Ex-Lottery pick Morrison happy to just fit in with Lakers

This has all left him revived and hopeful, optimistic in ways Adam Morrison hasn't felt in a long time. He even stopped considering retirement.

The itinerary, while strange, has been that beneficial: the Bobcats to the Lakers last season, a spot on the victory podium, and the Lakers again this season. The change is that there is no change. He's back and gets an entire preseason with teammates in Los Angeles and the difficult learning curve of the triangle offense, as opposed to arriving in a mid-season trade and having to play catch up on a title-bound team that wasn't going to slow down for him.

That makes 2009-10 his fresh start, not the Feb. 9, 2009, trade from Charlotte with Shannon Brown for Vladimir Radmanovic. It's not a particularly good place to get one, with the Lakers loaded at small forward, but he's not exactly in position to be picky, so this will have to do.

"Obviously new organization, new city," Morrison said. "I don't want to say a better organization. A winning organization, I would say. Charlotte was always great to me. I respect everybody who helped me out there. But I guess it's a new beginning. It's a new team and a new chance."

At the very least, it's a new perspective. Morrison is a blend-in guy with the Lakers, a perimeter-oriented role player, someone who can consider it a successful season just by contributing in a measurable way. The part about being a foundation for the future and leading the team out of the lottery was the other place.

In L.A., he won't have to worry about staring down the past. Too much concern over the events of the moment -- whether Kobe Bryant's wife will join a reality-TV show, if Lamar Odom has a pre-nup, Ron Artest's chances of hitting it big in music. The important stuff.

Morrison becomes a hero if he contributes to a title run. Cracks the rotation. That beats the Charlotte gig with the monster expectations as the No. 3 pick in 2006 and the berating he's received ever since while being swallowed alive by potential unrealized.

His 2006-07 was the tumble to 37.6 percent from the field, immediately after an All-America season at Gonzaga as the leading scorer in Division I, although he did make second-team All-Rookie.

His 2007-08 was lost to a torn ligament suffered in a preseason game (against the Lakers).

His 2008-09 opened with 44 games as a Bobcat at 15.2 minutes per. Morrison was in a bad place. He was trying to get back after a serious injury, trying to come back from tripping over the starting line in an NBA career that was quickly slipping away, and this was the worst of it, this first half of his third season.

Maybe it just wasn't worth all the heartache. That's what he remembers thinking. That's what he remembers thinking as retirement crept into consideration.

"Somewhat," Morrison says now. "But we make a pretty good living here in the NBA. We're all blessed for that. That's part of the business. You can handle the scrutiny because you're getting paid accordingly. It was tough, but it's not the worst thing anybody's gone through."

It never got to the point that he seriously thought about quitting at age 24, "but there'd be days where I'd be like, 'Man, I can't catch a break with anything.' Getting hurt and not playing well some nights and then not playing at all for repeated nights. I never seriously thought about it or reached the stage of 'Maybe basketball, I'm not cut out for this.' "

The trade was an emotional boost even if it was a basketball setback, with all of eight appearances and 44 total minutes the rest of the regular season. He may have been happy to be anywhere else, just for the new beginning, but Morrison said he felt especially comfortable with the Lakers and believed it when they told him to focus on getting healthy and that he would get a real chance in 2009-10.

Sure enough, he averaged 16.6 minutes the first five exhibitions. It's misleading because the burn came with Luke Walton and Pau Gasol missing three of the games and Odom two, skewing the normal forward rotation, but either way, Morrison is getting what he wants. A chance and a new start.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.