Former Los Angeles Lakers player and assistant coach Brian Shaw has claimed that his old team could benefit from not being expected to impress this season.

Shaw won his first match as head coach of the Denver Nuggets against the Lakers on Sunday and he suggests that his defeated opponents could surprise some of their critics when the new campaign begins later this month.

"For one of the first times in a while, they won't come into the season as a favorite or one of the top contenders in the league," the three-time NBA champions told reporters.

"It will be a different vantage point that they're coming from and that might help them out."

Shaw spent four years with the Lakers as a player and six years as an assistant to Phil Jackson.