Lakers' Williams excited for 'free-flowing' system outside of the Raptors

Shot-happy "6 Man" Lou Williams is looking forward to joining a more inventive offense with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Williams, who made a career off creating his own shot, spoke to Lakers.com about the schematic differences between the Toronto Raptors and the Lakers' offenses.

I think in Toronto my job was to score just based on the system that we had. We played a lot of iso basketball - a lot of one-on-one basketball.

And here (with the Lakers) the system is more free-flowing for guys to have the opportunity to make plays and put guys in position to score the basketball, as well as yourself. So whatever's asked of me, I'm willing to do it.

To Williams' credit, he makes a salient point about last season's Raptors, who did rely on isolation basketball to fuel their fourth-ranked offense. Toronto ran the fourth-most isolation plays in the league, according to NBA Stats.

Toronto's banal offense translated to a franchise-high 49 wins in the regular season, but it failed in the postseason. The Washington Wizards bottled up Toronto's guards, which stunted their offense and resulted in a first-round sweep.

However, it's impossible to deny the effect of personnel on system, and the Raptors did feature a premium isolation player in Williams.

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey structured his offense to suit players like Williams, and it worked for both parties. He carried the Raptors on numerous nights, and the unchecked freedom helped him to a comeback campaign highlighted by a career high in points.

Shots like the one below reflect equally on Toronto's offense and Williams' tendencies as a gunner.

This summer, the Raptors made a point to diversify their roster with more system-oriented players like Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll. Not coincidentally, the Raptors didn't even make a contract offer to re-sign Williams.

Instead, he latched on with the Lakers on a three-year, $21-million contract. But if offensive structure is what he craves, he won't find much change in Los Angeles.

The Lakers' offense is far from "free-flowing," as they actually ran more isolations than the Raptors last season. Again, this reflects their roster, which featured shoot-first players like Kobe Bryant and Nick Young.

So in that regard, Williams will fit right in.