This Season, Wizards Think Bigger

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Washington Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said he believes the time has arrived for the franchise to do something it hasn't done since Wes Unseld's Bullets went to the NBA Finals in 1979: get past the second round of the playoffs.

"Eastern Conference finals is the next step," Jordan said yesterday in a news conference at Verizon Center. "How long will that take? I don't know. I like to think it will be this year. In my mind, it's certainly not a three-year plan. I want to get there this year. Saying we went to the Eastern Conference finals, that's a good taste in your mouth. I've been there as a coach. As a player I've been to the [NBA] Finals. This team is becoming seasoned enough -- the chemistry is getting there. That's the next step. Not just making it to the second round. We did that two years ago."

Jordan will get his first real look at this season's team on Tuesday when training camp opens in Richmond. Following one week of training camp on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the Wizards will have eight preseason games before opening the regular season Nov. 1 against LeBron James, Larry Hughes and the Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Barring injuries, the team that takes the floor opening night will look much like the one that lost a thrilling first-round playoff series to the Cavaliers last spring.

In that series, won by Cleveland in six games, the Wizards lost three games by a point and were unable to come up with the kinds of crucial plays that separate championship contenders from postseason also-rans.

The first order of business for Jordan and his staff will be shoring up a defense that allowed 99.8 points per game last season and broke down in key stretches in the playoff series with Cleveland. "We have to rebound better and we have to protect the rim better," Jordan said. "Those are going to be key areas for us starting in camp."

Any improvements will have to come without guard-forward Jared Jeffries, who was perhaps the team's best all-around defender last season. Jeffries signed a five-year, $30 million offer sheet with the New York Knicks, and the Wizards elected not to match after landing guard DeShawn Stevenson for the veteran's minimum ($932,000).

President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld feels that the 6-foot-5 Stevenson, along with the healthy return of shooting guard Jarvis Hayes and the continued development of second-year forward Andray Blatche, can make up for what the team will miss without Jeffries, who averaged 6.4 points and 4.9 rebounds last season.

Hayes, who has been limited to 75 games in the last two seasons, is still recovering from knee surgery but will be available for the opening of training camp. Hayes, Stevenson, Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels will be in the mix for playing time at shooting guard, while forward Darius Songaila will swing between forward and center in what should be a very competitive training camp and preseason.

Jordan and Grunfeld like the depth and versatility of the team, which features the league's highest-scoring trio in Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Butler. They are anxious to see what kind of playing rotations will develop in the preseason.</div>

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