[On top of the 2012-13 season review of Jan Vesely by TAI's Lukas Kuba, I provide some thoughts on how to cope with his presence on the Washington Wizards amidst at least one would-be scenario.]

On the first go-around with Jan Vesely, the aim was to disassociate him with the fact that he was the sixth overall pick (at least that’s how I coped). Vesely was already on the team, and he was drafted exactly with John Wall in mind.

The Wizards went with an athletic, defensive-minded, running, dunking role player with their high pick one year after making Wall the face of the franchise. Vesely was a project for sure, but one that promised to be part of the equation.

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[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.]

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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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:

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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?

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

“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.”

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[Editor's Note: The last time we took an in-depth look at Jan "Honza" Vesely, he was fighting that dragon. Today, he continues to fight. Did you know that he actually started four games earlier this year? He sure did. More recently, Vesely played for at least 20 minutes in three straight games from December 21 to 26 (totals: 14 points, 12 fouls, 11 rebounds); since, he's seen 32 total minutes over the last four games (totals: 4 points, 5 fouls, 9 rebounds). After taking some lumps against Dirk Nowitzki in 16 minutes of action on New Year's Day, Vesely only played four minutes (all in the first quarter) against the Pacers in Indiana on Wednesday.

"He has to play better," is all team president Ernie Grunfeld could muster about his 2011 sixth overall pick in a recent interview with NBA.com's David Aldridge. Quite the understatement from the much-maligned leader of basketball operations. Jan Vesely needs to do more than "play better," he needs an awakening. Maybe schnitzel, pea soup and potato salad from auntie will help.

Below, find a translation by TAI's Lukas Kuba of a recent interview Vesely gave to a Czech outlet, as well as video of Randy Wittman discussing his young, fragile player. —Kyle Weidie]

I’m still getting used to the NBA, it’s not good, says a worried Jan Vesely

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Jan Vesely probably isn’t the (only) answer.

For three straight years, they drafted high in the lottery, nabbing a trio of coveted players: A sure-fire star who’d dazzled college basketball in his one season as a freshman. Next, a terrific athlete with great energy and defensive presence. Finally, a scorer who made the game look easy.

Of course, there was no guarantee that these lottery tickets would pay off.

But that team—the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise—somehow hit the jackpot on all three.

The Washington Wizards, with their own collection of youngsters … haven’t. Read more »

Those back home in the Czech Republic call Jan Vesely “Honza.” But why?

It’s not akin to a nickname in the traditional sense of the NBA. TAI’s Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow) writes:

I’m not much into the origins of names, but probably it’s like the name “William” in English, a common nickname is Bill, Billy, etc. In Czech, it’s Jan > Honza, Honzik, Honzicek. The last two ones are mostly for little kids, and actually “Honza” is how you’d call a friend when talking to him/about him, it’s an informal name. I bet none of his friends calls him Jan.

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my name is jan and i like sushi
and the washington capitals

Editor’s Note: Slightly lost in the mix of Washington losing its first two games of the season is Jan Vesely’s play. No, the young Czech isn’t wowing the masses. Nor is he playing well enough to satisfy critics. Still, in only two games his numbers show improvement over last season, and Vesely isn’t playing as timid as he was early this preseason. He only made one of his three jumper attempts against the Celtics on Saturday night, but he took all of them with confidence (although one miss in particular was ill-advised). Again, the biggest issue with Vesely going forward, aside from confidence, will be strength. He certainly got pushed around by Jared Sullinger more than necessary, but he did fight back, increasing his aggression in four minutes during the fourth quarter. Stay tuned, because there is time to be had in exchange for hustle despite the seeming glut in the Wizards’ frontcourt. Randy Wittman’s willingness to sit veterans down the stretch has proven this. Otherwise, Jan got all gussied up to tell you about his Facebook promotion to win a new backpack. And below that is a translation by TAI’s Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow) from an interview that Vesely gave to the Czech outlet, basket.idnes.cz, last Friday. Enjoy. -Kyle W. 

“I hope John will be back quickly, because I like fast basketball.” -Jan Vesely

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“I work most during the offseason on my outside shot. I spend a lot of time on this skill,” said Jan Vesely, with hope and wry smile that his jumper will put the league on notice next season.

He’s put in the time, that’s for sure. And on media day, Jan credited much of his preparation for the upcoming season to his participation in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, as well as the ability to stay in Washington and workout in team’s facilities. A Wizards coach, Joe Connelly, also travelled with Vesely on a visit back home to the Czech Republic this summer to work him out. Jan even moved his new fiancee, Eva, to the District in the offseason. That’s dedication. (Although Jan won’t reveal how he proposed her, which happened in D.C. shortly after last season, and he says they haven’t set a date.)

But is Vesely ready mentally? Practicing jump shots is one thing, having the confidence to knock them down when the NBA lights are on is what separates a select few from the masses. Jan need not be aware of the social media snickers when he airballed his first free throw as a rookie, or when he didn’t make a jumper until March. He knows that his ability to play in the Association relies on being able to make outside shots.

If everything works out, maybe Jan should credit dad, too.

From a recent interview his father, Jan Vesely Sr., gave to the Czech outlet, basketmag.cz (translated by TAI’s Lukas Kuba, @Luke_Mellow): Read more »