Jordan Likes What He Sees

RICHMOND, Oct. 6 -- The Washington Wizards split into two squads for approximately 40 minutes of hard scrimmaging Friday. At one point, Coach Eddie Jordan stepped off the court and took a seat high in the stands at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center.

As his players raced up and down the court, Jordan left the coaching to his staff as he simply observed. With training camp nearly complete and the first of eight preseason games coming up Monday night against the Toronto Raptors at Verizon Center, Jordan likes what he sees from most every vantage point.

"Right now, if I had to give a grade, I've give a B-plus for execution, and as far as intensity, playing physically, trying hard, I'd give that an A," Jordan said.

The lone setback has been the inability to see forward Darius Songaila on the court. Songaila, who signed a five-year, $21 million contract over the summer, remains out with a pinched nerve in his lower back and won't participate in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage or Monday's preseason game.

The team does not want to rush Songaila back and risk him doing further damage. Songaila hurt his back while playing for the Lithuanian national team in a pre-world championships game against the United States on Aug. 13. He played through the pain during the world championships and has been working with Wizards athletic trainer Eric Waters since returning to Washington on Sept. 11.

Songaila did some light shooting on a side basket following Friday's practice but has been otherwise limited to stretching exercises and other low-impact work.

"It's frustrating just sitting here watching because I want to be out there, but right now it's important that I do the rehab so I can feel better," Songaila said. "I don't want to rush back and make things worse."

The Wizards appear to be preparing as if Songaila won't be available soon. Second-year forward Andray Blatche has been seeing a lot of action with the second unit at Songaila's position, and veteran Michael Ruffin also has been in Jordan's 10-man rotation.

"Right now, I have to concern myself with the players who are out there," Jordan said. "That's my focus right now, those 10 guys. After that, we're trying to rotate other guys in."

According to Jordan and several players, it has been a serious, ultra-competitive camp. At the end of Friday's two-hour practice, Jordan divided the team in half and rolled the ball out for some hard play. The coaching staff only occasionally stepped in for instruction, as players appeared to run Jordan's offensive and defensive sets without making many mistakes.

One key difference between this camp and last year's camp is that the first and second teams are only blending in one new player this fall: shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson. Last year, Caron Butler, Antonio Daniels and Chucky Atkins were new, and Blatche was unable to participate because he was still recovering from wounds he suffered in a shooting.

Stevenson's transition has been smooth. Though Jordan has not installed all of his offense, Stevenson has quickly grasped what has been put in. Stevenson is penciled in as a starter along with Gilbert Arenas, Butler, Antawn Jamison and either Brendan Haywood or Etan Thomas.

"He handled a lot of the offense in Orlando so he's comfortable with what we do," Jordan said of Stevenson.

Jamison, who missed the latter part of Friday's practice after taking a Butler elbow to the head, said the entire team has been taking a serious approach to camp.

"All that joking stuff is pretty much out of the window," Jamison said. "All of that -- well, let's just get through a camp and the preseason, and then we'll just turn it on like a light switch when the season starts -- that stuff is out. From the time we had our first meeting when we got down here, we've been approaching this seriously. Guys have the mind-set that it starts now. It's not one of those things that you can just switch on and off."

Wizards Note: Saturday's scrimmage at Siegel Center at 4 p.m. is free and open to the public. Individual tickets for the 41 regular season home games are on sale. For information, call 202-397-7328. Monday's preseason game will be available at http://www.washingtonwizards.com .