10/30/13 Wizards @ Pistons SEASON OPENER GT

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Possibly,

Gortat will likely have much better chemistry with Jan than Okafor did. His offense hides Jan's major weakness, unlike Okafor, who lacked on the offensive end. Gortat may also have a better rapport with Jan than other teammates, who don't play FIBA ball. Marcin is a veteran, and not a young rival competing for minutes such as Seraphin, Singleton, or Booker. He's going to be most supportive of Jan Vesely and probably not a practice hazing teammate. No more laughs at Vesely's expense, most likely.

Best of all, Gortat's a real C. Jan with him in the lineup won't get backed down and pushed around.

Other reasons I support Vesely making a comeback: Most Wizards fans can be critical of Jan, and most don't consider cultural barriers, position change, and injury as past barriers to Jan Vesely's development. I am not like most Wizards fans. I think he's got great athleticism at his height. He can rebound, defend in transition, and he's got swagger when finishing lob dunks. Jan can be an energizer like Birdman or Joakim Noah, as a sub behind a good C, which the Wizards now have.

I doubt Wittman and the Wizards see this as I do. They already waived Brown and Marshall. They tend to be petty and punitive when casting out young players--three or so years after EG and co. draft them.

SMART MOVE IMOE: Play Vesely even with Gortat some of the time. Honor the draft of Vesely and Satoransky, right or wrong, and ooh for both to be internal players on the Wizards next season.

Is Jan underrated?

YES.

[hands11]

Do you think Vesely can wake up with Gortat as his teammate?

He lead the team in rebounds per 36 with 10.88
Blocks 1.77 per 36

and

DRtg 90.5

His steals where up 1.77 per 36

Is that considered woken up ?

Now he has to keep it up into the regulars season. If he can, he is going to come in handy off the bench. I expect Gortat to take Ves under his wing like Nene tried to do with Kevin. They are Eastern block dudes.

What I'm more concerned about is why they haven't fixed his FT shooting form so he isn't bending over so much in his pre-shot. I posted a video of how Dirk does it. Ves should just copy him. Less moving part would fix his FT shot to where he should be able to hit at least 70%.

Stand straighter. Shoulder and knees aligned. Very slight knee bend. Bounce, Bounce, Bounce while looking at the rim. Bring it up and let it go. Flick the wrist.

Why he is bent over 45% with his knee bent like KG to start his shot is baffling to me. Dirks form would be way easier for him to copy then KGs. Specially since KG does a double bounce knees thing to get himself set. He doesn't go straight up into his shot.

What Ves is trying to do has way to many moving parts. Specially for most taller/longer players.

All that said, I think Gortat is going to be really good for Ves and will act as a mentor, which Ves really needs. I can see those two becoming good friends and hanging out together.

[Hypnotizer]

Two seasons ago, Vesely on the court was better than Rashard or others ahead of him for Washington. Jan finished +1.9.

Btw, how good/bad was RL as a Zards player? I remember him from Orlando team in the finals, Gortat was his teammate.

[penbeast0]

Possibly,

Gortat will likely have much better chemistry with Jan than Okafor did. His offense hides Jan's major weakness, unlike Okafor, who lacked on the offensive end. Gortat may also have a better rapport with Jan than other teammates, who don't play FIBA ball. Marcin is a veteran, and not a young rival competing for minutes such as Seraphin, Singleton, or Booker. He's going to be most supportive of Jan Vesely and probably not a practice hazing teammate. No more laughs at Vesely's expense, most likely.

Best of all, Gortat's a real C. Jan with him in the lineup won't get backed down and pushed around.

Other reasons I support Vesely making a comeback: Most Wizards fans can be critical of Jan, and most don't consider cultural barriers, position change, and injury as past barriers to Jan Vesely's development. I am not like most Wizards fans. I think he's got great athleticism at his height. He can rebound, defend in transition, and he's got swagger when finishing lob dunks. Jan can be an energizer like Birdman or Joakim Noah, as a sub behind a good C, which the Wizards now have.

I doubt Wittman and the Wizards see this as I do. They already waived Brown and Marshall. They tend to be petty and punitive when casting out young players--three or so years after EG and co. draft them.

SMART MOVE IMOE: Play Vesely even with Gortat some of the time. Honor the draft of Vesely and Satoransky, right or wrong, and ooh for both to be internal players on the Wizards next season.

Is Jan underrated?

YES.

Although not much of a Vesely fan, he is an excellent fit with Gortat or even Nene, Beal, Wall and either Webster or Ariza. There's enough spacing from the wings to provide lanes for Vesely to fill, Gortat/Nene gives interior scoring and a widebody, Wall's court vision will see him when he's open. It covers his offensive weaknesses reasonably well and everyone can score so his defense, quickness, and willingness to pass quickly if he doesn't have an immediate shot will play to their best advantage. Not sure if I play him over a healthy Booker but I'd certainly give him a shot with Seraphin backing up Gortat. Nene, if fully healthy, can play with any of the others. Singleton hasn't shown enough to deserve a shot that I've seen.

[FreeBalling]

Jan doesn't need to "wake up". He needs to develop basketball skills. He doesn't have them. He is a bust. He will be back in Europe in a year.

I don't think he's a bust, just take a look what he did against Gortat and Poland team at Euro this summer:
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm ... /game.html

Thanks for posting the stats. You are right Ves had a very productive game. Someone figured out how to use him.


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[willbcocks]

Bynum and Charlie V eat us alive. Do they still have Maxiell? Another Wiz killer. The pistons second unit play like olympians against us every time.

[tmorgan]

Maxiell is gone. Not sure if Charlie V will get any run tonight, as he's been both hurt and awful in the preseason. You'll definitely see a lot of Bynum, though, as Jennings is definitely out (Stuckey is a maybe).

If the 'Zards backcourt dominates, you guys can win this one. If the Pistons' frontcourt doesn't dominate, I'll be surprised, even with Gortat around. Key is probably Beal's shooting, as he'll be covered by either Singler (too slow), KCP (rook), Billups (old), or Stuckey (if he plays, he'll be worrying about his thumb).

Should be a good one.

[verbal8]

Two seasons ago, Vesely on the court was better than Rashard or others ahead of him for Washington. Jan finished +1.9.

Btw, how good/bad was RL as a Zards player? I remember him from Orlando team in the finals, Gortat was his teammate.

Missed a lot of time, and wasn't very good when he played.

[montestewart]

Firstrow is good. I usually use chrome and just have the adblock extension on. No ads. No spyware.

GoG, do you have a second site? It's always nice to have plan B.

Backtracking to the obvious, but since they showed so few preseason games locally, is this game going to be on regular CSN locally?

[Nivek]

Jan doesn't need to "wake up". He needs to develop basketball skills. He doesn't have them. He is a bust. He will be back in Europe in a year.

I don't think he's a bust, just take a look what he did against Gortat and Poland team at Euro this summer:
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm ... /game.html

Thanks for posting the stats. You are right Ves had a very productive game. Someone figured out how to use him.

Maybe I missed the news, but did Poland join the NBA? When are they going to be on the Wizards schedule? And when they play, how will they decide who gets Gortat?

[GhostsOfGil]

Two seasons ago, Vesely on the court was better than Rashard or others ahead of him for Washington. Jan finished +1.9.

Btw, how good/bad was RL as a Zards player? I remember him from Orlando team in the finals, Gortat was his teammate.

RL had a decent first year. After that he sucked and mailed it in completely.

[Spence]

Do you think Vesely can wake up with Gortat as his teammate?

As long as Jan "wakes up" somewhere else -- probably back in Europe -- I'll be happy.

[Spence]

Seriously? Will Gortat make Jan Vesely an NBA player? Come on. Is this trolling or some elaborate Internet performance art?

Jan Vesely is terrible not because nobody in the U.S. knows how to use him. He's terrible because he's terrible. He can't even hit a free throw! How is Randy Wittman "misusing" Vesely at the free throw line? How does that work? He can't shoot. He can't play defense. He has more fouls than baskets. He's a 4-alarm dumpster fire. He's wet garbage. Pick your grotesque metaphor or simile. He's that.

If he's so terrific in Europe I wish him well in his travels back there. The sooner the better.

[dangermouse]

Significant minutes for Charlie V = Pistons blow us out

Garbage minutes for Charlie V = Glorious Wizards victory

[BruceO]

You guys are way too pessimistic. Guys are acting like a guy who is going on a first date with an ok looking girl who won't likely make the playoffs (detroit in this case).
Now we are questioning whether we will get laid in this instance because she's turned us down the last few times.. But we know eventually she has to because we are better than her. This time we are going to put the boat in motor city, the D in detroit. We going to get laid in detroit we got a secret weapon with us and that is the polish hammer.. and I know many of you are saying ( nate/hands/nivek/ccj/gog) isn't that a rufie? Yes and no..

The point is we are going to get laid in detroit and you can take that to the bank (ruptcy)

[TGW]

10 bucks says Vesely doesn't even play tonight. He's behind Booker and Harrington on the depth chart.

[deneem4]

Vesley plays...wittman would want some height on the court...considering we cant out muscle theyre sf pf or c

[Spence]

If Vesely plays it means there are 2 minutes left in the game and the Wizards are up by 20 or down by 20.

[Rafael122]

All this talk about playoffs and stuff, and this game is setting up to be a classic case of the Wizards laying an egg and losing by 20 on the road.

[Spence]

Dunno if anyone has mentioned it, but the Wiz should have Wall, Beal and Nene on the court tonight. They only did that 22 times last year, but the won 15 of those 22 times. If my math is correct, that's a winning percentage of about 68 percent.