After the Los Angeles Lakers lost Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets in free agency, the team didn’t necessarily decide to pack things in, but they did chase after cheap players on one-year contracts seemingly to simply get through this season.

The Lakers players know that and every day, they are trying to prove themselves to the rest of the league.

The coaching staff knows that as well.

“They’re auditioning for 29 general managers. Thirty actually because this team, obviously you are,” D’Antoni said Tuesday after the Lakers hammered New York, 127-96 via Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times. “You owe it to yourself to give your career the best jump-start you can give it. If you go one-on-one, then everybody goes one-on-one and everybody will look bad. We talk about it a lot.”

Bresnahan also points out that Young is likely to opt out of his contract after this season. He has a player option for the 2014-15 season worth $1.2 million.

This season, Young is averaging 17.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.