Notes from Wizards camp: post practice interviews

Following the morning practice, members of the media had a chance to speak with Flip Saunders and a few of the players. Below are a few items of note that resulted from these sessions.

Flip Saunders:

• Flip spent time talking about his emphasis on teaching the zone to the players in the early days of camp. He said, "if you play Miami, you better know how to play zone."

• He said that he would like the Wizards to play "zone about 20 - 25% as a good base." And he went on to say that zone defense can actually help out your man defense. "It helps your man principles."

• He felt that the zone defense can be particularly effective when you have length and quickness. In particular, he singled out his Point Guards. He said, "size and quickness of our Point Guard, whether its John, whether its Kirk, whether its Gil. All three of those guys are long." He went on to say that when John Wall is in the front of the zone, its like putting in "a 6'8" guy."

• He did not buy the argument that zone defenses hide a team's deficiencies. Flip said, "no, I don't think so. You still have man responsibilities. Basically what a zone does is, what your doing is, your designating where your help comes from at all times."

• Flip was asked about JaVale and whether he has done enough to earn the starting Center position. Saunders quickly pointed out that most of their work in camp has been "non-competitive so far." He expects to have a better sense of how the position battles are shaping up following the scrimmage that was held tonight.

• Flip said that Andray is practicing but is being primarily used in non-competitive types of drills. He was asked if Andray passed the conditioning test and Flip said that he had passed a "mini-test on a treadmill" and that he passed it. Once he is deemed fully healthy he will have to pass the full conditioning test.

• He and his coaching staff are assuming that the players don't know anything and have spent much of the early days in camp teaching fundamentals.

• Flip had glowing comments on John Wall. He was particularly impressed with how serious and vocal he is in practice. He went on to say that he has been most impressed with Wall's "understanding, he is similar to Garnett that he knows like where everyone is supposed to be on a play. But when you have a PG [Kevin] that can tell everyone where to go that brings a whole different balance to your team. He's really beyond his years in maturity. I hate to keep on saying it because it like puts pressure on him..."

• Flip was asked about whether Gilbert Arenas and John Wall can play together. Flip, as he has said before, does not believe there will be an issue with Gil playing with John Wall. As evidence, he cited how Earl Boykins played Point Guard while Arenas played Shooting Guard when both were on the floor last season.

Yi Jianlian:

• Yi was asked if he knew which position - Center, Power Forward or Small Forward - would be his primary position with the Wizards. He said that is is still early in camp and the team has mostly focused on "the basics," so he is not quite sure which position he will play yet. He did say that he is "ready," regardless of the position he is asked to play.

• Yi said that Small Forward may be a bit tough for him given the potential "match-ups." He did confirm, after some thought, that he did play a little Small Forward with Milwaukee, "just a little bit."

Al Thornton:

• Al tried to develop every aspect of his game this off-season, but paid special attention to ball handling and shooting.

• When asked about his impressions of John Wall he said, "he's been a leader out there. He's really been communicating."