Laker Land deserves the award for best drama

That happened fast. Less than three weeks after Jeanie Buss introduced Magic Johnson as her new advisor, she fired her brother Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak (plus longtime PR guru John Black). Magic is now the president of basketball operations, and he’s hiring Rob Pelinka as the team’s new GM. Pelinka was Kobe Bryant’s agent and currently represents several stars, including James Harden. (He has to disentangle himself from those clients before taking the reins.)

This was one of the swifter, most bloodless coups we’ve ever seen in the NBA, especially for such a high-profile franchise. This is THE LAKERS, and in less than a month an NBA legend was pulled in and elevated to full control on the basketball side. Magic was on ESPN’s NBA Shootaround last week!

Magic didn’t waste much time either, trading Lou Williams for Corey Brewer and an unprotected first-round pick. That signals that whatever concerns we have about Jeanie and Magic’s belief in Lakers exceptionalism, the new boss understands this season is a lost cause.

Whitney Medworth has 10 tweets that should make Lakers fans nervous. Kristian Winfield delves into Magic’s history of criticizing the man he replaced. There is mounting evidence this decision was made now — two days before deadline — because the Lakers failed to land DeMarcus Cousins on Sunday.

Our live NBA trade rumor tracker is humming along. It’s a great tool if you have a fear of missing out.

Zito Madu uses DeMarcus Cousins’ emotional departure from Sacramento to dive into the human side of trades.

The Kings can’t even tank properly.

Lance Stephenson quoted himself in an Instagram quote ... except that’s a Michael Jordan quote.

Andre Drummond is available. Will anyone swing big for him?

Should the Celtics be willing to trade the Nets’ 2017 pick for Jimmy Butler?

Trust the process! Sixers’ local TV ratings are up 80 percent this year. Joel Embiid fixes everything. (The bad news: Across the board, local NBA television ratings are down overall.)

I enjoyed Tim Bontemps’ conspiracy theory on why there has been an offensive explosion this season.

The Jazz are potentially interested in trading for Deron Williams.

Candice Wiggins, who retired young, says that the WNBA has a harmful culture of bullying and jealousy.

Nathaniel Friedman on the Pelicans now becoming the most exciting wild card in the league. Rob Mahoney on how the duo might work together.

A little while ago I linked to a Bryan Curtis piece on the so-called rise of liberal sportswriting. This Shireen Ahmed piece is more compelling, I must say.