WASHINGTON -- These days, Maryland men's basketball practices are a barrel of laughs for Juan Dixon.

That's because Dixon gets to watch and listen to his former teammates get read the riot act by coach Gary Williams, rather than feel the wrath directly.

And, man, does it feel good.

"Just watching how Coach screams at the players, I got a kick out of that," Dixon said with a sly grin last week. "I wasn't on the receiving end. It was a lot of fun watching those guys practice."

You can hardly blame Dixon for wanting to relive the good old days at Maryland, where he led the Terps to two straight Final Fours and last year's national championship, given where he is these days with the Washington Wizards.

Dixon, the 17th pick in the first round of June's draft by the Wizards, is undergoing the usual transition that rookies endure at the start of their NBA careers.

Namely, Dixon's getting sporadic playing time, and pressing when he gets on the floor to make an impression. So he doesn't often resemble the player who was selected Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four last season.

"It's similar to my freshman year at Maryland, when Steve [Francis] was there, and I was learning from him," Dixon said. "It's the same situation, except I'm learning from older guys. I have a lot of great players in front of me. I'm working hard in practice and trying to make my teammates better, but also trying to get better as a basketball player and trying to steal some minutes.

"I just have to be patient. It's hard, especially when I know I can help my team win. But I just have to be patient with everything and hope everything works out."

Dixon's patience has come in handy early on. He appeared in only six of Washington's first 13 games, averaging just 5.8 minutes a contest, through no fault of his own.

Instead, Dixon's lack of playing time stemmed from being a hybrid, too small at 6 feet 3 and 164 pounds to log heavy minutes at shooting guard, but not quite accomplished enough in his ball-handling skills to play the point on a regular basis.

"I don't want Juan to be a point guard," said Wizards coach Doug Collins, after Tuesday's 88-84 loss to Indiana at MCI Center. "That's not what I am going to make Juan. Juan is going to be a player. He's going to come off screens, and he's going to score, and he's going to make plays for other people, and he's going to do the things that great players can do. We feel that Juan is going to be a great player."

For now, Dixon is playing behind a legend (Michael Jordan), one of the league's best shooting guards (Jerry Stackhouse), and two talented young point guards (Larry Hughes and Tyronn Lue), and he has to wait for the right moments, which generally have come at the end of blowouts.

Juan's development "is paced by his team obviously and by his coach," said Francis, a guard for the Houston Rockets. "He's playing behind some guys who have been around for a while. He really hasn't had a chance to show what he's capable of, but I thought the Wizards made a step in showing that they are interested in progressing him by trading [point guard] Chris Whitney."

When his chances have come, Dixon, so far, has made something of them. Dixon, who left Maryland as the No. 2 all-time player in steals, now leads the NBA in steals per turnover (2.67). Prorated over 48 minutes, he would rank in the top six in four categories (field goals, field-goal attempts, points and steals).

In a Nov. 9 game in Cleveland, he came off the bench in the second quarter to give the backcourt that had played heavy minutes the night before a breather. He scored six points in nine minutes.

Dixon's biggest break of the season came in Tuesday's loss. In 24 minutes, he scored 15 points, with a franchise-record six steals in the fourth quarter as the Wizards carved a 19-point third quarter deficit to one in the final period.

"He did good," Jordan said. "We got into a scrambled offense, and he did a good job. He caught them off guard, because they hadn't seen him. He came in and kept his poise and toward the end of the game, he went back to his Maryland days, where he could score. He became very aggressive at that position, and when he didn't feel he had it, he moved the ball. That is a point guard's mentality, especially when you need a spark like that. He's going to continue to grow and get better. He's a smart player. He can play."

Despite Collins' pronouncement that he will be in the rotation, Dixon is likely to go back to being the fifth guard once Hughes' wrist, which kept him out of the lineup Tuesday, is better.

Dixon's performance Tuesday is likely to do little to quell the chant of "We want Juan," which rises from MCI Center in virtually every Washington home game.

"It's nice, and I love the fact that I have a lot of support," Dixon said. "But I just try to tune it out."

Said Collins: "I understand that in this area, he's beloved. I love him. But trust that I will put him in the game, because I know he can play. Nobody loves him more than I do. I love him to death."