The 2012-13 NBA regular season ended a month and six days ago. Over the 170 days prior, starting on October 30, 2012, it was 82 games up, 82 games down for the Washington Wizards; 29 wins and 53 losses. The beauty is that we don’t have to live through it again—teams that win 35 percent of their games rarely want to—but we also don’t have to forget. Because you’d never learn, or improve, if you forgot everything and ripped the rearview mirror off the Ferrari.

Nineteen different individuals suited up for the Wizards this past season. Martell Webster led the way in action with 2,200 minutes, and Jason Collins contributed the fewest with 54 minutes. For all 82 games, the staff of Truth About It.net, amongst other game observations, rated each of the five Wizards starters plus two players off the bench on a three-star scale (inspired by the District of Columbia flag) in a series of posts called the D.C. Council. (Well, we evaluated players for all games, except one: Game 60, when Deron Williams completely demoralized the Wizards from ever competing by going 7-for-7 from the 3-point line in the first quarter.)

Sometimes three players off the bench were evaluated instead of two; a few times it was less than two. In general, the average rating of players coming off the bench was skewed a little higher for the simple fact that those playing better were more likely to get evaluated. Starters, on the other hand, got evaluated no matter what.

[***Also: remember that silly little time in December 2012 when the most positive talk that could be mustered was how the 1-13 Wizards led the NBA in bench scoring? Swell.]

The D.C. Council ratings are a statistical anti-stat. They are the combined impression of several interested members of the crowd, but in numerical form. Sometimes the ratings were contingent on winning and losing, and they were always subjective. They are simply one window of evaluation, combined with written analysis, both standard and advanced statistics, and shot charts. Below is a hyperlinked index of reviews for all 19 Wizards (plus a bonus review of Tomas Satoransky, Wizards Euro-stash), their average D.C. Council three-star rating, and the number of games over which they were evaluated.

The 2012-13 Washington Wizards season: it was all a dream, and not that great of a dream.

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[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:
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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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 81, Washington Wizards at Brooklyn Nets; contributors: Kyle Weidie from tape delay in the District, and Sean Fagan from tape delay in Brooklyn.]

Remember me? Did Emeka Okafor really let Andray Blatche do this? [This was probably when Okafor hurt his ankle.] Did Emeka Okafor really let Andray Blatche do this? #SoWizards vine.co/v/bFjl71O1ihD — Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) April 16, 2013

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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 75, Washington Wizards at Toronto Raptors; contributors: Kyle Weidie and John Converse Townsend via televised broadcast.]

Dueling Faces. [#WittmanFace vs. #OkaforFace]

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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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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 73, Washington Wizards vs. Toronto Raptors; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center, and Adam McGinnis from the heart of Mount Pleasant.]

Happy Easter! [Easter with Jan & Eva, via instagram/janvesely24

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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 71, Washington Wizards at Oklahoma City Thunder; contributors: Rashad Mobley, John Converse Townsend and Kyle Weidie from the comfort of their abodes.]

Lonesome Dove. [Why the long #WittmanFace? via @recordsANDradio] [John Wall's post-game tweet, which seems to have been deleted for some reason. Adam McGinnis was on top of the screen-grab.]

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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 70, Washington Wizards vs Memphis Grizzlies; contributors: Adam McGinnis and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center and Conor Dirks via television broadcast.]

Go ahead and smile, John. Humbly Hungry.

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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 65, Washington Wizards vs Phoenix Suns; contributors: Kyle Weidie and Adam Rubin from the Verizon Center.]

#HunterFace

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