Injured Blatche eager to take on his new role
Things have fallen in line nicely for Andray Blatche.
Still only 24 years old, he’s coming off the best half-season of his five-year NBA career, a performance that garnered him a gleaming new contract extension — he’ll earn a reported $35 million over the next five years — and a new role with the revamped Wizards as a veteran leader.
But after breaking his right foot in June, he spent most of the summer wearing a boot and has been limited to noncontact work thus far at Patriot Center. The Wizards are determined not to rush him back before he’s ready.
“If we were playing a game, could he play? Yeah, he probably could play,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said Wednesday. “But I think just because he hasn’t done much over the course of the summer because of his leg, we want to get him in the right amount of shape so nothing else breaks down.”
Blatche added, “This is the most difficult time for me right now. I gotta lead by example.”
One of only four Wizards who were on the team at the beginning of last season — along with Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young and JaVale McGee — Blatche also has embraced his position as part of a dwindling old guard.
“This is my first year for this, so it’s a little different,” Blatche said. “I’m just trying to remember all the little things that [Antawn Jamison] and Brendan [Haywood] showed and told me so I can deliver the same message to [the rookies].”
Things also won’t be the quite like they were last spring for Blatche when he does return to his spot at power forward. Despite averaging 22.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists after the All-Star break last season, the Wizards were in a situation in which the season itself was already lost. The intensity of the competition will be quite different when Washington starts a new year with the same record as every other team.
“Is he going to have those type of numbers?” Saunders said. “Probably not because he’s got [John] Wall, [Gilbert] Arenas, [Kirk] Hinrich, Josh Howard, Al Thornton. He’s got other players that are going to put up numbers. It’s about team success. The stakes are higher, but it’s a clean slate.”
