That was an odd sight on the Verizon Center main court this evening: a legitimate half-court, 4-on-4 basketball game – with two assistant coaches acting as outlets. John Wall, Cartier Martin, Andray Blatche, Yi Jianlian, Kevin Seraphin, Hilton Armstrong, Trevor Booker, and Josh Howard all played. Wizards head coach Flip Saunders oversaw the proceedings in sweat gear, not his customary game-time threads, and Seraphin participated wearing his full uniform plus his warmup jacket.
What the heck? Saunders said it was something he did while he was coaching in Detroit.
“It’s more for the younger guys just from the standpoint of letting them have some contact, going through the offense a little bit,” said Saunders, “so when they get into the game, it’s almost a situation where they’ve been hit already, and it’s not new to them, almost put them a little bit more at ease going into the game. It’s something we’re going to try to start doing more on a regular basis right now and continue what we’ve been doing all year, and that’s individual development of players and tie into the team concept as well.”
Hmmm, okay then.
