Flip Saunders doesn’t mind the quick transition from no season at all to hurried free agency and shortened training camp. The Wizards coach experienced something similar for seven years in the Continental Basketball Association before coming to the NBA.
“A day prior to the season was when the NBA cut players, so we were trying to get players in,” Saunders said. “A week before training camp, you’d look at our roster and we probably had five guys on it.”
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With players under contract and unrostered invitees, the Wizards will have at least enough to put two five-man teams on the practice court Friday evening.
With free agency officially starting at 2 p.m., they also will be able to announce the expected signing of Roger Mason Jr. and likely other free agents.
| Training Camp Storylines |
| 1 Will Nick Young return? » Young is still the presumed starter at shooting guard, but to claim the position, he will have to get a long-term offer he likes from Washington or sign the team’s qualifying offer. Jordan Crawford is anxiously waiting in the wings. |
| 2 How will top draft pick Jan Vesely fare? » Expectations are high for the sixth pick in June’s draft, who has to show he can do more than dunk. Fellow first-round pick Chris Singleton is highly motivated, and second-round choice Shelvin Mack is a winner but is down the depth chart. |
| 3 Who is in the best shape? » Rashard Lewis has been rehabbing from a bum right knee, and Trevor Booker is out another week with a thigh injury. But there will be no hiding a lack of fitness after a longer than usual offseason. If nothing else, John Wall has looked raring to go. |
| 4 How will Flip Saunders manage minutes at small forward? » Saunders has Lewis, Vesely, Booker and Singleton already. The Wizards still could use the presence of free agent Mo Evans. |
| 5 Is Andray Blatche ready to grow up? » It’s been said many times before, but Blatche needed to turn the corner during the offseason. Entering his seventh NBA season, patience will run thin if he’s not ready to lead. |
Despite the youngest group in his three seasons in Washington, including three rookies and six second-year players, Saunders expects to accomplish as much in the two and a half weeks before the Wizards’ season opener Dec. 26 as he would with a normal preseason.
“It becomes so short and so intense that there is no lag time,” Saunders said. “It will facilitate their improvement, really. There is an advantage of only having a few exhibition games. We really have more concentrated practice time with what we’re doing now than we may even over a 22-day training camp.”
Rashard Lewis, Washington’s most veteran player, learned during his rookie season following the 1998-99 lockout that mental preparation will take the place of the usual repetition and drills in practice.
“The young guys as well as myself are going to have to listen more than anything because there’s not going to be a lot of practice time,” Lewis said. “[We] gotta pay attention in shootaround, film session because there’s not going to be very much practice because we’ve got to save our legs for the game.”
The Wizards’ younger players also believe that their legs will stay fresher than players on older teams in the condensed season.
“We’re trying to make a playoff run,” Jordan Crawford said. “That’s pretty much the goal. We’re trying to build chemistry because there’s going to be a lot of cats going at us this year. They kind of know us a little bit better [because of the latter half of last season], but we don’t really have a name.”
