Saunders ready to take the wheel
08/19/09 3:10 PM EDT
With just over a month to go before training camp, the Washington Wizards bus is nearly ready to roll, and it won't go anywhere without Gilbert Arenas, who demonstrated he was ready to get on board with last week's sneaky cameo at Barry Farms.
But he isn't the driver. That spot is reserved for new head coach Flip Saunders, who has spent the summer reaching out to his new players, traveling around the country to get to know them and help them get to know him.
Has he modified his rules of the road for his most important passenger?
No.
"You always adjust a little bit," said Saunders. "But I have core covenants. I have certain things that I believe that need to be done to play the game, respect of the game. And on those, I don't waver, no matter who it is."
Following the disappointing end to his tenure in Detroit, Saunders is as motivated as any of the Wizards players, and he's studied the locker room he is taking over. One that at times in the past was fractured, uneven and in part the inspiration for the addition of veterans instead of a high draft pick during the offseason.
"They're not going to talk young and old," said Saunders of what he expects when practice begins. "They're going to talk team, and we're going to blend everybody together."
He also speaks of Kevin Garnett when he talks about the chance to shape guys like Andray Blatche.
But the top priority is making a connection with his best player, and Saunders has done that, working with Arenas in person, having dinner, texting and calling him frequently.
The goal: Molding a situation where the All-Star point guard becomes an extension of the coach, not the other way around.
"He has to know what I'm thinking before I think it," said Saunders. "I try to talk to him a lot about how I look at situations in a game, and how I see things in a game. He talks about how he sees things. Sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don't. That's part of it. It's part of the process."
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