Oleksiy Pecherov News

Oleksiy Pecherov was inactive again last night and has seen only spot duty in four games, but Coach Ed Tapscott is preaching patience to the second-year forward, who is the odd man out in a front-court rotation that includes rookie JaVale McGee and veterans Antawn Jamison, Etan Thomas and Darius Songaila.

Still, Tapscott took the time to rebound while Pecherov did some extra shooting after practice on Friday and wants to keep him focused.

'He's working hard and he's going to get his chance,' said Tapscott, who wants to maintain a consistent eight- or nine-man rotation. 'I told him to stay ready because he's going to get his chance. So, stay ready, stay prepared and keep coming to practice to show that you are making progress.'

The Atlanta Hawks were finally able to breathe easily. After nearly frittering away a 17-point third-quarter lead, the Hawks were able to squeeze by the Washington Wizards, thanks to Al Horford's three-point ...

Do not be fooled by the Wizards 124, Warriors 100 in Tony Cheng's neighborhood on Tuesday night.

Folks were speculating about the Washington Wizards head coach before Ernie Grunfeld held a news conference to announce that Eddie Jordan had been relieved of his duties and was going to be replaced by ...

As the Wizards have staggered to a 1-10 start, coach Eddie Jordan admits the going hasn't been easy.

Yesterday, Coach Eddie Jordan indicated that he may activate second-year forward Oleksiy Pecherov for tomorrow night's game at Milwaukee.

As usual, Oleksiy Pecherov was one of the last players to leave the practice court yesterday afternoon. The difference was that for the first time since the preseason, Pecherov's extra effort could result in a chance to play.

After making the second-year forward inactive for the first two games of the regular season, Coach Eddie Jordan indicated following yesterday's practice that Pecherov may suit up tomorrow night when the Wizards (0-2) play at Milwaukee.

Teams are allowed to carry a maximum of 15 players, but only 12 can dress for games. Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood are injured and count on the inactive list so Jordan has to pick one other player to sit each night.

Throughout the preseason, the Washington Wizards said they would need key contributions from their young players - notably fourth-year forward Andray Blatche and second-year guard Nick Young - to weather the ...

Rookie center JaVale McGee, the team's first-round draft pick out of Nevada, showed Coach Eddie Jordan enough during training camp and the preseason to earn a spot on the active roster for last night's regular season opener against the New Jersey Nets.

The Wizards deactivated second-year forward Oleksiy Pecherov along with injured veterans Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood. League rules allow teams to dress only 12 players, so Jordan will have a decision to make about which player to sit on a game-by-game basis.

A look around the gym at a recent Washington Wizards practice made clear the problems facing the team as the season approaches.

The Washington Wizards exercised their third-year options on forward Oleksiy Pecherov and guard Nick Young on Monday.

According to Ivan's latest article , the Wizards have until Friday to pick up the third-year options on Nick Young and Oleksiy Pecherov.

The Washington Wizards have two preseason games remaining, including tonight's contest at San Antonio, but any intrigue regarding the regular season roster was cleared up yesterday when the team released shooting guard DerMarr Johnson and small forward Linton Johnson.

The moves left the Wizards with 15 players, the maximum allowable for the regular season.

"They both played very well for us, have been NBA players and will continue to be NBA players," Coach Eddie Jordan said. "We appreciate their efforts and professionalism but at the same time we like what we have and this is pretty much our team."

Sure, there might not be a whole lot of correlation between the preseason and the regular season : The rotations will be different, we won't be playing in Europe, and the teams will actually care about winning.

In the last few months, we've looked at the upcoming season from several different angles.

Life without Gilbert Arenas isn't getting any easier for the Washington Wizards, who dropped their second straight European exhibition game to the New Orleans Hornets 102-80 in Barcelona on Friday.

Westwood was also interviewed during the game to promote hoops across the pond - which didn't sit too well with all of the lads.

BERLIN, Oct. 13 -- Washington Wizard Andray Blatche entertained a group of visiting Special Olympians from the Berlin area Monday afternoon by reciting President John F. Kennedy's famous 'Ich bin ein Berliner' line from his groundbreaking speech here in 1963.

It took Blatche three attempts to get it right and his pronunciation was way off, but the youngsters giggled in delight and were soon swarming the 6-foot-11, 248-pounder and following his every move during a basketball clinic the Wizards conducted after practice at the O2World Arena.

At the end of training camp, Washington Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan said that his primary goal was to keep to his team healthy through the preseason so they would be at full force when the season started ...

Since he performed so abysmally last year, it's hard to justify McGuire playing 700 minutes again this year.