Paul publicly criticized Pelinka for being incompetent: James can still score 50 points, urgently need more celebrities to help James

The latest report by the well-known NBA reporter Shams Sharania, LeBron James's agent and business partner Ritchie Paul was interviewed and publicly criticized the Lakers' management, believing that Robert Pelinka did not build a competitive team around James and did not introduce more star helpers for James.

The Lakers lost 50 wins and 32 losses in the Western Conference in the regular season. Before the playoffs began, the media and experts believed that the Lakers would easily defeat the Timberwolves and advance to the Western Conference semi-finals. Unexpectedly, the Timberwolves eliminated the Lakers in five games. James averaged 25.4 points, 9 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game in the series, with a shooting percentage of 48.9% and a three-point shooting percentage of 35.7%. It is really gorgeous to play such data at the age of 40, but he can't win the game. Ritchie Paul believes that compared with the Lakers' lineup configuration, the Timberwolves are actually the most difficult opponent.

"Obviously, we have known from the beginning of the series that this is the worst combination, and the reason is obvious." Ritchie Paul said, "The Timberwolves have height and body advantages, athletic ability advantages, youthful vitality and lineup depth." In Ritchie Paul's view, the Lakers truly have positioning advantages in the first round of the Warriors, and James has physical advantages in the face of veterans such as Curry and Jimmy Butler.

" Except for Mike Conley, all the Timberwolves are long-arm monsters with athletic ability, and their speed is as fast as lightning. Not to mention Edwards, a super offensive star who can score 40 points at any time." Ritchie Paul continued, "I think Edwards has made great progress in leadership. Even though he felt bad in the fifth game, he still maintained a good pace of game and made the right pass choice when the team needed it. Don't forget that this Timberwolves reached the Western Conference Finals last year. People always pay too much attention to regular season performance, but this result is completely expected for me."

Ritchie Paul told reporters that the responsibility for the Lakers' first round was not the players, but the Lakers' management, or more directly, President Robert Pelinka needs to bear the main responsibility for the Lakers' failure.

"I said so much, but I actually want to express it. The responsibility is not on the players. Players such as James, Doncic, and Edwards can easily score 30 points, 40 or even 50 points, and they have the ability. But the key is that this is a competition between management, do you understand?" Ritchie Paul criticized the Lakers' management without hesitation, "Who can do the right thing for James and configure the right puzzle to succeed?"

"You can evaluate anyone at will. Just like when Isaiah Thomas played for the Pistons to win the championship, The team's management selected Joe Dumas, and traded Mark Aguirre, and also had Dennis Rodman and Rick Mahon. Looking at the past history of the Lakers dynasty, James Worthy, "Magic" Johnson and Jabbar, as well as Michael Cooper and Byron Scott, the heroes of the championship. Although we are all keen to praise the greatness of the stars, we must admit that the management is equally important. It is their lineup built around the core that allows the stars to shine at critical moments. "Ritchie Paul believes that Pelinka did not build more stars around James, which led to the Lakers' failures one after another.

"People often confused this. Take Tim Duncan as an example. When he was selected by the Spurs, David Robinson was already in the team. When the Spurs selected Tony Parker, people didn't know who the French boy was. When they chose Manu Ginobel in the second round, everyone was full of question marks: "Who is this?" "But the point is that Tim Duncan himself did not participate in these draft decisions at all." Ritchie Paul's criticism of the Lakers' management was almost full of fire, "So the situation is not surprising now. I really think. The Lakers' current lineup is still far from the championship level. This is not an excuse, but an objective fact. It is too difficult to build a team at the same time and in the future. Just like running a team requires continuous investment in lineup reserves, you need high-quality assets, salary space flexibility and draft chips."

Ritchie Paul believes that Pelinka needs to make up for his mistakes and introduce more capable stars around James in the offseason, otherwise the Lakers will have no possibility of winning the championship.