Q. You're as competitive as anybody. How does this team flip the switch from a team that has lost to the degree it has to where you guys want to go starting next year?
BUB CARRINGTON: Honestly, it starts this summer. It starts with the work that we choose to put in. Like now, we got a lot of time and goals to be individualized. Get yourself better, get yourself in the best head space, in the best shape, whatever the case may be, to be ready to win now. Everything is going to be about the team and everything is going to be about winning. Everything has to be super intentional.
We don't plan to just flip a switch. Like I said, this starts now, it starts in the summer. So we're going to build and build and build. We're going to get to exactly where we want to be.
Q. Now, in the past week or so we've actually seen Anthony Davis comment about your game specifically twice. He said, I didn't know Bub was like that. Have you formed a really close bond? What would you say your relationship has been like since he joined the team?
BUB CARRINGTON: A.D., that's my son (laughter).
Q. He said he'd use you as his children.
BUB CARRINGTON: That's my son. He knows that (laughter).
I've been talking to him a lot more recently. A.D. is cool. I think he's a really good vet, too. He's one of those vets you hear stories about. I had a vet that made me do something for him at 4:00 a.m., but then gave me a million dollars. He's a good vet like that.
What was he saying about me (smiling)?
Q. He said he likes your game.
BUB CARRINGTON: He probably said that because I said I modeled my game after him when I was younger. He's probably just complimenting himself (smiling).
Q. Trae Young, another veteran that joined this team. What I noticed from you after he joined the team, more of an emphasis from you getting touches in the paint, breaking down the defense. What did you learn from him specifically, even in the time he wasn't playing and you were taking the reins in the point guard position?
BUB CARRINGTON: One thing I learned from Trae specifically? I would say Trae has like kind of literally taught me, kind of almost retaught me how to pass the ball, how much a pass influences the shot. It's not just good enough to make the right read, you got to make the right read and the right pass. He's been kind of teaching me things about that.
I think that's helped my game.
Q. If you guys are to level up next year, be more competitive...
BUB CARRINGTON: Win.
Q. How much are you looking forward to after the last two seasons where you have been competitive, but next year you can be in much more competitive games?
BUB CARRINGTON: I'm excited. I'm super excited, man. I'm super excited. I wish I could press fast forward on the summer, honestly, and get straight to it. But we can't. We got to put the work in.
Like I said, I'm excited, man. The whole team is. The locker room is. We know what we have. We know how good we are. We know what we have to do for whatever reasons that may be. But we know what we got here.
Q. This rookie class, what have they brought to the organization? How did they help you guys push the ball forward?
BUB CARRINGTON: They brought almost a sense of consistency in this inconsistent era of Wizards basketball. Starting with Bilal and then to my class, then there was no drawback, then there was Tre's class. We just kept the ball rolling with young talent, young promising talent.
We're super grateful to those guys who coming in here knowing the caliber of players that they are, asking them to fit kind of the agenda here. That just keeps us even more confident in the next group of guys that come in to just mold and fit.
Q. We've heard a few stories about practice. I believe Tre Johnson attests that Anthony Gill is a better defender. Bilal said Will gave him some fits. Were there any teammates who tested you a lot during practice, made you better, or the other way around?
BUB CARRINGTON: Alex. Alex cannot guard me. I try to help his perimeter defense. I try to tell him the move I'm about to do before, whatever the case may be. He really can't stop me.
Trying to think...
I would say Bilal. I would say Bilal helps a lot of people in practice, obviously just because of his defensive ability. Obviously hard to score on him. Me specifically, Bilal helps me because he doesn't allow you to take that time you need to take to make reads that I'm supposed to be making. So he's helping me, getting me better to find things a little quicker, things like that.
Q. I feel like fans really don't know Brian Keefe all that well. He doesn't like to talk about himself. If you were to educate the fans about who your coach really is, what he's really like, how would you describe him?
BUB CARRINGTON: I got a story for you.
After my first Summer League, yeah, right after I got drafted, my father got sick out at Vegas. I had to stay in Summer League out in Vegas for a lot longer than I wanted to. They found like a blood clot in his shoulder. He was on blood thinners. You can't fly with that. I'm stuck in Vegas.
Lo and behold obviously BK was in that hospital room with me and my mom, my dad that whole time. He was there. We had to stay four, five days extra. BK was there every single one of those days.
Like I said, we couldn't fly. We ended up having to drive from Vegas to Baltimore, all the way home. BK offered. I forced him not to. He even wanted to make that drive back with me and my family after my dad got sick.
I think that's the type of guy BK is.
Q. Now that it's been two full seasons with Kyshawn and Alex, what is one thing from each of them you've seen improve the most?
BUB CARRINGTON: I've seen Alex improve a lot in his, like, professionalism. Alex is young like me. We're both about to turn 21. So we both have, like, immature pieces towards how we live. I've seen Alex really grow in how he talks to people in the building, like his fellow coworkers. He's shy, whatever the case may be. He's gotten better in that.
Kyshawn on the court, he's literally gotten better, like a lot better. It's great 'cause from what I've seen, just the little bit I've seen from him in college to that pre-draft process to my rookie season to now, he just keeps taking steps, so...
Q. You mentioned when you guys make that jump and transition. What does your summer look like this year? Is it more similar to another jump season here locally? Now a little more established, bring guys, stay here, or even work out with you in Baltimore?
BUB CARRINGTON: What was the last part?
Q. Are you staying here in DC and bringing guys to work out with you in Baltimore, build more chemistry?
BUB CARRINGTON: We'll keep our same jump season kind of principles. Like I said, you can't just flip the switch. We got to start this now.
I'll be here all summer. We'll all be here all summer. This don't stop until we start getting some deep Playoff runs.
Q. On a reflective note, this year you got to play with your high school teammate, JuJu. Now, since all the dust has cleared, what was it like having the season with him?
BUB CARRINGTON: It's good. It's always nice. When we fly into places, I'm more appreciative of it because, like, when we fly into places, we're all young, so we're always still kind of with each other anyway. When we fly into places, it will be a group of three, four, five of us. It always flips who. We'll always do something.
There will be that rare time where, like, everyone's just doing their own thing. But when I got Ju and Cam, there's never that rare time. We're still always with each other because we know each other for that long.
We'll do our own things with each other, so... It's just nice. It's nice to have a familiar face.
Q. You guys are consistently one of the youngest teams in the NBA. Do you feel a sense of pride or come together a little bit more knowing how young this team is and how close together you have been?
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, I wouldn't say the pride actually comes from the age thing, but it just comes from the fact that, like, where we are I think. Like, we young and everyone views us as this. Like we're young, but we're nice. We carry that sense of pride with us.
We embrace it. Like, it's not something we go around flaunting because at the end of the day we're all basketball players. It really don't matter to us. It's definitely a sense of pride in the fact that, like, I can do everything you can do, man. I'm just four years younger, so yeah.
Q. The 82-game stuff, back-to-back seasons, in an era where that's pretty rare for a player to accomplish, especially a player that's coming into the league, like you, now in an era where a lot of fans that watch the game complain players aren't as physical as they used to, sit out too many games, can you detail how difficult it was to do what you've done the last two years, to play in all 82?
BUB CARRINGTON: It's hard, man. It's not easy at all. Yeah, people realize, yeah, we're playing a sport, playing a kid's game, I'm doing it for fun, but I'm not. This is a job at the end of the day. The same way an accountant wants to be their best for the next day at work, it's the same way I got to go to sleep to be my best at the next day of work. The difference is, I may get to sleep at 4:00 a.m. I might travel three different time zones and have to do my best day of work. I'm doing that every day I work.
It's definitely not easy, especially when you're trying to challenge yourself to do it, but then you also have that challenge of I want to put my best out there. Sometimes my body is just not feeling that. You got to do it anyway, so...
It's not easy at all. It's definitely not easy to do it and then perform. It's what I signed up to do, so I'm going to do it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports