The Lakers have hired former University of Virginia head coach Tony Bennett, announcing today in a press release that he’ll take on the role of NBA draft advisor for the team.
“We’re thrilled and honored to welcome Tony as an advisor to the Lakers basketball operations department,” president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “As we refine and build out our NBA draft and scouting processes, we could think of no better basketball mind than Tony Bennett to have as a resource.
“Tony’s track record of forming culture, with high-character, high-skill, and high-IQ players is revered and respected across all basketball circles. Tony will be an incredible asset to our basketball leadership, to our scouts, and to our draft department as a whole. We are truly excited.”
Bennett, who had a brief NBA playing career as a member of the Hornets from 1992-95, has had a longer and more successful career in coaching.
After a brief stint as the coach of the North Harbour Kings in New Zealand, he was an assistant at Wisconsin (1999-2003) and Washington State (2003-06), then spent three seasons at the head coach at Washington State (2006-09) and a decade and a half in the lead coaching role at Virginia (2009-24).
Bennett compiled a 364-136 (.728) record for the Cavaliers and led the team to a national championship in 2019 with a roster that featured future NBA players like De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome, Jay Huff, Mamadi Diakite, and Kyle Guy. Bennett was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year in both 2007 (with the Cougars) and 2018.
As we detailed earlier today, Pelinka is expected to remain in his role atop the Lakers’ basketball operations department amid changes at the ownership level and in business operations. However, new controlling owner Mark Walter wants to build a deeper front office that emulates the group compiled by the Los Angeles Dodgers, his MLB team. With that in mind, Bennett figures to be one of many additions to the basketball operations staff in the coming months.
The Lakers own a single pick in the 2026 draft — their own first-rounder. It currently projects to land 21st overall, per Tankathon.
Easy job
But the Lakers don’t even like playing young guys. This won’t matter for them.
When Mark Walter bought the dodgers, they mentioned how they wanted to turn the Dodgers into the Lakers. Now the Dodgers have become a juggernaut dynasty and he’s going to turn the Lakers into an even bigger winner than they’ve been in the past. He doesn’t make rash decisions and takes the time to build it out the right way. The rest of the NBA should be scared.
That is nice and all but MLB has no hard salary cap. That is why Dodgers can grab all the best players. They have Ohtani who is a direct line to Japanese players.
NBA is not like that, Lakers don’t draft and develop well. Reaves is their only guy and before that was who Andrew Bynum?
Dodgers have one of the best farm systems in baseball despite caps on spending and picking in the back of every round. You can point to Bynum and other instances from the past but Guggenheim only bought the team last year. Walter has already started reshaping the front office with the same group who turned around his other multi billion dollar team. Let Mark and his team cook, by the time their done you’ll be even more bitter
L
“When you watch Luka on a nightly basis… they’re down 11, he gets a bad call, he’s barking at the ref, the Celtics are racing down to the other end of the floor. He is now a more academic player than athletic player and he is 27. LeBron slowed down at 39 and a half.”
How long I been saying this ????? Media finally catching up.
link to yardbarker.com
Because he’s not 27 (shhhh)
Born Feb 28 , 1999 …… OneWay Wonder
We all know he left his heart in San Francisco