Fifth-year shooting guard Nick Young, the Wizards’ most improved player last year, was supposed to be the fifth starter. Instead, by missing the final month of last season with injuries, Young left the door open. Crawford, acquired in a February trade with the Atlanta Hawks, averaged 16.3 points and 3.9 assists with Washington. Young, meanwhile, still isn’t in training camp, insisting on testing the free agency market.

Then again, Crawford might have pried the door open anyway. He remains aggressive about nearly everything, from the way he trash talks anyone regardless of their reputation to the way he scores relentlessly on any stage.

“I’m going to approach it the same way I approach games: attack,” Crawford said before training camp. “That’s how I am. That’s how it’s going to be if Nick comes back, which I hope he do because we need him, so I’m excited.”

Young played well last year, going from 8.6 to 17.4 points a game in the wake of Gilbert Arenas’ departure in December. But so did the fearless Crawford, who was inserted into the Wizards’ starting lineup for good in March.

With Young sidelined by a bruised left knee, Crawford made his second NBA start March 15 and never left the court, playing all 48 minutes and scoring a team-high 27 in a 98-79 loss at Chicago. He scored at least 20 points in three of the next four games, picking up his first career double-double (25 points, 10 assists) eight days later in a 127-119 double-overtime loss at the Los Angeles Clippers.

When Wall got ejected against Miami on March 30, Crawford put up 39 points. With Wall suspended the next game against Cleveland on April 2, Crawford put up a triple-double (21 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds).

The Wizards don’t expect him to keep up that pace this season. But he’s certainly going to contribute more than he would have with the Hawks, who buried him behind Joe Johnson and his $125 million contract.

“Guys that can score, that’s something that they never really lose,” Saunders said. “He had the ability to do that out of college. Even in Atlanta, a lot of the guys that were in Atlanta said that how he played for us is how he played in their practices.”

That’s also how Crawford played during the lockout, though he shied away from any barnstorming charity-game tour. Laying low in Los Angeles, the 23-year-old Detroit native — once known best for dunking on LeBron James during a summer camp in 2009 — still ended up jawing with notorious talker Kevin Garnett, surprising the veteran when he wouldn’t back down.

Though he couldn’t talk to players during the lockout, word of the encounter reached Saunders, who coached Garnett for 10 years in Minnesota.

“I’ve seen that many times,” Saunders said. “Believe me and it doesn’t surprise me. He’s not going to back down from a challenge,” which could apply equally to both Garnett and Crawford, the latter of whom once professed he wanted to be better than Michael Jordan.

“He’s got great passion for the game, great enthusiasm, very competitive, sometimes maybe too competitive,” Saunders said. “[He] likes to talk a lot, and sometimes you’ve got to calm him down a little bit.”

If and when Young returns, Crawford is prepared to share minutes — until he proves that the majority of them should be his.

“As long as I’m a major influence on this team, I’m just trying to help it,” Crawford said. “But I’m going to compete for the starting spot. Believe that.”

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