New Lakers Rumors on Hiring 'Literal Rocket Scientist' for Rob Pelinka's Front-Office Shakeup

The Los Angeles Lakers reportedly have a new assistant general manager who is a "literal rocket scientist" as they head into an important offseason.

ESPN's Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin reported Monday the Lakers hired former New Orleans Pelicans vice president of strategy and operations Rohan Ramadas to the assistant GM job. Ramadas will be under team president Rob Pelinka in his new role.

Ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Pelicans announced they elevated Ramadas to senior director of analytics and innovation after he spent seven years as an analytics consultant for the team.

He was also a draft analyst for the Miami Heat during the 2016-17 campaign and, according to the Pelicans' announcement, "spent the past twelve years supporting the Aerospace Corporation, U.S. Space Force, and NASA as a rocket guidance, navigation, control, and mission design engineer."

One Pelicans source told McMenamin and Charania, "He's a literal rocket scientist," and that he used AI and coded models with the New Orleans front office.

It might take rocket science to help the Lakers take the next step as a contender in the loaded Western Conference with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Oklahoma City Thunder and Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs primed to compete for championships for the foreseeable future.

This is an important offseason in those efforts to build a contender, as LeBron James is scheduled for free agency while Austin Reaves has a $14.9 million player option. Reaves will surely decline that option and search for a bigger long-term deal this offseason.

Lakers-Rockets Highlights

01:26

While the Lakers will build around Luka Dončić in the coming years, Reaves and James were their Nos. 2 and 3 options this past season. James being 41 years old has to factor into any contract decisions, but he still played at an impressive level in 2025-26.

Reaves, though, would be more of a long-term investment seeing how he is 27 years old.

Los Angeles has also been connected to Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors and has a long history of landing some of the league's biggest stars in such deals. Dončić was its most recent headlining acquisition, and pairing him with Antetokounmpo would give the team one of the best one-two punches in the NBA.

While the Lakers impressed by making it to the second round of the playoffs, especially since Dončić was sidelined by injury throughout the postseason, there is ground to make up on the Thunder and Spurs.

And now they have a new hire to the front office in Ramadas who will look to help them do just that.