Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni is now admitting what everyone else already seems to have long concluded, according to ProBasketballTalk.com.
"It was very uncomfortable," D'Antoni now says of last season's Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol pairing. "I knew I was messing on Gasol. That's not fair to him. But that was the situation we were in. How do we make the best of it. I was just trying to make the best of it. But no, it wasn't fair to him. I think it was all politics. It was all that. We wouldn't do that normally. If nobody had names on their jerseys, and we were just playing? You go through Pau. There's not a question. No question."
With Howard now in Houston after bolting via free agency and Kobe Bryant still sidelined by offseason Achilles surgery, D'Antoni acknowledges the offense will run through Gasol during the team's season-opener against the Clippers on Tuesday.
The Lakers also added Nick Young, Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry and Wesley Jonson during the off season, all of whom may be more conducive to D'Antoni's uptempo style of play. The team also added journeyman center Chris Kaman to fill the void left by Howard's departure.
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