After last season's camp opened less than two months following L.A.'s championship in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida, the team was spent seemingly from the start.

But this year, with the Lakers reconvening nearly four months after their first-round playoff loss to the Phoenix Suns, carrying 11 new players and given a fresh chance to capture title No. 18 for the franchise, things are different.

"Just the energy," LeBron James said when asked what had changed. "Last year after coming off the bubble it literally took everything away from you. Any little bit of energy that you had, it was completely gone when we left there. ... To come back into the season with the quick start that we had, kind of the life of the party was a little bit, just like, it was just kind of stale. You know, rightfully so. Guys just didn't have an opportunity to get a mental break.