When Mark Walters and his group purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was patient. He didn't just jump in and start pushing for trades or making any changes on the baseball operations side. He watched and learned. After about a year and a half, he fired general manager Ned Colletti and replaced him with Andrew Friedman, then started spending money to build out Los Angeles' baseball side. The Dodgers didn't just build a three-time champion by splashing money around on free agents (although they certainly do that), the Dodgers are smart and strategic about who they bring in, and at the same time have built one of the best farm systems in the MLB. The Dodgers aren't just back-to-back champions, they are one of the smartest organizations in professional sports.

Walters purchased the Lakers from the Buss family last year and plans to follow the same blueprint, reports Dan Woike at The Athletic. That could start this summer with a host of changes.

The summer presents an opportunity, armed with significant cap flexibility, to start building the necessary components of a modern front office and reap early benefits. League sources say that includes significant hires to a wide range of front-office positions this summer, with the Lakers expected to model their front office after the World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.

"It's going to be scary," one rival executive said when asked about the potential of the built-out front office the Lakers are expected to assemble.

This isn't about chasing stars, as has been the Lakers' history — the CBA and the nature of the sport make building an NBA team very different from building an MLB team. This is about building an improved infrastructure.

Los Angeles has one of the smaller, leaner basketball operations staffs in the NBA and has for years. Expect Walter to spend to bring in much more scouting, more analytics people, not to mention sports science staff and more. The Lakers were a relative mom-and-pop shop under the Buss family, which has its strengths but plenty of weaknesses. Expect the Lakers to have one of the most robust front offices in the league within a couple of years.

One of the big questions around the league: Will Rob Pelinka keep his GM job through all this?

Pelinka has won a title and had some real success as the Lakers GM — finding Austin Reaves, for example — but his three biggest successes fell in his lap: LeBron James chose to come to the Lakers, Anthony Davis forced his way to Los Angeles out of New Orleans, and the Luka Doncic trade was a gift from Nico Harrison and Dallas. The roster built around Luka Doncic this year is not well-suited to match up with his skill set, although his options were limited last offseason.

It's unclear whether Pelinka will remain at the top of the Lakers' basketball decision-making tree, whether he will be let go, or whether someone else will simply be brought in and put ahead of him in the pecking order.

As for the short term, yes, the Lakers will get in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes if he is back on the market as expected, Woike notes. By the draft, Los Angeles can offer three first-round picks (including drafting and then trading a player this year), plus use an Austin Reaves sign-and-trade to get closer on salaries and get the Bucks a young player they can use as part of the core going forward. That said, Antetokounmpo to the Lakers only happens if he puts his thumb on the scale (telling teams he would only re-sign there in 2027 when he can be a free agent).

That said, one of the key points of this report is that Antetokounmpo and star chasing will not be the Lakers' only plan, they will have cap space and optionality to go a lot of different directions to build a team around Luka Doncic.

The biggest questions are who will be making those choices in a year and beyond.