Jan Vesely

Washington will still need to consolidate this position during the season. The injuries to Porter, Beal and now Al Harrington are exposing a real lack of depth, particularly offensively. Backup point guard Eric Maynor has continued to struggle badly since his injury two years ago, shooting only 32% from the field, whie his backup Garrett Temple is similarly inefficient offensively but without any jump shot range and with more turnovers than assists on the season thus far. At the forward spots, Jan Vesely has finally shown some signs of life yet still provides almost nothing offensively, whilst Singleton and Trevor Booker have been mostly opportunity scorers in the NBA thus far. And the two players who can score off the bench, Harrington and Kevin Seraphin, are liabilities defensively and on the glass.

Chris Singleton and Jan Vesely, Washington Wizards

Drafted together in 2011, the two long, athletic defensive forwards were supposed to secure the front line indefinitely. In practice, both have disappointed. Singleton has been poor -- the intriguing improvements in his jump shot as a rookie disappeared as a sophomore -- and he has looked entirely overmatched offensively while only occasionally playing the caliber of defense he figures to base his career upon.

Meanwhile, Vesely has really disappointed, becoming so incapable of doing anything other than foul last season that he racked up multiple DNP-CD's only two years after being a top-10 pick. This top-10-pick status also further counts against Vesely, whose team option season calls for a $4,236,287 salary in a career in which he hasn't even so much as justified the minimum salary yet. Of the two, he figures to be the most threatened for this reason.

Pick 6: The draft reaches a high point to which it will never return. The Wizards rightly draft Jan Vesely at number 6, and Jan rises to make the podium walk. But rather than performing in the usual custom of hugging every man in a 10 yard radius and cuddling a tearful mother, Vesely is far more alpha about it all. He forgoes the tradition and implicit rules of the event, and instead just kisses a hot blonde. A proper full-on tongues Frenchy, at that.





After a quick perv, Fraschilla takes Vesely's inability to consistently create in the halfcourt, and instead turns it into an ability to score without needing plays for him, something which he lauds as "great." The point is taken, but the point is exaggerated. Fran goes on to pronounce that Vesely will win an NBA dunk contest one day. It is certainly true that he will be the token big guy entrant on at least one occasion.

[...]

[Nikola] Vucevic kisses a couple of men on his way to the podium, the complete opposite of the Vesely approach. All draftees should heartily tongue a lady friend on their way to the podium. If they didn't bring one, they should heartily tongue Jan Vesely's lady friend instead. Speaking of Vesely, he has ditched the lady to go backstage and meet the media, as is mandatory at this event. While back there, he takes this photo.

Jan Vesely - Vesely is European, so it assumed and ofen amateurishly misreported that he is a shooter. He isn't. He can hit a few jumpshots with his feet set, but there's nothing consistent, no off-the-dribble shot, and a very bad free throw stroke. He is not even as good of a shooter as notoriously inconsistent shooter Andrei Kirilenko, a man to whom he is about to be implicitly compared heavily.

Vesely is one of the most athletic European forwards out there, only slightly below those at the very top of the athleticism stakes such as Josh Smith and Tyrus Thomas, comparable to one such as Chris Singleton. He is absolutely bloody enormous for a small forward, equal to or taller than probably have of the NBA's current centres. Even though he can't shoot, dribble extensively, regularly post up, or create off the dribble, Vesely nonetheless contributes offensively via dives to the hoop, running the court, put-backs, and sheer opportunity scoring. He is a very good offensive rebounder, and a highly efficient finisher, as long as you overlook the free throw percentage. And he can dunk with the very best.



For whatever reason, he is much less of a defensive rebounder than he is offensively. And because of his size, it can be difficult for him to keep the quicker and smaller opposing perimeter players in front of him on dribble penetration. That is about the limit of his defensive limitations, however, for Vesely's huge size, great athleticism, effort and timing make him a hell of a freeroaming defensive presence. He tries hard, and while he's exposable in isolation situations on both the perimeter and the interior, the help defense, and the overall defensive potential, is magnetic.

Given that his handle is bad, his jumpshot so fledgling, and his physical profile so rare, Vesely is hard to make a comparison to. Kirilenko may be as close as we get.