Of course you do, try as you might to forget.
After exchanging Andrew Bynum for the one guy who could qualify as an upgrade and adding Steve Nash to a backcourt sorely missing a point guard, Los Angeles just might have that torch back.
We can comfortably assume that Dwight Howard will make this team significantly better, but his ability to do so in short order has always depended on when he returns to the court. It's not a question of whether he'll be available for the postseason; it's a question of whether he'll be at his best.
That requires a comfort level with the Lakers' system and with his new teammates, an understanding of how he fits into the playbook and locker room alike. In other words, it requires something that isn't especially easy to learn on the job.
Fortunately, he won't have to.
Howard's recovery from back surgery in April has progressed just about as well as you could hope. Mike Trudell reports that Howard is already getting plenty acquainted with his new club at training camp:
Still no 5-on-5 contact scrimmages yet at LAL practice. @dwighthoward (back) was a full participant in the session.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) October 3, 2012 Good, Howard will be a bit less lost as he dives into a season in which he won't be the only one learning a new offense.
Getting used to the Princeton is only the first of Howard's objectives, and you have to imagine Mike Brown's coaching staff will bring everyone along at an appropriately gradual pace.
The upside is that the Lakers aren't entirely abandoning the schemes it used last year and reinventing the wheel—they're just infusing some new life into an offense that will remain prett...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers