Dwight Howard: ‘I’m getting better every day’

Dwight Howard wore a Lakers uniform for the first time as the team held media day Monday at its practice facility in El Segundo.

When Howard will wear that uniform in an actual game is another question. The center maintained he doesn’t have any updated timetable on when his surgically repaired back will be sufficiently rehabilitated for him to return to the court.

“I don’t,” Howard said. “I just want to be 100% for the season. I don’t want to have any setbacks where I play a couple of games and then I have to sit down.”

Howard’s penciled out for the exhibition opener Oct. 7 against Golden State in Fresno. Though a Yahoo! Sports report indicated Howard’s hoping he can return for the season opener Oct. 30 against Dallas, Howard stayed noncommittal.

“I don’t have a percentage meter for my back,” Howard said. “They didn’t make them yet. I think that’s the new technology in the iPhone 6. ... We got to wait until that comes out.”

Still, the Lakers haven’t shown much concern about Howard’s injury. Howard missed only seven games in his eight-year career before his back injury last March. The Lakers have plenty of offensive depth in Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol to absorb his absence. Also, Howard worked out last week with assistant coaches Darvin Ham and Chuck Person on post moves with contact. There were no setbacks.

In other words, Howard’s scenario seems more favorable than Andrew Bynum’s, whom the Sixers expect to be sidelined for three weeks because of a bone bruise in his right knee.

“I’m getting better every day. I’m getting stronger every day,” Howard said. “I’m looking forward to the day where I’m 100%. Until then, I’m going to keep training. From the last time you guys saw me to now, I look a lot different. I’ve been working extremely hard to get back on the court.”

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