Lakers fans are right to question Jeanie Buss after Mark Walter’s instant upgrades

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Los Angeles Lakers fans are right to be stunned by Mark Walter’s early impact, because these changes should not have needed a change in control.

The Lakers are not a small market project trying to catch up. They are one of the biggest brands in basketball, which makes their current shift feel both encouraging and uncomfortable.

Walter deserves credit for raising standards quickly. Yet the sharper point is what this says about the previous regime under Jeanie Buss and the Buss family.

Mark Walter has made the Lakers look serious again

Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images

The most revealing detail is not a player move or a headline signing. It is the planned investment around performance, recovery and day to day basketball infrastructure.

Rob Pelinka has already referenced a biomechanics lab, movement lab and recovery lab, while also describing a wider “full rebuild and retool” around the organisation.

That matters because those areas are not cosmetic. They affect how players train, recover, prepare and extend their availability across a long NBA season.

The Lakers are also moving through planned practice facility upgrades, which only adds to the sense that Walter has identified an obvious gap and moved quickly.

The Jeanie Buss era now looks even harder to defend

This is why the fan reaction is so understandable. Nobody should be shocked that Mark Walter’s majority takeover has brought ambition, but they can question why this standard was not already normal.