The Washington Wizards will give head coach Flip Saunders his first taste of the rivalry between his new team and the Cleveland Cavaliers when they meet Tuesday in Washington’s opening game of the 2009 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
“Is LeBron [James] playing?” said Saunders. “We might have someone who can dunk on him, I don’t know.”
His joking reference to the recent controversy surrounding the confiscated video of Jordan Crawford’s dunk on James showed how much the final scores in Vegas will matter, but there is plenty of work to be done, whether it’s the building of chemistry among the Wizards players under contract or the spotting of a diamond in the rough.
“We’re very fortunate with the trade that we made,” said Saunders. “It did open up two roster spots so if something’s out there that we think is going to help us and available, we may not be able to pay him a lot of money. But at least we can pay him and have a roster spot.”
Blatche cameo?
Washington has 12 players on its Vegas roster, following the cuts of Dwayne Anderson, Ryan Ayers, James Lang, Diamon Simpson, Jimmy Barron and Alex Ruoff.
But there could be a surprise addition.
After participating in the weekend minicamp at Verizon Center, fourth-year forward Andray Blatche could be in uniform in Las Vegas, too, according to Saunders.
“I think we’re going to try to see, that he might play a game or two with us out there,” said Saunders.
Young tries not to be all smiles for Saunders
Much of Nick Young’s 10 minutes with reporters on Monday was spent discussing Saunders’ observation that the third-year swingman smiles too much. Young grinned nearly the entire time.
“[Saunders has] been telling me to put my game face on, just be ready to attack,” said Young. “I can’t have fun. When I have fun, I smile a lot — just go out there with a kill mode.”
Young said he’s tried to keep a straight face, but he still catches himself.
“I feel that I’m serious,” he said. “I just happen to smile all the time. I guess that’s something people think is a weakness, but it got me here. If they want me to change it, I have to change it to be on the team.”
