Few, if any, believe the Los Angeles Lakers will be a championship-level team this season, other than coach JJ Redick and perhaps at least one of his players. But there does seem to be a belief held by many that the Lakers will be a very good offensive team this season.
Los Angeles, for starters, has Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, who will almost certainly comprise one of the NBA's highest-scoring duos, if not the league's highest-scoring duo. The roster seems to have improved in terms of 3-point shooting, fluidity, the ability to play fast-break basketball and its overall offensive skills.
ESPN personality Kendrick Perkins, in fact, made a very lofty prediction about the Purple and Gold's offense this season.
"The Lakers are gonna have the best offensive team in the league, in my opinion, when you think about what they're capable of doing and Luka just being an offensive threat in itself."
Perkins cited Doncic's excellence in pick-and-roll sets as one reason L.A.'s offense will be as prolific as he thinks it will be. He mentioned how well Doncic ran such sets with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II as a member of the Dallas Mavericks, as well as how adept he is at setting up big men for easy baskets off lob passes.
The commentator believes all that will open up better looks for the Lakers' 3-point shooters, to go along with Doncic's overall excellence in terms of getting buckets for himself.
Doncic averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists and won his second scoring title last season. As a team, the Lakers were 11th in points, 10th in offensive rating, 14th in 3-point accuracy, 16th in fast-break points and first in overall field-goal percentage last season.
There seem to be indications that they at least want to play at a faster pace and explore more transition opportunities this season, which would certainly go a long way in helping them become more excellent overall on offense.
With LeBron James gone, there will have to be an all-hands-on-deck effort to replace James' 20.9 points per game from last season, and it could result in a little bump in Doncic's production.
This article originally appeared on Lakers Wire: ESPN personality: Lakers will be 'best offensive team in the league'