By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 1, 2006; E01
Antonio Daniels stood in the hallway outside the Washington Wizards' locker room at Verizon Center last May 8 and attempted to verbalize the disappointment he and his teammates felt about their first-round playoff series loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"Losing three games in one playoff series by one point? Unbelievable," Daniels said three days after their season ended.
Daniels quickly shifted focus to the future -- specifically the 2006-07 season, which tips off tonight for the Wizards and Cavaliers in Cleveland.
"I just hope the front office keeps this group together and allows us to build on this," Daniels said. "We have something good going here. You just can't go out and rip your team apart every year and expect to have success in this league. It doesn't work that way."
Coming off an up-and-down season during which the Wizards finished 42-40 and earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, owner Abe Pollin and President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld took precisely that approach.
Guard-forward Jared Jeffries was allowed to leave via free agency, while guard DeShawn Stevenson and forward Darius Songaila were added. But other than those moves, the Wizards stood pat, believing the best way to build a championship contender is to retain a core group that includes Daniels, Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.
The words "continuity" and "chemistry" were heard frequently around Verizon Center this offseason. Pollin believes he maintained continuity by signing Grunfeld and Coach Eddie Jordan to contract extensions, and the players believe they developed chemistry during training camp and the eight-game preseason.
"We've got a group of guys, guys who love competing and playing with one another," Jamison said. "When you develop that kind of chemistry and it only comes from being together day in, day out for a while, you're tough to beat."
The Wizards' first test of that strategy is tonight, when they face LeBron James and a Cavaliers team that is being touted as a potential Eastern Conference champion.
The entire organization -- from Pollin to Grunfeld to Jordan to the players -- has emphasized the need to become a better defensive team and execute more efficiently late in games. The Wizards were 10-18 in games decided by six points or fewer last season and were in position to win three of the playoff games against Cleveland in the closing seconds before letting those games slip away.
"We have a very competitive group and we've put a lot of time into the defensive end of the court, and I think we all saw that in the preseason," Grunfeld said. "We all know we can score with anyone in the league, but I think everyone realized that we have to get better at the defensive end and we have to be a tougher team. I think we've improved in those areas."
Grunfeld is thrilled that guard Jarvis Hayes made it through training camp and the preseason healthy but the team has not been able to get a look at Songaila, who signed a five-year, $23 million contract in July.
The team announced yesterday that Songaila will undergo surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back and will be out for at least 10 weeks. Without Songaila, the Wizards lose a solid post player who has also shown an ability to consistently make outside shots. The team has lacked that kind of versatile big man in the Grunfeld-Jordan era and will have to again rely on Arenas, Jamison and Butler to carry the scoring load.
Still, Jordan appears to be working with a much deeper roster than he did last season when the injury to Hayes and the midseason departure of Chucky Atkins left the team thin at guard and forward.
Stevenson, who started all 82 games for the Orlando Magic, replaces Jeffries in the starting lineup at guard. Stevenson, who averaged 11 points per game last season while regularly defending the opponent's best player, appeared to click with his new teammates during the preseason and has vowed to bring a defensive attitude to the court.
"That's what they brought me in here for," Stevenson said. "We have guys who can score so getting points on the board is not going to be a problem. But we also have to get stops, especially in those tight games. I believe I can help do that."
Should he stay healthy, Hayes can provide scoring off the bench while Michael Ruffin returns as a rebounding, screen-setting, defensive-minded role player. Daniels can be used as either a backup point guard or as a shooting guard in combination with Arenas. The center combination of Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood gives Jordan options in the post.
"We have a solid rotation," Jordan said. "Last year, we were playing 10, 11 guys trying to figure out what the chemistry was going to be like, who should start, who should come off the bench and those kinds of things. We had seven new players. It was just a lot more unsettling than it is this year. I feel comfortable with what we have here. Excited and comfortable."
Most preseason prognosticators have not expressed the same optimism about the Wizards. Many have the team finishing from sixth to eighth in the Eastern Conference and a few have them missing the playoffs altogether.
Arenas, who is always looking for extra motivation, was incredulous that one publication had the Wizards ranked 17th in the league, one spot behind the Magic.
"Seventeenth!" Arenas yelled yesterday before walking into the locker room. "That's crazy. We're going to show ya'll something starting" tonight.
Butler said he understands why some are underestimating the Wizards. One common view is that the Wizards will again be a dangerous offensive team but did not add a true defensive presence in the paint and will once again be forced to ride the offense on a nightly basis.
There is also a belief that the Wizards lack the toughness to gut out close games, especially in the playoffs.
"They think we're just the same team and some of that is true, we are. But then again, we aren't," Butler said. "We went through some battles last season, early in the season and in the playoffs, and that made us tougher. We lost those heartbreakers at the buzzer and that motivated guys. Myself, Antawn, Gilbert, Antonio, Etan, Brendan and we have DeShawn now -- we all got better this summer because we don't want to let that happen again. I'm glad people are sleeping on us. It's just going to feel that much better when we wake them up."
