David West is doing in Raleigh, N.C., as he continues his recovery from a torn ACL in his left leg suffered last March 24 in Salt Lake City.

Two to three times a day, five or six days a week, West is at the Athletic Performance Center in Raleigh, making rapid progress in his return.

After his last visit two weeks ago to New York to see Dr. David Altchek, who performed the surgery, West's prognosis is now that he'd be ready for the start of the 2011-12 season -- if it starts on time.

"The way I'm looking at it, by October, I should be fully healthy," West said Monday morning. "When I go see Dr. Altchek in October, he should be giving me clearance to go out there and do my thing."

Iman Shumpert is doing his best to cope with a rough situation. In an interview with The Post yesterday from Atlanta, Shumpert, selected No. 17th in the June 23 draft, said he has been working out every day at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, and has a solid sparring partner in former Yellow Jacket point guard Jarrett Jack.

"I'm just trying to stay positive, working on developing my game the best I can, play against the best competition I can," Shumpert told The Post. "And when the lockout is over, I'll be ready."

In early August, Shumpert said he is heading to Los Angeles, where a group of Knicks are planning to work out together. Amar'e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Landry Fields, Jared Jeffries and Chauncey Billups, among others, are planning on getting together there.

"The summer league was definitely something I was really looking forward to," Shumpert said. "But the timing of the lockout, you just try to work out and play against good competition."

The Hornets were at 6,300 season tickets sold at the end of the season and have sold about 2,200 since the season ended, ranking New Orleans second in the league, at this point.

Right now, the Hornets are 1,500 shy of the stated goal of 10,000.

Hornets chairman Jac Sperling and president Hugh Weber explain to prospective buyers how that number will make moot the team’s attendance benchmarks in the current lease with the state, increase sellouts at the Arena and how close the Hornets are to be leading the league in new ticket sales.

Already accustomed to international basketball, thanks to his 2008 Beijing Olympic experience, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul this weekend is heading to the Philippines for a two-game exhibition series, and said Wednesday he’s keeping his options open about playing overseas this fall if the NBA lockout persists.

Paul had said two weeks ago that he would keep his options open, but more likely will return to college at Wake Forest to work toward completing degree requirements. He left the Winston-Salem, N.C., school after his sophomore season in 2005 to turn pro and was drafted by the Hornets.

“I wouldn’t say this could lead to it,” Paul said of the possibility of playing in Europe next season, “but those options are open anyway. When I said that (about going back to school), I said I didn’t know. I’m open to all different things.”

According to reports from InterAksyon.com and SLAMOnline.com, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, and New Orleans guard Chris Paul are headed to the Phillipines next week for a couple of exhibition games.

Sacramento's Tyreke Evans, Miami's Mario Chalmers, Minnesota's Darko Milicic, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers' DeAndre Jordan reportedly have also been invited to participate. 

The exhibition games will be played in Manila.

The NBA stars will play against the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team and an all-star squad from the Philippine Basketball Association.

With training camp less than a year away and no guarantee of games before then, Jerry Colangelo is ready to start finding out who wants to play on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.

USA Basketball's chairman said he plans to start contacting candidates "soon, within the next month" to gauge their interest in going to London.

"Just to make contact with all of the people on our list, give them a whole picture of what is coming," Colangelo told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Basically to get a read from them as to what their interests and intentions are in advance."

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and the rest of the 2008 gold medalists all committed to returning to the program through 2012, but Colangelo realizes that "circumstances have changed for some of the players who were on the Olympic team."

The Hornets sent out email notifications to all of their season-ticket holders Wednesday, alerting them as to two options available in the event games are missed due to the labor unrest, either to receive money back or accrue interest toward obtaining additional ticket benefits.

Season-ticket holders for several other teams around the NBA received the same notifications Wednesday and it will be the NBA’s policy to protect all ticket-holder’s investments.

Ticket options, the league said, may vary slightly by team but all will offer the money-back guarantee.

Tickets holders must decide by July 29 which one of the “options” they’ll choose regarding their season-ticket purchases.

In a series of interviews with NOLA.com, New Orleans Hornets players Chris Paul and Jason Smith talked about how they had been preparing for a lockout, which the NBA instituted last week.

"We've all been trying to prepare for this for a few years," Paul said at a charity event on Friday. "Guys have been aware that this was a possibility. Guys should be fine."

Smith said he has been warned about the lockout possibility since he came into the league in 2007: “It’s kind of progressive,” he reiterated. “At first it was ‘be prepared for a lockout.’ Then ‘there is going to be a lockout.’ Then ‘it could be a long lockout.’ It’s basically just prepare for the worst, expect the best." 

New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul reiterated his respect for teammate David West's decision to walk away from the final year of his contract with the team this week, but said West's move might not affect Paul's future here.

"Hopefully, it won't," Paul said Thursday at one of his foundation's events with children at Tulane University. "Like I said, D-West is like a brother to me. Anything he does, I'm always going to support him. I would love to play with him. He's the only guy who's been on my team every year I've been in the NBA. But at the end of the day, he has to make decisions that are best for him and his family.

"His decision was he just opted out. It doesn't mean he's not coming back to our team."