{"id":744063,"date":"2026-05-26T02:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/744063\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:24:22","slug":"one-of-the-smartest-people-in-the-business-nba-world-reacts-as-lakers-hire-ex-rocket-scientist-as-assistant-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/744063\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018One of the Smartest People in the Business\u2019 \u2014 NBA World Reacts As Lakers Hire Ex-Rocket Scientist As Assistant GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to win their 18th NBA championship. While they were eliminated in the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, the organization is making moves in an effort to compete with teams like OKC and the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> in the loaded Western Conference.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Lakers\u2019 announced their most recent move: a splashy front office hire that has the NBA world buzzing.<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles Lakers Hire Rohan Ramadas to Front Office<\/p>\n

The Lakers hired Rohan Ramadas as their assistant general manager under president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka. Ramadas spent 12 years working for The Aerospace Corporation before becoming the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>\u2019 vice president of strategy and operations.<\/p>\n

As a Pelicans source told ESPN<\/a>, Ramadas is \u201ca literal rocket scientist.\u201d With New Orleans<\/a>, \u201cRamadas implemented AI and coded models to aid the front office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers hiring Ramadas away from the Pelicans got the NBA world buzzing.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally one of the smartest people in the business. Fantastic hire,\u201d Pelicans writer Shamit Dua said<\/a> on X. \u201cRohan is going to run his own team one day and absolutely kill it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA true outside hire, which is already a breath of fresh air. Rohan\u2019s background is impressive, and will raise the IQ of the building,\u201d Lakers influencer Daman Rangoola said.<\/a> \u201cThere are so many needs in the front office to fill, this is a great start. Next, I\u2019d like to see some pure basketball heavyweights added.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Under the Buss family<\/a>, the Lakers mainly hired people with connections to the organization. However, new majority owner Mark Walter appears to have a different vision, and that includes poaching some respected voices from other organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looked up Rohan Ramadas on LinkedIn and dudes background prior to joining the NBA is literally rocket science,\u201d Laker Central<\/a> said. \u201cThis is the type of brain power a modern front office needs. Nice hire Lakers!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Lakers analysts wondered if Ramadas\u2019 ties to the Pelicans front office could help Los Angeles complete a trade for Herb Jones<\/a> or Trey Murphy III<\/a> in the near future.<\/p>\n

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MORE: \u2018Something to File Away\u2019: NBA Insider Reveals 3 Teams With \u2018Legitimate Trade Interest\u2019 in Jaylen Brown Amid Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lakers Chip wrote on X:<\/a> \u201cMaybe his relationship with the Pelicans can get us one of Herb Jones or Trey Murphy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t the worst sign of deals getting done with New Orleans this summer,\u201d Ryan Lucas<\/a> added. \u201cKeep in mind: Tony Bennett was Trey Murphy\u2019s college coach also. Not a guarantee but with all the herb jones talk etc, definitely interesting. Rohan is smart and looks to be filling that analytical side of things for the front office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett was hired as a draft advisor to Pelinka, but it remains to be seen whether these connections give the Lakers an advantage in trade talks with New Orleans.<\/p>\n

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Regardless, this seems like a strong hire for the Lakers, who are determined to compete with the best teams in the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to win their 18th NBA championship. While they were eliminated in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,160,3225,4202,194,78,251,150,368,6,11,478,470,4073,4072,179,675,3088,91728,474,91730,6514,3209],"class_list":["post-744063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-front-office","tag-herb-jones","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-pelicans","tag-rob-pelinka","tag-rohan-ramadas","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-the-aerospace-corporation","tag-trey-murphy-iii","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116638506278362544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}