GILBERT ARENAS

On his knee
“Everything is healing. They want me to wrap (my knee) up and go full speed. I’m going to test it out tonight on the practice court. I’m going to give it a real hard workout and see how it feels in the morning.”

On his first game back
“They say that when I do go back, it will just be an assist-game for me. They don’t want me to go in there jumping or being acrobatic.”

On what he expects from himself upon his return
“They told me that this year I won’t be me. Don’t go back and try to be me. I have to come back as an assist man. I have to try and stay out of going to the hole, and I have to be careful.”

On the timetable for his return
“I’m hoping to play this season, I want to play. It’s hard when you have done something your whole life and then it gets taken away from you. Hopefully I can get back out there.”

More on his injury
“They haven’t actually cleared me to play. I’m just going to practice hard today and tomorrow and the next day, and then see how it feels. If it feels the same as it does now than I might just play, because that means it’s not getting any worse. My main concern is not getting hurt again.”

HEAD COACH EDDIE JORDAN

On Gilbert Arenas
“There is no timetable for Gilbert. He is showing improvement. We are going to pick up his workouts and make them a little more intense. Then we will take a reading of his reaction after each workout and see how it goes. We like how he is improving.”

On Arenas’ return
“This is a process. The process is to pick things up a notch and see how it goes. Gil loves to play basketball. It’s killing him not to play. Once he and the doctors are assured that he is ready to compete in the NBA, then that is when we will go.”