How fast can Rob Pelinka get another extension?

A rousing start for the Lakers.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Julie Daydreaming, Berthe Morisot, 1894

It’s only been two games, and they have both come against title contenders. But everything we thought was wrong with the L.A. Lakers is in fact wrong with the L.A. Lakers.

Rob Pelinka, the mastermind behind the current roster, has ignored the reality that the best LeBron James offer lots and lots of shooting around the superstar. He’s an inordinately talented passer and defense collapser, so if you just give him some shooters, the offense can do damage.

The Lakers last year finished No. 22 in three-point shooting percentage and No. 19 in three-point rate. And through two games this season, the Lakers are — get ready for this — 19 for 85 from deep. Nineteen. For. Eight-five. Twenty-two percent.

Again, those 85 threes have come against two teams that project to have top-10 defenses. But we believed depth was an issue for this team. We believed shooting was a huge issue for this team. And here we are: evidence that supports what we believed to be true. Hard to ignore it.

It’s also hard to ignore, or forget, or brush by the fact that the Lakers extended Pelinka’s contract just two weeks ago, before the theory of this team’s limitations could be proved true. The only argument in favor of Pelinka is that he was in charge alongside Magic Johnson when LeBron decided to join the Lakers in 2018, and that he was there to take advantage of Klutch Sports client Anthony Davis demanding a trade to the Lakers. Shortly thereafter, the Lakers won their first championship in a decade.

As I have noted, that’s the only season with LeBron in L.A. — and by extension with Pelinka in charge — in which the Lakers won a playoff series. Pelinka has been in charge of THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS since 2017. Five full seasons in charge: one championship, one first-round exit, three years missing the playoffs entirely. In L.A. and frankly in most (but not all) NBA markets, that’s some real weird stuff that you would not call “success.”

The only argument supporting Pelinka’s recent extension is that you reward and trust those who helped deliver the championship in 2020. But you know the Lakers are not operating on that principle, because they moved basically all of the players involved in that title (with the exception of LeBron and AD) in a snakebitten quest for MOAR STARZ … and because they — no, not they, Rob Pelinka unceremoniously fired Frank Vogel, the coach that led the Lakers to the championship, after Pelinka’s busted roster missed the playoffs (and the play-in) last year.

If you think the success of the 2020 championship trumps all the abject failure surrounding it, you need to find another justification for why you otherwise dismantled that team, saving only its two player pillars and the architect. And you need to excuse the architect’s role in all the failure.