When asked if he feels like his legs are back to 100 percent, Arenas said, “I feel great. I'm never gonna be 100 percent. But I feel great. You can't crumble up a piece of paper and then when you open it up again expect it to be smooth like it once was. But I know my legs are stronger than what they were, and now I don't have to just rely on my speed.”
That explains all the strong takes and dunks Arenas has displayed both in those pickup games at Grover's facility, the ProAm league up in Chicago and the appearances at Barry Farms and Hoop Magic in Chantilly. The fearless drives are something we didn't see in the two games Arenas played in last season, that's because Arenas' muscles had yet to be ignited by Grover and his crew, and because his confidence in the leg still was lacking, and Arenas was admittedly leery about venturing into the paint.
“I was still scoring, but it was just in the back of my mind. That reckless abandon, I didn't have it,” he says. “That fear, it was still in the back of my head. I wasn't comfortable, and didn't have power.”
So following the completion of the season, he went to Orlando to train with close friend and personal assistant John White. Arenas said he told white to get out the big training pads and instructed him to deal him a blow on every drive so he could re-acclimate himself to contact.
“He kept knocking me down again and again,” Arenas recalls. “I didn't feel like my quad was firing. I was feeling good, but didn't feel great. So then I called Tim.”
From
Mike Jones' Times Outlet. Tons of Gil material in two posts.
Backs up some of what I've been seeing in the offense on the role of Nick and Dray:
Saunders demands a lot of his point guards and sees them as an extension of him on the floor. And speaking of leadership, Arenas is aware that the perception of him is that he's not a team leader.
But he says that's not because he isn't capable of leading or doesn't want to lead. Quite the contrary. He is taking seriously the task at hand.
“Flip asked me to lead this team and I'm gonna be his leader,” Arenas said. “The last coach didn't want me to be his leader, so I didn't want to be.”
When it comes to Saunders' system, Arenas looks forward to the increased freedom he will have in it. And he believes that his younger Wizards: Andray Blatche, Nick Young – will at last take the next step in their careers because of the design of Saunders' offense. The coach reportedly carries a playbook of comparable size to that of an NFL team, but Arenas describes it as a more natural system than the Princeton offense, so learning the plays aren't as challenging.
“You don't have to think so much. You just play. The offense we used to run was a thinking man's offense, and we had a lot of young players, so it didn't work. The first year we won [25] games, and then after the whole team being in it for a year, we won 45 games, but then we lose our 2-guard in Larry [Hughes]. You can't keep losing players, and then you get new guys in with that type of system. And every training camp, you gotta go back and teach.
"And we've got all these young players on the team, and your older guys in the offense get hurt, now you can't play young players like Nick and Andray and expect them to do great in that scheme. You see they have obvious talent, but they can't remember all the plays. Your I.Q. had to be great to understand the offense. Teams that run systems like that, Sacramento, New Jersey, our 49 win team, they were all older, experienced guys, but if you don't have experienced guys, it's a struggle to remember all the motion, all those cut-backs.”
great quotes on the PG position:Arenas said he doesn't know entirely what to expect when it comes to how his stats will shake out in Flip Saunders' system, but isn't worried about it. He said he's been studying the play of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, who last season averaged 22.8 points and 11.0 assists and 19.4 points and 10.7 assists, respectively. He believes he can learn something from them on how they run the pick-and-roll and make decisions, distribute and also remain their team's top scoring threats.
Either way, Arenas expects Washington's 'Big Three' to thrive in Saunders' system, saying “We have the talent for a regular offense. I've seen Flip's play book and I think it's a great, great offense.”
