Despite making substantial roster improvements this summer, Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers are not projected by many to be among the upper echelon of championship contenders in a loaded Western Conference.
By all accounts, the Lakers had a successful offseason, addressing their needs by bringing in Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia despite having limited resources at their disposal.
The Lakers are coming off a season in which they won 50 games, although their flaws were exposed in the postseason, leading to a first round exit.
Despite the lack of outside hype surrounding the Lakers heading into this season, Doncic believes the offseason moves gave them everything they need to compete for a championship, which is his only goal, via Sports Central LA:
“Championship, that is our goal. That should always be our goal, obviously we went out in the first round, but our goal is championship.”
Seeing all the positive momentum the Lakers were brewing when Doncic arrived was surprising, given how seismic a trade it was. Trying to integrate a superstar mid-season is a tall task, especially for a rookie head coach at the time in JJ Redick.
However, Redick’s coaching staff made it work and found schemes, particularly defensively, that best suited their Slovenian star. Unfortunately, the Minnesota Timberwolves had positional size and simply out-muscled the Lakers in their first round matchup.
Again, signing three quality role players should help fit the puzzle pieces together, and there is always the possibility of a trade coming along to better round out the roster considering they didn’t not trade any assets away this summer.
Regardless, Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves showed flashes of how dynamic they can be together, but it is about better harvesting that into a sustainable offense.
With a year under his belt, Redick will presumably have learned a lot from his rookie season in order to get the best out of his players. Whether that is enough to compete in a loaded Western Conference remains to be seen, but it is still good to see Doncic express confidence going into the season.
Luka Doncic featured in NBA on Prime commercial
Los Angeles is a place with plenty of opportunities and Lakers stars always get into the spotlight off the court with endorsements. Luka Doncic is a lowkey person, but he broadened his horizons by recently appearing in NBA on Prime’s newest commercial, which displays some acting chops from the new Lakers star.
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