The Los Angeles Lakers are riding a two-game losing streak after a one-point loss to the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night and currently sit at 34–23 overall.
Whether L.A. can emerge as one of the Western Conference’s elite teams and legitimately contend for a championship behind Luka Doncic and LeBron James remains to be seen. At the same time, the James era appears to be winding down as he heads into unrestricted free agency this offseason.
With that in mind, it’s critical for the Lakers to get a jump-start on building their future around Doncic. They took a meaningful step in that direction Wednesday by hiring legendary college basketball coach Tony Bennett as the organization’s next NBA Draft advisor.
“We’re thrilled and honored to welcome Tony as an advisor to the Lakers basketball operations department,” Lakers GM Rob Pelinka said. “As we refine and build out our NBA draft and scouting processes, we could think of no better basketball mind than Tony Bennett to have as a resource. Tony’s track record of forming culture, with high-character, high-skill and high-Q players is revered and respected across all basketball circles. Tony will be an incredible asset to our basketball leadership, to our scouts and to our draft department as a whole. We are truly excited.”
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During his 15 seasons as head coach at University of Virginia, Bennett became the program’s all-time winningest coach with 364 victories.
He led the Cavaliers to a national championship in 2019, earned AP National Coach of the Year honors twice, was named ACC Coach of the Year four times, and guided Virginia to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Bennett, who has a proven eye for collegiate talent, will play a key role in the Lakers’ draft decisions — a critical focus as the franchise looks to strengthen its roster around Doncic for years to come.
The team’s overall draft capital isn’t overwhelming, but it does control all of its first-round picks through 2032, with the exception of 2027, which is owed to the Utah Jazz.
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