It's been just a couple of months since the Washington Wizards acquired Austin Rivers, but the latter already believes that the Wizards are ‘heavily slept-on.' Indeed, the D.C. boys look good on paper but it remains to be seen if their talent translates to wins.

Rivers sat down with James Herbert of CBS Sports as the 26-year old combo guard talked about the potential of the Wizards to be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference.

“I think we're heavily slept-on,” he tells me. “Team's been to the playoffs, what, the last five, four or five years? Then going into this year, you add me, Dwight Howard, Jeff Green and nobody seems to talk about us. So I just think we're heavily slept-on, but that's fine. At the end of the day, nothing really matters until the season starts and we set that tone for ourselves. I get the hype of a couple of the other teams, but I think we have a chance to compete with the best of the East.”

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The Wizards shipped center Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers for the services of Rivers early this summer. To make up for the gaping hole that Gortat left, the team signed Howard and Green to shore up their frontcourt. While Howard is not the player he used to be when he donned the Orlando Magic jersey, he is still a walking double-double machine every night.

Rivers, who had his best scoring season last year, will back-up the Wizards' premier backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal. The Wizards made the playoff last year despite the fact that the injured Wall missed a huge chunk of the season.