Kushner and Iger are the third ownership group in 14 months

Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to buy the Lakers for $12.5 billion in August — a record price, and the second time this franchise has changed hands in just over a year. Mark Walter had acquired the team from the Buss family for $10 billion not long before that. The turnover at the top is worth noting plainly: the Lakers are heading into a rebuilding season with new owners who are still learning the organization, a front office that lost the Buss siblings in fall 2025 and only recently added Eric Amsler to stabilize things, and a roster that no longer has LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, or Deandre Ayton on it.

The basketball situation is what it is — Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are the core, the supporting cast is thin, and training camp is close. But roster questions are at least answerable over time. Ownership transitions are slower. New principals need to establish relationships with the basketball staff, understand the draft asset situation, and decide how patient they want to be with a rebuild. Those conversations take months, not weeks.

None of this is catastrophic on its own. Iger in particular has run large, complicated organizations before, and the Amsler hire suggests someone in the building is trying to build process. But the timing is what it is: the Lakers are resetting the roster at the same moment they are resetting the ownership structure. That is a lot of institutional uncertainty to carry into October.