The Washinhgton Wizards are set to open their regular season on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
Washington has their sights set on proving that not only can they be better than last season, but they could be a sleeper in a wide open Eastern Conference this season.
Wednesday's battle against a Bucks team who enter the season as top contenders will give them the opportunity to start the season off with a win over a playoff caliber team.
However, the Wizards will have to do so a bit shorthanded after third-year player and potential breakout candidate Bilal Coulibaly was ruled out as he continues to recover from offseason thumb injury suffered during FIBA EuroBasket play.
Fortunately, the Wizards were finally dealt some good news on the injury front ahead of the team's season opener.
Bub Carrington and Will Riley are both expected to play
Outside of Coulibaly, the Wizards injury report was accompanied by the names of second-year man Bub Carrington and rookie Will Riley.
Carrington suffered a knee injury in the team's preseason finale, that at the time caused quite a scare. The guard's inability to leave the court under his own power and the replay of the injury mixed with how quickly Washington ruled him out suggested the former lottery pick could not only miss the opener, but an extended period of time.
Nonetheless, the playmaker managed to put those fears to rest returning to practice rather quickly and after originally being listed as questionable, he now finds himself off the injury report which puts him in line to start on Wednesday night.
In addition to Carrington, Riley also flirted with the chance of missing the team's first game of the season nursing an ankle sprain that had limited him this past week.
Luckily, the oversized guard's injury doesn't look to be a long-term problem and all indication suggests that he'll be available when the team goes into battle.
The Wizards will likely roll out the same starting lineup of Carrington, CJ McCollum, Kyshawn George, Khris Middleton and Alex Sarr on Wednesday, but don't be surprised to see head coach Brian Keefe throw out a variety of different lineups throughout this contest.
Washington's revamped depth chart gives the second-year head coach multiple different approaches to test what rotation works best on any given night, so expect the Wizards to try their hand at a deep lineup in Wednesday's season opener.