<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> One of the most interesting facts about this season's <font color="#0c4790">Washington Wizards</font> involves third-year forward-center <font color="#0c4790">Andray Blatche</font>, who has been the team's most impressive player through five preseason games. Blatche has 85 regular season games under his belt and is on his second <font color="#0c4790">NBA</font> contract after re-signing with the team this summer, yet he's actually younger than rookies <font color="#0c4790">Oleksiy Pecherov</font>, <font color="#0c4790">Dominic McGuire</font> and <font color="#0c4790">Nick Young</font>.</p> "Yeah, it's kind of strange when you think about it because I've been here a couple of years," said Blatche, who turned 21 in August. "But I just want to help those guys get adjusted to the NBA as fast as possible because I think they can all help us this year."</p> Blatche is still growing into his 6-foot-11, 248-pound frame while maturing as a young adult himself, so it would be a stretch to call him a leader. But so far this preseason, his effort, performance and attitude suggest that he could be a major factor this season. Entering tonight's game at <font color="#0c4790">Atlanta</font>, Blatche leads the team in scoring (12.6 points) rebounding (6.4) and shooting percentage (62.2 percent), all while playing center for the first time in his life.</p> The difference between where Blatche is this preseason and last preseason is particularly striking. After a strong showing in the 2006 summer league, Blatche struggled with his shot, defensive positioning and conditioning last preseason and his confidence wavered as a result.</p> "I'm way more confident than last year," said Blatche, who missed training camp and the entire 2005 preseason as a rookie while recovering from wounds he suffered in a shooting.</p> "Last year was really my rookie year because of what happened [in the fall of 2005] so right now, I'm more comfortable, more confident, my shot is falling and I worked hard on my body this summer so I just feel better about everything."</p> Blatche has progressed to the point that Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan is planning on using him against some of the league's best players, including two recent additions to the Eastern Conference: <font color="#0c4790">Boston Celtics</font> forward <font color="#0c4790">Kevin Garnett</font> and <font color="#0c4790">Orlando Magic</font> forward <font color="#0c4790">Rashard Lewis</font>.</p> "I want to see him defend the Garnetts of the world, the Rashard Lewises of the world, those big perimeter guys and those fast, slender and quick inside guys," Jordan said. "Those are going to be his matchups and that's what I want him to be: a defender and a guy who blends in with our scorers. And we think he has some skills to score down low."</p> <font face="Arial,Helvetica" color="#000000" size="-1">Front Office, Scouts Praised </font></p> <hr align="left" color="#cccccc" size="1" /> </p> When discussing the performance of Blatche and the rookies, Jordan made a point of praising the team's front office and scouting department.</p> "All of those moves were masterminded by our front office, they did a terrific job in acquiring these guys," Jordan said. "In the summer and in training camp we said we've got a good veteran core and a good young core. It's a good thing for the Wizards organization to have that for future years."</div></p> Link</p> Andray Blatche coming off the bench for Brendan Haywood will be an interesting thing to look at throughout the entire season. He necessarily hasn't gone up against the Dwight Howards and Shaqs, but with the ability to play the high post, it gives the Wizards an advantage to work more backdoor screens, than what they could've gotten from Etan Thomas.</p>
I'm very excited to see how Blatche performs this season. Every Wizards fan has been very high on him since he was drafted. Atlhough there have been set backs such as him being shot or soliciting a prostitute, there seems to have been an evident change. I hope to see him be much more noticed around the NBA this season and play a big role behind Haywood this up-coming season.</p>
