At least, I think that’s conclusion that I think you can draw, now that Gilbert has begun 2 on 2 scrimmages with his teammates after practice.

As the practice was winding down, the teammate who might best help the Wizards salvage their season grabbed three of the team’s youngest members — Nick Young, Oleksiy Pecherov and Dominic McGuire — and challenged them to a game of two-on-two upstairs on the arena’s main court. Gilbert Arenas, the three-time all-star who has yet to practice or play this season on a knee that has undergone three surgical procedures since April 2007, was working out.

Arenas’s appearance was not a full-fledged workout. Even so, word that he was on hand shooting a basketball in a game of pickup was enough to subject interim head coach Ed Tapscott to a barrage of questions about the status of the Wizards guard, who has not played since he decided to end his 2007-08 season following Game 4 of last spring’s playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“When the training staff thinks he’s at the right point to begin workouts, we will,” Tapscott said. “Obviously, we’re going to be conservative because he’s a critical member of this franchise. So when they tell us it’s time to go to work, we’ll go to work.”

Still, there’s no word on if a timetable or a return date has been established, but this is some encouraging news, to say the least.