If it’s September, it’s time to start talking expectations for Andray Blatche. Not even an NBA lockout is going to stop this annual Wizards rite. This year, fill in the blanks with “Lapdance Tuesdays” and “shoulder” for the off- and on-court issues that the 25-year-old needs to put behind him following a season only he could have, one in which career numbers (16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game) were outweighed by general disappointment.
With his seventh NBA season just around the corner — maybe — Blatche has attempted to take charge. He invited teammates to work out this week at Columbia Gym in Clarksville, Md., only to be undercut in participation by the Impact League in Las Vegas.
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Undeterred, Blatche strolled into the gym for a couple of hours of pickup basketball on Monday night — his second workout of the day — accompanied by his mother, Angela Oliver; his financial advisor, Ingrid Bachelor;
Wizards rookie-to-be Chris Singleton; and second-year center Hamady Ndiaye.
“My plan is to do this probably every three weeks until the lockout is over,” Blatche said. “We can start working out, play with each other and get familiar with each other.”
On the same team throughout the session, Blatche, Singleton and Ndiaye dominated with familiar moves against their lesser foes. Ndiaye, having packed on 10 pounds of muscle, was an enthusiastic force in the paint. Singleton was promisingly relentless and eager. Blatche was himself, too quick on the trigger from outside but skilled and powerful when he decided to attack the rim, even if nearly every dunk left him cringing with pain in his right shoulder, which he first injured in late March.
Despite the shoulder, Blatche is as confident about his offseason progress as he is steadfast in his charity work. He will host 15 military personnel and their guests aboard the USS Sequoia Presidential Yacht on Sept. 30, and he says he will continue the work he has started in Jamaica beyond the end of his playing career.
And despite the lockout, Blatche’s outlook has a familiar upbeat tone. Like the lockout, how long it lasts is unknown.
“It is painful, but at the same time, it can help us,” he said. “I’m trying to make it beneficial. Most teams ain’t doing this. I want to get a head start.”
– Craig Stouffer
