The Charge open Friday vs. Maine, but neither they nor the Armor have had much time to prep for Springfield's first game.
Armor coach Bob MacKinnon says his team is ready to play its first game Saturday at Canton.
The team that put an end to the best season in the brief history of the Springfield Armor will host them in the season opener Saturday night.
The Armor will open their fourth NBA Development League campaign against the Canton Charge in Ohio. It will be the second game for the Charge, who open Friday against Maine.
The only player from either team that was in the MassMutual Center in April when the Charge closed out the Armor in a three-game playoff series is Canton guard Kyle Gibson.
Both teams have second-year coaches who bring all new rosters to this rivalry between two of the better teams in the East Division. Since teams had just 10 days to practice before trimming rosters to the 10-player maximum – and virtually no time to prepare for their first opponent – the focus for the Armor is more on themselves.
"I think the unique thing about this team is we have a lot of guys that are familiar with each other, from all the guys that played in Conference USA,'' Armor guard Christian Polk said. "Me, Ben (Uzoh), (Shawn) Taggart and Jon (Thomas) all played in Conference USA against each other and I played against (Shawn) Vanzant in the (NCAA) tournament.
"I don't think there are too many teams out there who are able to mesh as well as we've been able to since we're so familiar with each other."
The Armor have a roster with a little more professional experience than the Charge. Uzoh played for Rio Grande Valley last year and has played 60 games in the NBA, while Carleton Scott, James Mays, Thomas, Taggart and Chaz Crawford have all played in the D-League or overseas.
"We had a really good team last year, but I feel like this is a more athletic team and we mesh really well together,'' Thomas said. "Guys get along, there's no egos on this team and I really think that's going to help us out.''
Thomas played nine games with the Armor last year before a stress fracture ended his season. Springfield went on to win a franchise-record 29 games and claim the East title before losing in the first round to Canton.
Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said he was able to put some game work into the last couple of practices to get a jump on the opener.
"It's on, and we're excited to go,'' he said. "We're really ready to go and we need to play someone else. Good or bad, we need to play someone else.''