jesse maintain his title and pick up some additional duties which were under Carraro’s portfolio.
However, with a new leadership in place, I would also like to see the Lakers hire an outsider with front office experience to fill this role and be another sounding board for Magic and Pelinka. Besides the time they’ve put into their jobs since being hired in February, those two don’t have any NBA FO experience, so bringing in someone who does wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Rick in Seattle says
Why are all the Lakers news breaks almost always coming from national news sources?
In this case Adrian Wojnarowiski? Anyone ever think about that? I wonder why our local sports sources, who one would expect have closer relationships with players and the front office are not the ones reporting breaking news about the Lakers? Instead it’s almost always one of the national sources. You would think one of the reporters for the LA Times, or other local TV source or some similar local media source thing would have the inside scoop. Nope, its almost always someone outside the area. Perhaps our ‘local’ reporters are not as ‘inside’ as one would like to think. Hmmmmm……