If Gilbert Arenas intended on ducking the spotlight on Sunday in the last session of Wizards training camp, he did the opposite. With a towel draped over his head the entire afternoon – not to mention the fact that he didn’t play – Arenas drew a heavy dose of attention to himself. The smile he has seemed intent on hiding from the public emerged every once in a while, but not out from under the towel, which he had also to use to shield his mouth directly when it appeared that a fan had gotten him to laugh.
Whatever the motivations for the towel, Arenas missed three of the final four practices of training camp, the last two after spraining his right ankle on Thursday night.
I asked Wizards head coach Flip Saunders if that was a disappointment.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Saunders. “Veteran guys are veteran guys, how they go about things. You know, [Kirk] Hinrich and [John] Wall have probably been our two best players in camp overall. If we were to go today, those two guys would probably start because of how they performed in camp. When Gil’s ready, he’ll come back and get his legs under him.”
The preseason starts in two days at Dallas, and it would seem that Arenas’ participation in that game could be limited. Even before the injury, Saunders talked little to none about Arenas’ performance in camp.
The problem with Tuesday, however, could be that Hinrich also was injured during Sunday’s scrimmage, sitting out the latter half after bruising his right shoulder. More about his status should be known on Monday.
Sean Marks also was out again. His lingering hamstring issue seems likely to come to a head sooner rather than later.
“Right now, his main thing is we want to see if we can get him healthy, see where he’s at,” said Saunders. “He’s been out for three days, trying to run but couldn’t so we’ll have to wait and see how it goes.”
Saunders was also asked if rebounding ability would decide who the Wizards keep or cut. Flip may have given a hint about Marks with this answer: “Our rebounders are the guys that are all under contracts pretty much so that has no bearing.”
