In the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers firing Joey and Jesse Buss, a former NBA executive told Lakers Daily that Mark Walter’s next move should be getting rid of president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.

The Lakers dismissed much of their scouting department beyond the Buss brothers on Thursday.

The former NBA executive, who had several dealings with Pelinka, told Lakers Daily that Walter should fire Pelinka and hire someone “with a smarter basketball mind.”

“The Lakers won’t win a title in the Luka [Doncic] era if they keep Rob,” the former NBA executive said. “Mark needs to hire someone with a smarter basketball mind than Rob to run the basketball operations.

“I really liked the move of getting rid of Joey and Jesse. Everyone always gives them credit for finding Austin [Reaves], but Austin chose to work out for the Lakers and chose not to get drafted by the Pistons so he could land with the Lakers. That wasn’t some grand find by the Buss brothers. That was all Austin and his camp.

“Mark and Magic [Johnson] are super close. Don’t think for a second that Magic has forgiven Rob for all the backstabbing he did.”

Pelinka is the Lakers’ president of basketball operations and general manager. While he did sign Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia this offseason, it’s important to remember that Doncic and Reaves did the heavy lifting on those moves.

Doncic recruited Ayton and Smart, while Reaves recruited LaRavia.

The Lakers hired Pelinka in 2017 and won the 2020 championship against the Miami Heat thanks to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Purple and Gold also reached the 2023 Western Conference Finals, but they got swept by the Denver Nuggets.

While Pelinka did acquire Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks last season, it was a rather easy transaction to make since Nico Harrison reached out to Pelinka about trading for Doncic.

“Anybody could have made that trade,” the former NBA executive said. “Rob isn’t that good at his job. He won only one championship with LeBron and AD. He never traded for a center when LeBron and AD were practically begging him too. Mark knows that.

“If I was in Marks’ corner, I would tell him to part ways with Rob and hire someone who didn’t get their job because Kobe [Bryant] was his pal.”