“Shame on you Rob Pelinka; I’m not paying you to try, I’m paying you to do it!” - Jay Williams rips LA Lakers GM for failing to surround LeBron James with legitimate shooters

The biggest takeaway most basketball analysts formed from the LA Lakers’ opening-night loss to the Golden State Warriors was their lack of 3-point shooting. LeBron James and his crew started 1-10 and ended the night hitting just 10 of 40 attempts from beyond the arc.

According to Jay Williams, nobody but Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is guilty for what transpired during the team’s debacle at Chase Center:

(Starts at the 4:18 mark)

“Shame on you Rob Pelinka! … Rob Pelinka, through the whole offseason, we talked about Buddy Hield and all the players that could come in and here is the bench for the Lakers: Matt Ryan, Wenyen Gabriel, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Austin Reaves, Scotty Pippen Jr., Max Christie, Damian Jones, Cole Swider.

“You guys have any idea who they are?”

Matt Ryan, who looked like the LA Lakers’ best shooter in the preseason, has played a total of two games in his NBA career. He played one game for the Boston Celtics last season and debuted for the Lakers on opening night. His career average from long-distance is 25%.

Max Christie, LA’s second-round pick, shot a dismal 31.7% from deep in one season at Michigan. Gabriel, Toscano-Anderson, Reaves and Jones’ total average from 3-point range last season was 32.8%.

Cole Swider and Scotty Pippen Jr. have decent collegiate 3-point shooting numbers, but there’s a reason why they went undrafted. They’re likely to be buried deep in the Lakers’ bench.

Jay Williams piled this on Rob Pelinka:

“All the teams that LeBron James has ever won on have had shooting around him. … I’m not paying Rob Pelinka to try, I’m paying you to do it! You know how insulting that is [for James to go] in the postgame and literally say, ‘Maybe teams are giving us open looks for a reason.’”

In the postgame interview, LeBron James almost painfully conceded that they are not built to shoot their way to wins. He admitted that the LA Lakers didn’t have the “lasers” that other teams do and that they’re not career 40% hitters from rainbow distance.

LeBron James on Lakers’ poor shooting in loss to Warriors: “We’re getting great looks, but it could also be teams giving us great looks. To be completely honest, we’re not a team constructed of great shooting… It’s not like we’re sitting here with a lot of lasers on our team.” https://t.co/VfqWnKcQ3D

“King James,” however, emphasized that he and his teammates will not shy away from shooting when given the opportunity. One can only hope that they significantly improve or there might be many ugly nights like the one they endured against the Warriors.

Rob Pelinka also couldn’t get decent wing defenders for the LA Lakers

The LA Lakers roster Rob Pelinka [left] gave Darvin Ham [right] may be too much even for LeBron James to carry.

The most obvious choice when a team lacks shooting is to drag opponents into a defensive slugfest. This is where the LA Lakers’ problems became more apparent against the Golden State Warriors.

They didn’t have wing defenders with the kind of size and defensive acumen that will make life difficult for opponents.

Lonnie Walker IV, Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and even LeBron James had a hard time running shooters off the 3-point line. In more than a few instances and bewilderingly so, the LA Lakers defenders chose to go under screens in defending the Warriors’ shooters.

Golden State shot only 16-45 from the 3-point line, but things could have been a lot worse had a few of their open shots gone in. In some cases where LA hounded the Warriors’ shooters, their lack of size and wingspan was also apparent.

The Lakers' guard-heavy lineup was woefully exposed on defense.

The answer to the Lakers' search for wing defenders -- make the guards taller twitter.com/chrisgayomali/…

LeBron James has proven in his career that he can push a ragtag team to punch more than its weight. Rob Pelinka may be asking him to do that and more this season, his 20th in the league, for the LA Lakers.