Los Angeles is still 0-0, but the offseason has plenty of live threads at once. The front office keeps expanding, the ownership sale grinds through the league's process, and the beat can't stop arguing about which player takes the next step forward.
Building Behind the Scenes
Lakers Nation reported the club hired Keith D'Amelio as director of integrated performance systems, one more front-office add after Eric Amsler left Miami this summer to become assistant general manager. Jeanie Buss will represent the Lakers at NBA Board of Governors meetings, per Lakers Nation, even as the same outlet reported the franchise's pending sale is not expected to reach a vote there. Mark Walter's reported August agreement to hand controlling interest to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner for $12.5 billion is still working through the league's process. The Buss family keeps a 15 percent stake from the earlier sale to Walter, approved by the Board on October 30, 2025.
Whose Breakout Is It
Silver Screen and Roll spent the week making the case for Ziaire Williams, floating him as a fifth starter and naming him among five Lakers poised to exceed expectations, pointing to last season's 10.2 points and a 34.3 percent clip from three across a career-high 22.9 minutes in 56 games. Lakers Nation reported Jaden Hardy is super excited to play alongside Dončić again, a reminder that a crowded backcourt of Hardy, Reaves, Sexton and Grimes still has to sort itself out before camp opens.
Noise From Outside
Not every headline was friendly. Bulls guard Norman Powell called the Lakers the most overrated team in the league, per Lakers Nation, a jab with nothing yet to test it against while the record still reads 0-0. The alumni wing stayed busy too: Shaquille O'Neal was named a global ambassador for NordVPN, Nick Van Exel said Kobe Bryant feared no one, and Magic Johnson said Jerry Buss deserves the next statue outside the arena. None of it touches the October 21 opener against the Warriors, but all of it fits a franchise that never stops relitigating its own history.
Who is Keith D'Amelio and what will he do for the Lakers?
Lakers Nation reported he was hired as the team's director of integrated performance systems, part of a front office being rebuilt around new assistant general manager Eric Amsler.
Is Ziaire Williams in line to start for the Lakers this season?
No decision has been reported; Silver Screen and Roll has floated him as a fifth starter after he averaged 10.2 points in a career-high 22.9 minutes last season, but that is speculation, not a confirmed lineup.
