"When Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak fielded the inevitable question about trading for Dwight Howard last week, his intentionally vague response said everything about why the topic was being discussed in the first place.

"You're trying to get me to talk about one player that might be young?" Kupchak told reporters at the team's practice facility in El Segundo, Calif. "I understand a lot of our players' names have been out there [in the media] and maybe that's the one name you're referring to."

He knew the identity of the player, of course, because only one player of any relevance on his roster qualifies as young: 24-year-old center Andrew Bynum. That fact alone is why it's worth watching the Lakers in the weeks leading up to the season's Dec. 25 tipoff."