Dwight Howard is the NBA's single most influential defensive player and he is already asking his new teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers to play a certain way on that end of the floor.

“The biggest thing is we don’t have to gamble,” said Howard. “That’s the one thing I told those guys — don’t gamble. We’re solid on defense, we work hard for 24 seconds on defense and then we’re out.

“That’s when you put everybody else in bad predicaments, when you do gamble. But when we’re solid, we have some great defenders on the wing. We have some great defenders on the post. So there’s no need to gamble. We all just have to trust our instincts and play the right way.”