Wizards Camp Puts Defense and New Combinations to the Test Ahead of Knicks Opener

The Wizards open their preseason at New York on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game is at Madison Square Garden, with NBA TV listed as the broadcaster. For Washington, the first useful measure of camp will be how its combinations function together once another team is trying to break them apart.

“Defense is going to be the No. 1 thing,” coach Brian Keefe said at Sept. 28 Media Day, according to NBA.com. That gives the opener a clear lens: watch the possessions before watching the score.

Good defensive possessions require several connected decisions. The guard must deal with the screen, the big must communicate his coverage and the next defender must recognize when to help without surrendering an easy pass. A contested miss only finishes the job if someone secures the rebound. Those details offer a better early reading than a single highlight block.

The roster includes Trae Young, Anthony Davis and AJ Dybantsa alongside Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington and Tre Johnson. New arrivals Khris Middleton and Deandre Ayton add more combinations to evaluate. Camp’s challenge is finding shared responsibilities: who initiates, who creates the next advantage and who keeps an attack moving when the first option disappears.

If Young and Davis share the floor, their screening actions will be worth watching. The useful question is what happens around them. Does a wing cut when help turns toward the ball? Does the next pass arrive before the defense resets? Can a possession survive without the primary creator having to rescue it late in the clock?

Dybantsa offers another point of interest. Early preseason minutes, whenever they come, can reveal his decision-making without demanding a spectacular scoring total. Recognizing an open teammate, attacking a closeout under control and recovering after a mistake are meaningful steps. The same standard applies to the returning young players: productive movement without the ball can matter as much as having it.

Any experimental unit needs time before it can be judged. A rough sequence could expose a communication problem rather than settle a rotation question. Conversely, an easy scoring stretch does not establish that a combination can defend through repeated possessions. Watching whether players correct the next play will be particularly useful.

The opener should begin answering those questions, with availability and playing time determining which matchups can actually be assessed. For Washington, a promising first outing would show organized defense, purposeful ball movement and younger players making confident decisions within the group. One exhibition cannot establish the season’s ceiling, but it can show where the work of camp is beginning to take hold.