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Mike Lee Washington Post wrote:In a small, quiet corner of the nearly empty visitors' locker room at TD Banknorth Garden, Gilbert Arenas reached into his duffel bag late Wednesday night and pulled out about a half-dozen 8-by-11 blue cards on which he had scribbled his summer workout schedule. He had spent the past two weeks ironing out each detail of the most anticipated offseason of his career, after spending the past two years worried about his surgically repaired left knee.

"See," Arenas said, shuffling the cards. "I'm going to be ready."

Later that evening, on the team flight back to Washington, Arenas said he talked to some teammates about the importance of sticking together next season

"We've just been a goofball team for a while. It's fun when you're winning. But when you're not winning, it's depressing a little bit," Arenas said. "To be honest, I'm a goofball. But when I step inside those lines, it's serious. Some of them don't know how to turn that on and off. I told them, it comes with time. You've got to put your work in in the summer because we're coming at you."

After having 20 assists and just one turnover in his cameo role this season, Arenas said he will be a little less Agent Zero and "turn into a real point guard. To be honest I want to lead the league in triple doubles next season. We have enough scorers on this team where I can try to dominate the game in other ways."

Arenas said he has invited Blatche and Nick Young, two of the Wizards' talented but inconsistent young players, to work out with him in Washington this summer. Haywood started his offseason workouts yesterday. Arenas will start Monday. Jamison and Butler said they will both take two weeks off to rest and then get back to work.

Comment from SportzWiz
Time May 1, 2009 at 9:41 AM

From Gabbo - “Message to Dray and Nick: practice with Gil every day. He knows how to win. The discipline will be good for you. See you in pre-season.”

I know nick was planning on going home for a few weeks, but I hear from a little birdie that what your asking is exactly what Dray has been doing . If i hear anything else I will let you know.

no D in Hibachi wrote:After hearing that Blatche is working out all summer with Arenas I hope it silences the 'lets trade Blatche for cap space group', which is growing on this board. All he needs a little more consistency and he'll be an extremely valuable player on this team.

Butler said he's been doing light workouts at home since the Wizards' season ended three weeks ago. But he will pick up the intensity next week, when he plans on traveling to Los Angeles to start strength and conditioning drills and hang out with his former teammate Kobe Bryant.

Butler said he flew down to Miami last week to spend time with with another former teammate, Dwyane Wade, and watch Game 3 of the Heat's first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks.He also sent a congratulatory text message to the new league's most valuable player LeBron James, another player Butler said he plans on working out with this summer. "I'm trying to stay in contact with all the people I need to, so I can be ready," Butler said.

Another person Butler has been exchanging text messages with in recent weeks is new Wizards Coach Flip Saunders. Butler said he and Saunders sometimes communicate "at 1, 2 in the morning." On Monday, Butler said he sat down with Saunders, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld and Vice President of Player Personnel Milt Newton for an hour-long discussion about the upcoming season.

"Everybody is on the same page -- we want to get a championship," Butler said. "It's going to be a redemption year for the Wizards organization. I'm just happy to be a part of it. I'm not thinking nothing less than a championship. That's my goal, a championship."

Butler supported Grunfeld's decision to hire Saunders, who has reached the conference finals four times and has seven 50-win seasons. "He's a wonderful coach," Butler said. "He's got a great history. You look at his body of work, what's he's done in Minnesota and obviously what he did with the Detroit Pistons. All of his teams have been to the [conference] finals. All we want is the opportunity to get there and anything is possible."

Wesley Matthews, Dionte Christmas, Jermaine Taylor and Kyle Spain.

fishercob wrote:That Harden jumper looks wet though. And Java seems have have added a little bulk up top.