[Jan Vesely works on his shooting form with Flip and Ryan Saunders. - photo: K. Weidie]

Many folks are naturally a bit more curious about Jan Vesely than others on this Wizards team, and that includes the likes of John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee. Reason being, not many have seen the sixth overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft in a setting outside of his role as the “Dunking Ninja” on YouTube. They want to know if he’s up to NBA snuff.

The fair warning is that expectations of Vesely should be immediately tempered. This is not to discourage potential, nor preemptively quell disappointment. It’s just that there are a myriad of factors as to why Vesely’s integration into a pro basketball team in the nation’s capital will take some time. And that’s okay. We might see a bodacious dunk or two early on, but it also might take 10-15 games (about a sixth of this shortened season) before we see Vesely truly comfortable on an NBA court. Until then, feel free to remain confident in the scouting of Vesely performed by team management which led to his draft selection. He’s got the tools, he just needs to learn how to hammer.

Video: Jan Vesely, An Integration Process

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On Saturday, December 10, the Washington Wizards went through their second day of training camp, fielding an incomplete roster of 16 invitees. Ronny Turiaf was acquired, but had yet to arrive; Hamady N’diaye was signed the next day, Sunday; and the statuses of Nick Young and Maurice Evans continued to be in limbo. The media was given access to the very latter portion of the day’s work, past 8 pm on a Saturday evening in Chinatown as the Wizards prepared for their first NBA basketball game action since April 13, a preseason match this Friday, December 16 against the Philadelphia 76ers in Washington.

The session open to media on the Verizon Center practice court involved two small sets of scrimmaging. One pitted a White team of John Wall (#2), Jordan Crawford (#15), Rashard Lewis (#9), Andray Blatche (#7), and Kevin Seraphin (#13) versus a Blue team of Mike Wilks (#29), Mardy Collins (no number), Larry Owens (#32), Aaron Petway (#52), and JaVale McGee (#34). The second featured a white team of Wall, Roger Mason Jr. (#8), Owens, Blatche, and Petway versus a Blue team of Shelvin Mack (#22), Crawford, Lewis, Jan Vesely (#24), and Chris Singleton (#31).

Things you will see in the video below (in relative order of appearance):

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