Houston Rockets players Jeremy Lin, James Harden, and Chandler Parsons met up with Rocket’s prized offseason acquisition Dwight Howard in Los Angeles for practice and introduction. The young team is getting a head start in building “team chemistry” in preparation for their highly anticipated 2013-14 season.

The purpose for the early meet up, said Parsons, is to become familiarize with one another on and off the court, so the players can get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in each other’s games. Moreover, it is like an “introductory session” to get to know Dwight and vice versa.

The players were found last Monday hard at work inside the gym at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus.

According to Rockets.com, Lin called Howard an “athletic freak” after their first scrimmage together. “He’s just an animal when it comes to everything near the rim – he’s thrown down numerous alley-oops already from James.”

He said with the seven-time All-Star, the Rockets can get creative in creating sets with Howard “rolling down the paint toward the basket and using his athleticism.” Moreover, Howard’s strength and explosive nature gives the team “much room” to create the offensive plays. “He’s either getting a dunk or someone else is left wide-open.”

“Everybody is accommodating everyone else right now. We’re trying to build something together that everyone can buy into. Everyone’s voice on the team is going to be heard and the job of the coaches and the players is going to be to put the egos aside and find the happy medium. I’m sure that will be done over time and there will be bumps and bruises along the way like with every team. But having a week like this to bond and come together as a group can go a long way toward helping us overcome those obstacles in the end,” he said.