We already talked about what Gilbert Arenas said, and I already wrote a separate story about Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Here are some highlights from what others said. For more, go to the BF Twitter page and keep scrolling down.
Note: No particular order here.
- Nick Young says he's spent a lot of time working with Sam Cassell, who has helped him with some veteran tricks, ball-handling and coming off screens. When asked about whether he felt threatened by all the new acquisitions at his position, Nick replied "I'm confident in myself. I got game too."
- Fabricio Oberto said the biggest thing he can help the team with -- in particular Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee -- is his experience. But that's not the only thing he can help with. "Sometimes, the fastest you can run is not the way. It's the security you can bring and how solid you can be, so I think that's what I can also bring to the team."
- Antawn Jamison was pretty long-winded today, but nothing compared to his answer about what he thought Oberto could bring to the team. It lasted a full two-and-a-half minutes and began with the words "I love Oberto." Jamison talked about how Oberto understands the need to sacrifice for the good of the team and will do the dirty work necessary.
- Like Gilbert Arenas, DeShawn Stevenson needed an outside source to cure his injury problems. Whereas Arenas went to Chicago, Stevenson went to Vancouver. How'd he hook that up? "My financial advisor has a client who works for the Lakers," he said. "So when they played Orlando in the finals -- I live in Orlando -- I went to talk to him at the hotel. He told me to come out. I talked to Ernie and them, and Ernie and them were supportive and took care of it." Stevenson added that Wizards athletic trainer Eric Waters was there as well.
- Andray Blatche once again praised Flip Saunders. "He makes you want to stay in the gym," Blatche said, admitting he was in the gym a lot more because of Flip.
- Andray's explanation for his talk about becoming more serious? His mother. No joke. "I had a conversation with my mom, she said 'It seemed like you're too lackadasical, it seemed like you're just goofing around with your friends.' After a while, I talked to her about it, and I was like, 'You're right.'" For everyone's sake, let's hope mom gets through to him when others haven't.
- Dominic McGuire says his primary focus is going to be improving his mid-range shot, as opposed to his three-point shot. "I wanted to ... get that to the point where I can knock it down every time I'm open," he said.
- Antawn Jamison said that he "hasn't slept well since the season ended" and called last season "the worst of my career."
- Brendan Haywood was unbelievably talkative, especially about the defense, or lack thereof, last season. That was part of our problem last year. We had a lot of guys who didn't know where to be."
- Brendan on what needs to improve defensively: "We have to have guys in the right positions. It's one thing to get beat by your man, but it's another thing to not know where you're supposed to be. We have to have guys who play good positional defense. The best defensive teams, teams like the Spurs, they play great positional defense." He went on to discuss how the Spurs can be successful despite rotating in non-defense guys like Michael Finley and Brent Barry because of the importance of positional defense.
- Haywood was one of two people other than Gilbert Arenas who pointed to the last coaching regime's failure to stress defense. "In previous years, defense wasn't stressed. If you could score, you played. Now, it's a little bit different."
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Caron Butler echoed a similar refrain, though he said the team did stress defense more under Randy Ayers in 2007/08. "Because our offense is so hard, and we had younger guys trying to adapt to the Princeton offense, we had to preach it so much, and we never really had an opportunity to really focus on defense," he said.
- Caron said he plans on continuing to be a vocal leader and even said he'd be willing to help Gilbert Arenas with leading. "It's important for the franchise guy to be very vocal on this team, but I've been a leader my whole life on and off the court, so I can't change who I am," he said. "It's great to see him make better strides to become a better leader. If he needs advice, I'll help him."
- Butler might have been the most optimistic guy there, and that's saying something. "[The Big 3] is truly healthy. No marketing. We're truly healthy." He also says he's entering the season feeling better than any year since his second year in the NBA and suggested his previous injuries had lingered on into many of the previous seasons.
- Butler said Arenas told him in Chicago that he doesn't want Butler to change his game. "He told me in Chicago, 'I want you to continue to stay aggressive like you've been. I'll find you.'"
- JaVale McGee was the only Wizard to skip media day. Apparently, he was getting his wisdom teeth removed.
Training camp starts tomorrow, so if you want me to focus on anything, let me know. I'll be there all week.