Report: Lakers just hired ‘literal rocket scientist’ to join front office

The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly bolstering their front office by hiring Rohan Ramadas as an assistant general manager under Rob Pelinka.

“The Los Angeles Lakers made their first significant move of the offseason by hiring Rohan Ramadas as an assistant general manager under president and GM Rob Pelinka, sources told ESPN on Monday,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and Shams Charania wrote.

Ramadas has a very impressive background, as he spent the past decade or so working in some capacity for the New Orleans Pelicans, including two years in a full-time role with the franchise. The new Lakers front office member was most recently the vice president of strategy and operations with New Orleans. A Pelicans source offered ESPN a comment on Ramadas.

“He’s a literal rocket scientist,” the source said.

That comment doesn’t appear to be hyperbole, either. Ramadas has worked both in the NBA and aerospace. According to the Pelicans, the executive spent 12 years “supporting the Aerospace Corporation, U.S. Space Force, and NASA as a rocket guidance, navigation, control, and mission design engineer.”

So, the Lakers are clearly bringing in a very gifted individual to help Pelinka and the franchise.

“While working for the Pelicans, Ramadas implemented AI and coded models to aid the front office, the source told ESPN,” McMenamin and Charania wrote.

According to The Athletic’s Dan Woike, Ramadas is regarded as “very smart” by people around the league.

The Lakers are looking to make improvements to their roster in the offseason, and adding someone as experienced and savvy as Ramadas to the front office is a good start. Hopefully, he can help Pelinka and the Lakers shape their roster around Luka Doncic as they look to contend for a title in the 2026-27 season and beyond.

The Lakers made the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference in the 2025-26 season, but an injury to Doncic limited the team’s ceiling in the postseason. The Lakers beat the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs behind some strong play from LeBron James, but they were then swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round.

If Los Angeles wants to compete with the Thunder and San Antonio Spurs in the West, it has to improve its roster, especially since James (41 years old) is nearing the end of his career. Hopefully, Ramadas will bring some new insight to help the Lakers make the most of their cap space and assets in the coming offseason.