Lakers bring in Heat executive Eric Amsler as assistant GM

The Lakers have hired Eric Amsler from Miami's front office as assistant general manager, a quiet but notable move for an organization that has been anything but quiet this summer. It is the first significant front-office addition since Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to purchase the franchise for $12.5 billion in August, and it comes after a stretch of organizational turbulence that included the firing of Joey and Jesse Buss in fall 2025 and a second ownership change in roughly 14 months.

The Amsler hire is a stabilization move, not a splash. Miami's front office has a reputation for process and player development, and bringing someone from that culture into a Lakers organization that is mid-reset makes reasonable sense. The roster around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves is still being assembled, and the decisions ahead — how to build depth, how to manage the health of both Doncic and Ziaire Williams heading into training camp — will require a functional front office, not just a famous one.

What the Lakers need right now is less glamour and more infrastructure. LeBron is in Philadelphia. The Buss family is out. The ownership group is new. Amsler does not fix any of that, but he is a sign that someone is trying to get the organizational chart in order before the season starts. That is a smaller thing than it sounds, and also a more necessary one.