EIGHT-MAN ROTATION
Pos	Player	Key Stat	Skinny
PG	Rod Strickland	9.9 APG	Can't shoot, but big-time assist guy
SG	Mitch Richmond	19.7 PPG	Was last year an aberration?
SF	Juwan Howard	18.9 PPG	Back at natural position, could blossom
PF	Michael Smith	7.3 RPG	More boards than points in career
C	Isaac Austin	.408 FG %	Overweight last year, this is key season
SG	Richard Hamilton	rookie	If/when team stinks, he'll get more time
SF	Tracy Murray	.350 FG %	Scored 50 in a game two years ago
PF	Aaron Williams	3.2 RPG	On sixth NBA team, finally gets a chance

		The Wizards can score points, but they don't have many defensive players in their lineup. If you can't defend in the NBA, unless you are tremendous offensively, you will have a difficult time winning. Gar Heard will have his hands full in terms of trying to get the Wizards to be a good defensive team while still maintaining their offensive prowess. I don't think they are playoff team. They will be lucky to play .500 ball.

Heard has his first real shot as an NBA head coach, and he believes he can make winners of the Wizards. He's well aware the team has made just one trip to the playoffs since 1988, but Heard thinks the drought is near its end.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Heard says. "But I think the guys are doing some things they haven't done in a long time, and that's get back to basics."

Heard, who played for 11 seasons in the NBA, has been an assistant in the league since 1987. His 53-game stint as Dallas' interim head coach in 1993 yielded just nine victories, but he knows this time it will be different.

"I've never doubted that I could coach in this league," Heard says. "Every guy is coming here with a positive attitude. We're not thinking about what happened in the past."

That's probably a good thing, considering not much positive has happened to the Wizards in recent years. Hopes were high in Washington before last season after the team acquired Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe from Sacramento for problem child Chris Webber. With Rod Strickland and Richmond side by side, coach Bernie Bickerstaff believed the team was ready to return to its 1996-97 form, when it earned a trip to the postseason. But the team never jelled, and it coughed and sputtered to an 18-32 record, costing Bickerstaff and his interim replacement, Jim Brovelli, their jobs in the process.

This season, the Wizards will be fortunate to reach the playoffs, but if they do, Heard and general manager Wes Unseld will deserve most of the credit. Unseld has overhauled the roster by parting with Thorpe, Calbert Cheaney, Ben Wallace, Tim Legler, Terry Davis and Jeff McInnis. In their place are promising rookies Richard Hamilton and Calvin Booth, and veterans Isaac Austin, Aaron Williams and Michael Smith.

Heading into his first training camp, Heard had an open mind about the makeup of his team.

"If a guy comes in here, and plays hard and plays well, he makes the team," Heard said. "I don't cut guys. They cut themselves."

Wizards fans hope that their team will somehow be cut out for the playoffs.

	Player to watch
	Richmond Coming off the first season in which he didn't average at least 20 points a night, Richmond is at a crossroads. He's played on bad teams before, so that couldn't be why his game suffered. There weren't that many other scoring options in Washington, so that can't be it. The guy is 34, and nobody likes playing with Rod Strickland. Ah, maybe that's it...

But Strickland did miss the playoffs for just the second time in his 11-year career, though nobody blamed him for the team's struggles. Part of the reason for Washington's failure to return to the postseason stemmed from a lack of depth at the point guard position.

Strickland averaged 37.1 minutes a game, good enough to land him in the top 25 in the league in minutes played, but Bickerstaff --and later Brovelli -- never gave Strickland's understudy, Chris Whitney, a chance to thrive. Whitney inexplicably landed in Bickerstaff's doghouse early last season, but when he played, he played credibly, and Heard should be much more willing to give his young guard a chance to show what he can do.

Shooting guard
After a disappointing (for him) debut season in Washington, Richmond has something to prove, and he will be one of the keys to the Wizards' season. Richmond looked older and slower last year, and openly pouted when he didn't get his shots. But armed with a contract extension and a new attitude, he reported to camp noticeably thinner.

Richmond averaged a career-low 19.7 points a game last year, but he vows that this season will be different. At 34 years old, Richmond has played in just four playoff games since 1991, and he knows his time as an effective NBA player are slowly coming to an end. But he has the chance to not only turn in a stellar season this year, but also turn a protege into a star.

Richmond will be pushed by Hamilton, the seventh overall pick in this summer's draft. Hamilton averaged 19.8 points a game during his three years at Connecticut and led the Huskies to the national championship in his junior season. He's quick, but at 6-6 and 185 pounds, Hamilton is sure to have a difficult adjustment to the NBA. With Richmond's help, his learning curve could prove to be much steeper, and someday down the line, he may also play some small forward.

One of the more intriguing battles during training camp was the battle between rookie Laron Profit, Reggie Jordan and James Collins for the final guard spot. Profit, a University of Maryland alum, impressed Heard with his athletic ability, but the head coach liked the 31-year-old Jordan's NBA experience.

Small forward
Juwan Howard has slowly become Mr. Wizard, and entering his sixth season with the team, he's hoping he'll finally be playing well into May.

When he's on the court, Howard is Washington's most consistent player, but injuries have cost him 32 games over the past two seasons, and durability is a concern. Howard's career averages of 19.3 points and 7.9 rebounds are solid, but he hasn't developed into the kind of superstar some thought he would become when he signed a massive contract with the team in 1996. But he is extraordinarily reliable. Howard's versatility will also be key; he can play both forward positions and can drop down in the post when needed.

If the Wizards are to contend, Tracy Murray must regain his old form. Murray had a horrible 1999 campaign in which he was plagued by battles with Bickerstaff, indifferent play and injuries. His scoring dropped nearly nine points a game, from 15.1 points in 1997-98 to last season's 6.5. In fact, many were surprised Heard even elected to keep him around.

Another enigma is 6-11 Randell Jackson. Jackson won a spot on the roster with inspired play during last year's shortened training camp and even started a handful of games, though Bickerstaff never really gave him a chance to shine. His status with the team is tenuous at best.

Power forward
The Wizards spent most of the summer dreaming of solidifying the power forward spot with a quality free agent, but when they woke up, they discovered all their coveted targets -- Grant Long, J.R. Reid, Samaki Walker, Chucky Brown -- had gone elsewhere. Unseld ended up with two less-heralded players in Williams and Smith.

Williams has been a nomad throughout his career, playing in Utah, Milwaukee, Denver and Vancouver before spending the last two seasons in Seattle. Despite starting just 12 games in his NBA career, Williams was named the nominal incumbent when training camp opened. The Wizards hope the low-scoring Williams will become a solid rebounder, but a back injury just days into camp allowed Smith to move ahead of him on the depth chart. Like Williams, Smith isn't much of a scorer, averaging just 4.8 points a game last year, but he's a solid rebounder. His biggest downfall is at the free throw line, where he has managed to hit just 50% of his career attempts. Free agent Gerard King, who was the 12th man on last year's NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, is another possibility.

Center
In Isaac Austin, the Wizards believe they have their first legitimate center since the days of Gheorghe Muresan. Austin, who was acquired for Wallace, Davis, Legler and McInnis in August, has had a history of weight problems, but he looked fit in camp. One of the most sought-after free agents prior to last season, he had a bad year with Orlando in 1999 and is another player who feels he has something to prove. The target of fat jokes all last season, Austin has hired a personal chef to travel with him and keep his waistline in check.

Austin's backups will be a pair of recent second-round draft picks, Jahidi White, who showed some potential last season, and the rookie Booth. The 6-11 Booth blocked more shots than anybody in the history of the Big Ten while averaging 15.3 points per game. Both are still considered NBA projects, but they will get plenty of on-the-job training this season.

Coaching
Heard is itching to prove he's ready to take the helm of an NBA club, and he has the pedigree to back him up. He was an assistant to some of the NBA's most legendary coaches, including Dick Motta, John MacLeod and Larry Brown. After spending a year as an assistant in Detroit, he appears to be somewhat of a disciplinarian, and his players have responded well to him.

His assistants, Butch Beard, Mike Bratz and Tree Rollins, are a huge improvement over last year's staff.