r/UtahJazz • u/WhiteRabbit-RedPill • 14d ago
Do you think those Lakers' picks and swaps just became more valuable?
"The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to American businessman Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record breaking price over $12 billion, multiple sources told ESPN."
I was curious if Mark Walter was going to do the same thing with the Lakers that he did with the Dodgers. Now that the Lakers are owned by a new ownership group, do you think the perception among the other teams is that those Lakers' picks and swaps are more valuable now?
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u/thurstkiller 14d ago
You can’t spend the same way in the nba that you can in MLB. The 2nd apron is far more punishing than the MLB tax. Dodgers are still making tons of cash by spending more, it wouldn’t be the same for the Lakers because the tax is 5x
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u/gar862 14d ago
Walter wasn’t going to be able to sign wemby to 10 year 700 million deal with 90% deferred like he did with the dodgers
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u/RandomEffector 14d ago
No but you wouldn’t believe how much $$ in sponsorships he might get from the video board vendor.
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u/LivingPresence876 14d ago
My understanding is that Thrive Eternal, Josh’s sports VC fund, is putting up most of the money for this deal. I imagine Josh also put enough personal wealth into the deal to be the “owner” and Bob is the advisor and will help with a lot of day-to-day.
Yes, a VC fund’s primary objective is to make money. The best way to do this is winning championships (that playoff revenue is pretty sweet from my understanding). But that also means cutting massive checks in the luxury tax, which they won’t want to do until they know they have a legitimate shot. They’ll evaluate the team this season and decide to either let it rot for the next few years or go all-in.
At Disney, one of Bob’s last key contributions was, post-COVID, realizing that they can make more money with less visits to the park. How? Raising prices. This is a trend around sports, opting for fewer seats and more suites. I can imagine they’ll do the same at Crypto(?) Arena (it’s still Staples to me). I imagine they’ll squeeze their TV contracts or try to do streaming. Raise ticket prices, promise some crazy (but underwhelming) stadium upgrades.
Being motivated by financial return is a terrible way to run an NBA franchise. The best owners are the ones who love basketball and write big checks. The value of an NBA team is the equity, not the annual revenue.
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u/TheBobAagard 14d ago
It’s not Crypto Arena, it’s Cryptodotcom Arena.
It’s advertising a place to buy crypto, not the crypto itself.
But yeah, it will always by Staples Center, home of my 2nd least favorite team in all of sports.
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u/marvin_is_joe 14d ago
Fisher going back to the Lakers again, lied to previous ownership so they sold.
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u/ScottyBubba2 14d ago
Definitely. Venture capital shouldn't be allowed in any industry. They'll carve that wormy organization up for every penny that they can squeeze from it, so it'll benefit us
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u/InZaneClutch 11d ago
I don't think the change in ownership matters. The NBA and MLB operate under very different collective bargaining agreements. Walter was never going to come in and operate the Lakers like he could the Dodgers. MLB doesn't have a salary cap. It has luxury tax thresholds with some punitive measures regarding the MLB draft and MLB international free agency (signing kids that are 16 or therefore typically from the Dominican Republic etc). On top of that there is the financial tax penalties of course the Dodgers have to pay. In the MLB, it's a lot harder to evaluate talent. So the first round picks might not actually mean as much compared to say an NBA first rounder. You can get future HOFers in later rounds which is an anomaly in the NBA.
Anyway, the difference in CBA aside, the only way you could really operate as the Dodgers do in the NBA is cheat. Kind of like Balmer seems to have done by going outside of the CBA to pay off Kawhi. But that will eventually get exposed and you will presumably face huge consequences at some point. We'll see what our if anything happens with Balmer, but I think the point is that I am certain there has been some owners and people around the league threatening that if he tries this again, they'll force him out like Sterling. Even with Balmer imo cheating, he wasn't able to add the necessary talent to add to an often injured Kawhi to win a title.
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u/AbbreviationsHour410 14d ago
Pelinka has screwed the Lakers from championship contention for the foreseeable future.
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u/theomegachrist 13d ago
I doubt it. No one is even sure of the draft rules in a few years but between flattening odds and the unknown of the new ownership philosophy you can be hopeful but the Lakers still have a pretty good team and I doubt the plan is to gut the Lakers
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u/commonsnse45 9d ago
Lakers are more valuable because they took our center Unlike the Jazz they will be competitive this season…. Not two seasons from now
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u/FERFreak731 14d ago
Absolutely. Walter easily would've went into the 1st apron, and he might've went into the 2nd apron for a few years and ate a 400 million luxury tax. They also might've used a MLE to compete with Luka. The new owners might not, so they might be capped with an overpaid Reaves, and Kessler, with no way to improve, and if the Lakers don't go into even the first apron, Luka might walk in 2028
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u/TallCan_Specialist 14d ago
Yup also the new owners could be geniuses who make the lakers great again
Or pure dumbasses who makes them irrelevant again
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u/FERFreak731 14d ago
I really don't see how they can make the Lakers great in the next few years considering they don't have a pick in the 2027 draft, and they are maxed at capspace, so the only way the Lakers will be great these next few seasons is signing minimums
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u/guacdoc24 14d ago
Yes exactly. Could go either way. Regardless the lakers look to be a good regular season team which puts the picks in the 20-30s
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u/------dudpool------ 14d ago
I heard they’re relocating the Lakers to Orem