The Washington Wizards start preseason with a blast from the past.
The team never got to face Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, DeShawn Stevenson or Antawn Jamison after they were dealt last February to Dallas and Cleveland, respectively, but both teams will host the Wizards this week.
“It’s always good to go against a friend, somebody you know and somebody that thinks they know your game,” Wizards fourth-year guard Nick Young said.
Young, along with Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, was once mentored by those veteran players, but they are now among those entrusted to move the Wizards forward.
Head coach Flip Saunders prefers the familiarity play a minimal role with so much work left to be done. Minutes and lineups will be erratic until Oct. 28’s regular-season opener grows closer.
“We have some important things to evaluate in our team,” Saunders said. “Our up front, who’s going to be there. We still got a couple spots potentially to fill on our team, what guys are going to fill those spots. And our young guys, John [Wall], even JaVale, Hilton [Armstrong] hasn’t played a whole lot lately, we gotta get those guys a lot of minutes.”
Wall, 20, also exposed the generation gap between himself and his first opposing point guard, 37-year-old All-Star Jason Kidd.
“He’s old, but he’s still a veteran in this game,” Wall said. “He knows the tricks of the trade, still knows how to set his teammates up and how to make plays. Just imagine, when he was younger; he was one of the top point guards and fast.”
