The Washington Wizards have gotten their training camp into full swing following Monday's Midnight Madnessexperience. The team had a full practice Tuesday afternoon and another one today, during which they employed the theme "Back to Basics." The phrase, which adorns the coaches' shirts, refers to their philosophy that basic fundamentals need to be preached over and over with such a young team.

In addition, coach Flip Saunders had the club practicing a zone defense for much of the day today. Saunders, who has always been willing to use zone defenses in the past, said he wished he used more zone defense last season. Via Bullets Forever.

After practice, Saunders said the Wizards didn't play the kind of zone defense he would have liked.  

"Last year, we played a little bit, but not as much as I would have liked and not the zone that I would have liked. We want to play, as I call it, our hyperbolic paraboloid transitional floating zone," Saunders said.

That's essentially a really fancy way of referring to a "matchup" zone defense. Saunders said today he wants to employ zone around 20-25 percent of the time, believing that a good zone actually enhances a team's man-to-man defense.