Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas said yesterday he still wants to re-sign with the Wizards next summer after he opts out of his contract, and he believes the team is good enough to make the playoffs without him in the lineup for the next three months.


“If everything goes like it’s supposed to, I’m going to re-sign here,” Arenas said in a telephone interview. “If everything goes well I’m going to re-sign, we’re going to build something and hopefully my number one day will go up in the rafters.”


The Wizards (6-5) can offer Arenas more money than any other team.


He has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to be a part of a rebuilding team. He also has said he wants to see signs that the Wizards are improving and that they can become a championship contender.


The biggest contingency for Arenas to remain with the Wizards, judging by his comments yesterday, is for the Wizards to keep Antawn Jamison. The 6-foot-9 forward becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the two have been teammates for all but one of Arenas’ six seasons going back to their days with the Golden State Warriors.


Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld has said he intends to retain the 31-year-old Jamison, who averages 19.8 points and 9.7 rebounds.


Arenas is also happy with the emergence of Andray Blatche. When the 21-year-old signed his five-year, $15 million deal, Arenas said the Wizards know “they got a bargain, you watch.”


Blatche started at center in place of injured Brendan Haywood (sprained ankle) Wednesday in the team’s win at Charlotte and played well for the second straight game.


As the Wizards won their sixth straight game — their longest winning streak since they won seven straight in January 2005 — Blatche finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and career-high five blocks. The game before, Blatche scored a career-high 26 points on 12-for-14 shooting in a rout of Philadelphia.


Just as good things are happening for Blatche, now in his third season, Arenas also sees first-round pick Nick Young developing into a top-flight shooting guard in the future.


“People worry about his defense, but he’s going to get better at that because he knows he needs to get better defensively,” Arenas said. “He’s going up against DeShawn [Stevenson] every day in practice. He’ll learn.”


Arenas said the players in the young nucleus of the future mesh well with a group of veterans that, when Arenas is healthy, includes three All-Stars. He said Jamison and Butler are hungry to get the team back into the playoffs and make a decent run — with him in the lineup, of course.


“We are on a six-game winning streak so, believe it or not, the last thing they are thinking about is me not being able to play,” Arenas said. “You don’t think they will just roll it up, do you? We’ve responded after that rough start. The key is to get it rolling and keep it rolling. We have good chemistry. This is a positive group. When I get back in March I’m going to fit right back in, and if we’re just four or five games out of the playoffs at the time we’ll make a run.”


On Wednesday, Arenas had surgery to repair the medial meniscus, and he also had microfracture surgery on the non weight-bearing bone in the knee. The surgery in April repaired the two tears to the lateral meniscus.


Although this is purely speculative on his part, Arenas said the second injury might have been a result of the arduous rehab schedule he endured over the summer.


“I don’t want to look back on it, but I pushed myself like I wasn’t injured,” Arenas said. “Maybe I worked too hard and fatigued some of the muscles, and that’s why this has happened but I don’t know. I only know how to work one way, and that’s hard.”


Look for Arenas to use more supervision in this rehabilitation.


“I have to be right for the next six, seven years of my career,” Arenas said. “I look at my career, and it’s not just about hurrying up and getting back on the floor. It’s about the future and making sure I’m better in the future.”