John Wall works on his shooting after practice during Wizards training camp
With a new coach, and about half the team being new players, the Washington Wizards decided to hold their five day training camp at the Siegal Center, home of the Virginia Commonwealth University Men's basketball team. The goal was to get away to bond quicker as a team with the start of preseason action a week away. First year Wizards head coach Scott Brooks brings a new philosophy and structure to the team with an emphasis on defense after allowing 104 points a game last season. As point guard John Wall has said on numerous occasions "offense isn't the problem, we can score with anybody, if we defend like we're capable of doing we will be hard to beat on any given night". With that said, lets see what the Wizards have to say about training camp so far.
John Wall -
How he feels following practice -
" I feel good, my legs are a little fatigued but other than that I feel good."
Practice drills he participated in -
"Defensive drills, full court drills, contact lay-ups, a little bit of the offense. I pretty much did everything except five on five."
Attributes that can make the Wizards a formidable defensive team -
"How we're a long athletic team. We have big's that can defend on the perimeter and in the post, they're rim protectors that can contain on pick & rolls. Main thing is be aggressive, coach said whatever we do be over aggressive and not passive, and the most important thing is this is a point guard league and the best players on each team run a lot of pick & roll, so we want to make them uncomfortable when they come off the screen and not let them pick and choose the spots that they want to get to. That's something we can use to our advantage."
Brad Beal's attitude during practice -
"It's been great, we both came out here competed and didn't take shortcuts, I think that's the most important thing if you want to build yourself to go deep in the playoffs or to become a playoff team you can't take shortcuts."
Holding training camp at VCU -
"It's good to build team chemistry. The comradery from holding events like going bowling, having team dinners and going to museums and doing things like that you just surround each other away from your family's with the focus on becoming a cohesive team."