Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) gestures during the second half against the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena.
William Liang-Imagn Images
With the Los Angeles Lakers ramping up for training camp right around the corner ahead of the 2026-27 season, a new era officially starts without LeBron James, as Luka Doncic looks to lead the team to new heights. As the Lakers' post-James roster features Doncic with Austin Reaves and newcomer Walker Kessler, the team's president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka would have a bold claim on the Slovenian-born star.
Speaking on Thursday to the media, Pelinka spoke about the team ahead of the start of the season and made a claim that is sure to cause a lot of debate surrounding Doncic. When people think of who is the “world's greatest offensive player,” many could come to mind, like Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic or Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but to Pelinka, it's Doncic without a doubt.
“Luka's the world's greatest offensive player, and for us to be able to have an opportunity as a franchise to have that player in our building every night as a 26-year-old is special,” Pelinka said. “And it requires us to do special things to help the team around him, and that's what we started this summer, and we're really, really happy with the way it's looking so far.”
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka calls Luka Doncic the ‘world’s greatest offensive player’ 😳
Agree or disagree? 👀 pic.twitter.com/l3HZT11Tj6
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 24, 2026
There's no denying that Los Angeles sees Doncic as the face of the franchise, with the hope that he could lead a team to the NBA Finals, as he did with the Dallas Mavericks back in 2023. At any rate, it remains to be seen how far the Lakers can go next season, as aside from Doncic, Reaves, and Kessler, the Lakers added Quentin Grimes, Colin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and more.
Last season, Doncic averaged a league-high 33.5 points per game to go along with 8.3 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game, while shooting 47.6 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from beyond the arc.