In the first major move of the Mike Walters era of the Lakers, the team has fired most of its scouting staff in a reorganization, including front office executives Joey and Jesse Buss — who are and remain part-owners of the team (along with the rest of their family).

This news was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN and was confirmed by NBC Sports. The Lakers organization has not announced the changes.

Joey and Jesse Buss both spent their lives in the Lakers organization and worked their way up, their positions were not handed to them on a silver platter because of their last name. They were respected around the league — Jesse was the Lakers' draft guru and Director of Scouting (as well as assistant general manager), and the brothers together helped the Lakers land Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Max Christie and others. Joey Buss was listed by the team as alternate governor and vice president of research and development. The Buss brothers released this statement to Charania.

"We are extremely honored to have been part of this organization for the last 20 seasons. Thank you to Laker Nation for embracing our family every step of the way. We wish things could be different with the way our time ended with the team. At times like this we wish we could ask our Dad what he would think about it all."

If that sounds a little bitter toward longtime owner turned team operating governor Jeanie Buss, it was just the start. Check out Jesse's statements to Charania — echoing what he told Dan Woike of The Athletic — which were more direct:

"Dr. Buss' idea was for Joey and I to run basketball operations one day. But Jeanie has effectively kept herself in place with her siblings fired."

After Dr. Jerry Buss's passing, Jeanie became team governor, and Jim Buss ran basketball operations. After a few rough seasons on the court, Jeanie removed Jim from basketball operations and hired the current president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka.

The writing was on the wall that changes to the Lakers' scouting operation were coming after the $10 billion sale of the franchise to Walter. It's why Joey and Jesse founded their own sports investment and strategic partnership company three months ago.

Even before the house cleaning on Thursday, the Lakers had one of the smallest scouting staffs in the NBA — both in terms of scouting other teams and players, as well as potential future draft picks — and it was one area Walters was expected to invest early. It is a clear place of need for the franchise. Precisely what that new structure looks like — and who will be brought in to head it — remains to be seen.