Originally published by LakersNation.com
Building out different departments within the front office has been a focus for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. After hiring former Miami Heat executive Eric Amsler as the team’s second assistant general manager in charge of player personnel, that growth within the organization is continuing with another important hire ahead of the start of this season.
According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, the Lakers have hired Pooh Jeter as the team’s new Director of Pro Scouting, after having previously worked for the Portland Trail Blazers since 2023:
Pooh Jeter has been hired as the Lakers’ new Director of Pro Scouting, source told @andscape. The LA native previously worked with the Trail Blazers as Player Development Coach and Assistant GM of NBA G League Rip City Remix. Jeter was hired by new Lakers asst GM Eric Amsler. pic.twitter.com/Jkc11MiJtD
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) October 1, 2026
Jeter is actually a Southern California native, having been born in Los Angeles and attending Junipero Serra High School in Gardena. He would go on to play four years at the University of Portland before embarking on a mostly international playing career that saw him play in countries such as Ukraine, China, Spain, France and Israel. Jeter also played 62 games in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings in 2011, as well as a couple stints in the G League and became a naturalized Ukrainian citizen, helping their international team qualify for the FIBA World Cup in 2013.
As was noted, Jeter was hired by Amsler and getting him in before the season gets underway is extremely important. Jeter will be in charge of things such as advance scouting on teams before the Lakers face them, as well as looking at and identifying players across leagues who could be possible targets for the team in free agency, trades or the draft.
Having full departments in areas such as scouting is something the Lakers have lacked for many years, and building them out will help the organization on many levels. Amsler identified Jeter as the right person for this job and hopefully he will hit the ground running and help this franchise as best he can.
Rob Pelinka spoke on Lakers building out the scouting department
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka recently spoke about the franchise focusing on building out the scouting department after hiring their second assistant GM.
“I think you guys saw we hired Eric Amsler, who was with two decades with the Heat to kind of see over our player personnel, our draft scouting, our G League scouting and NBA scouting,” Pelinka said at his annual preseason press conference. “So we’re gonna be adding more scouts in those departments. So that’s just one example of a sort of a vertical that we’ll continue to build. And there are others, too. But it’s been a really robust last two months and, I think the players are already seeing the differences. And we’ll continue, like I said, to set the gold standard with the people we have upstairs.”
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Building out different departments within the front office has been a focus for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. After hiring former Miami Heat executive Eric Amsler as the team’s second assistant general manager in charge of player personnel, that growth within the organization is continuing with another important hire ahead of the start of this season.
According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, the Lakers have hired Pooh Jeter as the team’s new Director of Pro Scouting, after having previously worked for the Portland Trail Blazers since 2023:
Pooh Jeter has been hired as the Lakers’ new Director of Pro Scouting, source told @andscape. The LA native previously worked with the Trail Blazers as Player Development Coach and Assistant GM of NBA G League Rip City Remix. Jeter was hired by new Lakers asst GM Eric Amsler. pic.twitter.com/Jkc11MiJtD
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) October 1, 2026
Jeter is actually a Southern California native, having been born in Los Angeles and attending Junipero Serra High School in Gardena. He would go on to play four years at the University of Portland before embarking on a mostly international playing career that saw him play in countries such as Ukraine, China, Spain, France and Israel. Jeter also played 62 games in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings in 2011, as well as a couple stints in the G League and became a naturalized Ukrainian citizen, helping their international team qualify for the FIBA World Cup in 2013.
As was noted, Jeter was hired by Amsler and getting him in before the season gets underway is extremely important. Jeter will be in charge of things such as advance scouting on teams before the Lakers face them, as well as looking at and identifying players across leagues who could be possible targets for the team in free agency, trades or the draft.
Having full departments in areas such as scouting is something the Lakers have lacked for many years, and building them out will help the organization on many levels. Amsler identified Jeter as the right person for this job and hopefully he will hit the ground running and help this franchise as best he can.
Rob Pelinka spoke on Lakers building out the scouting department
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka recently spoke about the franchise focusing on building out the scouting department after hiring their second assistant GM.
“I think you guys saw we hired Eric Amsler, who was with two decades with the Heat to kind of see over our player personnel, our draft scouting, our G League scouting and NBA scouting,” Pelinka said at his annual preseason press conference. “So we’re gonna be adding more scouts in those departments. So that’s just one example of a sort of a vertical that we’ll continue to build. And there are others, too. But it’s been a really robust last two months and, I think the players are already seeing the differences. And we’ll continue, like I said, to set the gold standard with the people we have upstairs.”
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
