It’s important to make one thing clear before we begin: Seasons are not won and lost based on preseason performance. No matter how well or poorly you perform in preseason, it all goes out the window once the regular season gets underway. With that said, Gilbert’s preseason is probably more important this year than other years because no one is really sure how healthy Gilbert really is.

By all accounts he appears to be moving well, Kirk Hinrich said “He looked pretty quick to me, he was getting to his spots where he likes to shoot, so I didn’t see anything different about him at all.” While his legs look good, coach Eddie Jordan has still been cautious using his superstar, keeping Arenas out of action for 2 of the Wizards 6 preseason games.

The bigger concern at this point is Gilbert’s shooting. In his first 3 games, Arenas was 4 of 24 from the field and 2 of 10 from long distance but Arenas played better Monday night against Atlanta, putting up 19 points including 12 in the first quarter. However, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever was quick to point out that Arenas still ended the night shooting 7 of 18 from the field and notes that the team’s joy at his performance “Shows you how bad he’s been with his shot this preseason.”

But like I said at the beginning, it’s the preseason so there’s still no reason for concern yet. If you remember, Gilbert struggled at the beginning of last year as well and he wasn’t even coming off of an injury. Sometimes hibachis need a little extra time to warm up, but once they’re hot it’s hard to put them out.