[Wizards 2012-13 Player Reviews from the TAI crew are going down; let's reflect---index so far:
Jannero Pargo, Jason Collins, Shaun Livingston, Shelvin Mack, Cartier Martin, Earl Barron,
Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton, Trevor Booker, Garrett Temple, Emeka Okafor, Trevor Ariza,
Martell Webster, A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Kevin Seraphin, Bradley Beal, Nene, John Wall.]

Bonus:
Lukas Kuba reviews the Spanish League season of Tomas Satoransky, ’12 Wizards 2nd rounder.

Tomas Satoransky

6-7 : Height
205 lbs. : Weight
21 : Age
6 : Years Pro Experience
2 : Teams (USK Prague, Cajasol Sevilla)

Drafted by the Wizards 32nd overall in 2012.

Stats as a Cajasol player in 2012-13

ACB League

33 : Games
33 : Starts
962 : Minutes
12.5 : PPG
51% : 2P FGs%
34% :  3P FGs%
79% : FT%
4.2 : APG
3.2 : RPG
1.2 : SPG

Eurocup

12 : Games
9 : Starts
336 : Minutes
10.2 : PPG
48% : 2P FG%
30% : 3P FG%
77% : FT%
4.8 : APG
3.8 : RPG
0.8 : SPG

Tomas Satoransky in 2012-13 with Cajasol:
Dunking on Teams, NBA Dreams

by Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow)

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[Wizards 2012-13 Player Reviews from the TAI crew are going down; let's reflect---index:
Jannero Pargo, Jason Collins, Shaun Livingston, Shelvin Mack, Cartier Martin, Earl Barron,
Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton, Trevor Booker, Garrett Temple, Emeka Okafor, Trevor Ariza,
Martell Webster, A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Kevin Seraphin, Bradley Beal, Nene, John Wall.]

Jan Vesely

6-11 : Height
240 lbs. : Weight
23 : Age
2 : Years NBA Experience
1 : NBA Team

Drafted by the Wizards 6th overall in 2011. 

Time as a Wizard in 2012-13

51 : Games
4 : Starts
601 : Minutes

0.89 out of 3 stars

Average Truth About It.net DC Council Game Rating
{Vesely evaluated over 23 games} 

7.6 PER

NBA historical PER contribution equivalent:
maybe Andris Biedrins for the 2012-13 Golden State Warriors (7.7)
maybe Chris Mihm for the 2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers (7.7),

.059 Win Shares/48 Minutes

NBA historical WS/48 contribution equivalent:
maybe Todd Fuller for the 1998-99 Utah Jazz (.059),
maybe Greg Dreiling for the 1994-95 Cleveland Cavaliers (.059)

With Jan Vesely on the Court…

The Wizards offense scored 3.8 points more per 100 possessions (OffRtg)
The Wizards defense allowed 4.3 points more per 100 possessions (DefRtg)
Plus/Minus per 48 minutes: minus-3.4

Numbers : Per 36 Minutes

7.5 : Points
7.3 : Rebounds
1.0 : Blocks
0.9 : Steals
1.7 : Assists
1.6 : Turnovers
6.4 : Fouls

0.82 PPP

Vesely had 155 offensive possessions with the Wizards that ended with a FGA, TO or FTs, and he scored 0.82 Points Per Possession (PPP) on those, ranked 346th in the NBA (via Synergy Sports Technology). Defensively, he allowed 0.92 PPP over 25 possessions.

Shooting

50% Field Goals (57-114)
30.8% Free Throws (12-39)

[stats via NBA.com/stats and Basketball-Reference.com]

#24

Jan Vesely in 2012-13 with the Wizards: Confidence at Sea, Searching for Dry Land

by Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow)

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“Vesely wants to represent!” pic courtesy of my Czech friend Honza Moucha

In the first week of March, Jan Vesely told Czech Sport Daily that he wants to represent the Czech Republic at EuroBasket 2013. Is anyone surprised? Probably not, but in his homeland this constituted big news. Honza hasn’t played for the Czech national team in four years, and some fans at home surely began to grow angry at him not suiting up. His last game happened to be in August 2009 during the relegation round of EuroBasket 2009 qualification, where the Czechs went 3-3, losing to Oleksiy Pecherov and the Ukraine team in their final game. In six career games for the Czech Republic senior team, Vesely has averaged 11 points, 5.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists.

That final game also marks the last time Jan played on the same team with his close buddy Tomas Satoransky, back when they were a couple of cool teen kids nicknamed “The Gunpowder” (Tomas) and “The Detonator” (Jan) by the Czech media. Vesely has indicated that he’s longing for games where he can play a crucial role, and he will get the opportunity to do so on September 4, 2013, when the Czechs open EuroBasket in a game against the host nation, Slovenia. It seems Vesely was so anxious to play that he picked up a phone and called George Zidek, the Czech National Team GM. Said Zidek, “The fact that Honza called me personally, I consider it the most important [thing]. In the past, it was not always the rule. We talked about our preliminary plan for preparation and games, then Honza chatted with Coach Budinsky and declared his interest in representing the country.”

Some quotes Vesely uttered in the short interview:

Read more »

“Working out to be an Allstar!” via Jan Vesely’s Instagram

Mere hours before the 2013 NBA All-Star Game, Jan Vesely tweeted an Instagram picture of himself working out in a weight room captioned: “Working out to be an Allstar!”

Honza is not in Randy Wittman’s doghouse, per se, but he’s been definitely buried on the Wizards’ bench without a bone lately—the Czech has played just 13 out of 672 total minutes (over the last 14 Wizards games). Many folks on the message boards keep saying that Vesely is bust. Some have come to this conclusion since the former lottery pick, now a sophomore, missed his last chance to appear in the NBA’s Rising Stars exhibition during All-Star weekend. Now, while the wise man might say that setting overly auspicious goals (such as becoming an NBA All-Star) sets you up for failure, it’s certainly good to see that Vesely adopting an “I’ll show you!” mentality. Even if he’s currently frustrated in not playing, he’s still working to prove his critics wrong in the long run. The Czech media, in particular, is waiting to see whether their local hero will produce across the Atlantic.

But, does Vesely really have a chance to become an All-Star? At face value, his chances are slim… very slim, to be honest. Perhaps the question is: has anyone in his situation done it before?

Read more »

[Ed. Note: Lukas Kuba is TAI's Czech correspondent for
everything Czech/Jan Vesely/Tomas Satoransky-related. —Kyle W.]

Vesely’s baby sister, biggest Wizards fan. How could anybody hate on Honza? (pic via Jan Vesely’s Instagram)

“Honza had a few challenges in front of him before. Whether in his sporting or personal life. He did overcome them all and I believe he’ll cope with this one successfully, too.”
—Jan Vesely’s Dad, Jan Sr.

In late June of 2011, captivated and transfixed by the whole Jan Vesely “Dunking Ninja” a k a “The Flying Czech” a k a “Blake-Griffin-Is-The-American-Jan-Vesely” buzz/euphoria both in the Czech Republic and in the Serbian capital of Belgrade (not to mention among the Wizards faithful), I embarked on a little foolish journey—I decided to revive my dead blog with a translated post of an interview Vesely gave to the Czech media, semi-hoping someone would read it and say “Good job man, I enjoyed this.” By the dawn of the morning in Washington, D.C., the DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg unearthed the post and wrote about it, saying “… and with the Wizards now putting much stock in their newest first-round pick, Jan Vesely, someone’s gonna have to start monitoring the Czech media. The natural outlet would seem to be the Luke Mellow basketball blog.”

Read more »