Last season, the Los Angeles Lakers were one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. The storied franchise gave up an average of 106.9 points per game which was 27th in the league.

Heading into the 2017-18 NBA season, head coach Luke Walton wants his team to turn the corner defensively. Veteran forward Corey Brewer believes the Lakers will be able to do just that as he told the media after practice on Wednesday.

“I'm a 100 percent sure we're going to be better than last year,” Brewer said. “We're not going to be 30th for sure. Come on now. That's horrible. You can see we've shown signs that we can really do it. I think we're going to do it.”

The Lakers already seem to be making strides offensively with the addition of players like Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Brook Lopez helping the team play at the fast pace Walton wants moving forward. Although the team has yet to play a regular season game and Brandon Ingram has had his fair share of struggles, Los Angeles may be an improved team on offense.

Defense, however, is another issue entirely. As Brewer pointed out, the Lakers have shown some promise defensively at times during the preseason. Unfortunately, consistency has been a problem over the past few years, and it remains to be seen if this team can be locked in on a nightly basis during an 82-game season.

Brewer and company have one more preseason game left before the team gets the 2017-18 campaign underway. The Lakers will be the away team at Staples Center on Friday when they face the L.A. Clippers in the team's preseason finale.

The Lakers will then have a few days before taking on the Clippers for a second time in the season opener Oct. 19 as the home team.