Kendrick Perkins believes the Los Angeles Lakers should enter the 2026-27 season with championship expectations, even if he still has serious doubts about how the roster is built around Luka Dončić.

Discussing the Lakers after the release of their schedule, Perkins pointed to Dončić and an offense he expects to rank among the NBA’s best as reasons Los Angeles should remain dangerous.

“They still have one of the best offensive players in Luka Dončić,” Perkins said on ESPN’s NBA Today. “They got enough offensive firepower to win games in the regular season.”

But Perkins still placed the Lakers behind Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver and Minnesota in the Western Conference hierarchy.

That relatively modest assessment follows much harsher criticism he previously directed at the franchise’s decision to build around Dončić and Austin Reaves.

“Luka and Austin Reaves are your franchise players,” Perkins said earlier this offseason on Perk Unplugged. “Two guys who are both defensive liabilities.”

Perkins went even further, suggesting playoff opponents could actively seek out Los Angeles because of those defensive weaknesses.

“It ain’t a team in the world, it ain’t a player in the world that’s afraid of Luka and Austin Reaves,” Perkins said. “When the playoffs come around, they’re gonna be looking to get to the seeding where they can actually look at them.”

That makes his latest “championship or bust” declaration less of an endorsement than a statement about the standard attached to the Lakers.

“The middle of the pack doesn’t mean nothing to the Laker fan base,” Perkins said. “It’s championship or bust.”

Oddsmakers appear more aligned with Perkins’ concerns than his optimism.

FanDuel lists Los Angeles at +5500 to win the 2027 NBA championship, behind 17 other teams. Oklahoma City leads the market at +230, followed by San Antonio at +280.

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That is a sizable disconnect for a franchise beginning an era centered squarely around Dončić.

The Lakers have continued searching for reinforcements, including being linked to former Warriors star Klay Thompson, but questions remain about whether the current group has enough defense and depth to survive four playoff rounds.

Dončić, however, is setting a much higher bar.

Following the Lakers’ $12.5 billion sale to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, he wrote that he was “excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA.”

Perkins’ position is therefore a complicated one: he has questioned whether the Lakers built the right team around their superstar while insisting the franchise cannot lower its expectations.

For now, Vegas agrees with his skepticism more than his championship standard.