The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[mboyd784]

Jan Vesely ‏@JanVesely24
I loved to play tonight. Amazing team win. More games like this. #John2Jan 🏀

Go get 'em, Jan!

[MLSKINS]

That is so awesome. Would LOVE to see Wall lead my boy Vesely to big things and prove the haters wrong.

Jan was a beast today. Even his missed dunks were impressive.

[Warhead36]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meYIbAt2iaQ

[SiCkSoULjA]

That is so awesome. Would LOVE to see Wall lead my boy Vesely to big things and prove the haters wrong.

I wouldn't call us haters, he is subject too all the criticism he's recieving he's been terrible absolutly horrible. He's going too need more games like this big time. He played well got his season high of 10 points in 30 minutes I am not ready too call him Jordan yet. I thought he played well, the whole team it was a masterful proformance agaisnt a weak team lets keep the ball rolling .

[Renegade7]

All this without Jordan Crawford...

120 points and no Crawford. I don't care who it was against, that's impressive. 32 assists, too, sorry I missed this.

[nuposse87]

21-0 or we don't go! Hey if the skins can do it...

[the burgundy and gold]

The only word I can use to describe these games is "refreshing." Playing SUCH better basketball than we were just a few weeks ago. This is what I was expecting the whole season prior to the injuries.

[Gator Bait]

I'm not seeing 21-0 (obviously) but I think this team could go slightly over .500 the rest of the way if no one important gets hurt. I don't understand why Singleton has been rotting on the bench? I thought the guy had potential. He was developing a decent mid range shot and was a decent 3pt shooter. Big enough to play PF and agile enough to play SF. I think he is going to end up a pretty good player somewhere else.

Thoughts on a few other players....Vesely still sucks, but John Wall will make any athletic leaper look good on the wing (this is why we really need to pull the trigger on the Rudy Gay deal!) but Ves still can't shoot and can get in foul trouble in a matter of seconds.

Booker is made of glass....cut him.

Seraphin still has upside, but we really need a good big man coach (and a new head coach) to tap all his talent.

Beal is going to be really good in a couple years...he'll continue to get better this year.

The injury may have been a blessing in disguise for Wall. He seems to have gotten something out of being on the sidelines and watching from a coaches perspective the past few months.

AJ Price is proving to be an asset on this team and could actually be the answer to backing up John Wall in the future.

Webster is a nice stop gap, but I don't see him on this team next year

Okafor is a nice player and is a solid 5 on a good team; I'd like to keep him if we can.

Nene will never play over 60 games in a season...may just average 42 per year the rest of his career.

Ariza is a rotation player on a playoff team...we should keep him if we can.

Crawford is a nice 6th man, not sure if it would be more wise to trade him now while his stock is still remotely hot, or if we should keep him to be the 6th man on our John Wall lead playoff teams.....

Temple is a top 12 guy on a playoff team.

[Shabby]

when wall dropped smith and dished it to seraphin for the dunk, i just about fell out of my chair laughing

[Thinking Skins]

120 points and no Crawford. I don't care who it was against, that's impressive. 32 assists, too, sorry I missed this.

Wow, we had 32 assists. We had like zero in the first quarter.

[stevemcqueen1]

I wouldn't call us haters, he is subject too all the criticism he's recieving he's been terrible absolutly horrible. He's going too need more games like this big time. He played well got his season high of 10 points in 30 minutes I am not ready too call him Jordan yet. I thought he played well, the whole team it was a masterful proformance agaisnt a weak team lets keep the ball rolling .

You and many others gave up on him before he'd even played 100 games. You went too far in the criticism and called him the worst player in the league. That's hating. The boy clearly has talent. He was just struggling on a team where pretty much everyone was struggling, but he's always had potential. DC fans always immediately give up on young players who struggle.

Last night showed the many positives he can bring to the table. Particularly on offense. Not just converting opportunities with high efficiency at the rim. But he helps space the floor with his size and passing ability. He was effectively utilized setting off ball screens for shooters and he takes up a lot of room and can give teammates completely uncontested looks at the basket. And his passing was outstanding. That's what I mean about IQ. He just sees the floor very well and he understands angles and spacing and he knows where his teammates are at. He can definitely stuff the stat sheet, he did it last night.

On D he was rebounding and contesting all kinds of shots and again, he just takes up a lot of space. And he's comfortable operating in space. Great length and quickness. Good job getting into passing lanes. These are the kinds of performances he's capable of.

[mboyd784]

You and many others gave up on him before he'd even played 100 games. You went too far in the criticism and called him the worst player in the league. That's hating. The boy clearly has talent. He was just struggling on a team where pretty much everyone was struggling, but he's always had potential. DC fans always immediately give up on young players who struggle.

Last night showed the many positives he can bring to the table. Particularly on offense. Not just converting opportunities with high efficiency at the rim. But he helps space the floor with his size and passing ability. He was effectively utilized setting off ball screens for shooters and he takes up a lot of room and can give teammates completely uncontested looks at the basket. And his passing was outstanding. That's what I mean about IQ. He just sees the floor very well and he understands angles and spacing and he knows where his teammates are at. He can definitely stuff the stat sheet, he did it last night.

On D he was rebounding and contesting all kinds of shots and again, he just takes up a lot of space. And he's comfortable operating in space. Great length and quickness. Good job getting into passing lanes. These are the kinds of performances he's capable of.

Good post. I think part of what caused the rush to bury Vesely is that it fit in nicely with the "Ernie Must Go" line of thinking. It's readily apparent that Vesely has ELITE physical talent and above-average floor IQ. He needs seasoning, patience and a climate of success to be the player he can be. If we dont provide that for him, someone like Utah or Phoenix will and he will end up as yet another of the "One that got away" type of guys.

Go Wiz!

[SiCkSoULjA]

You and many others gave up on him before he'd even played 100 games. You went too far in the criticism and called him the worst player in the league. That's hating. The boy clearly has talent. He was just struggling on a team where pretty much everyone was struggling, but he's always had potential. DC fans always immediately give up on young players who struggle.

Last night showed the many positives he can bring to the table. Particularly on offense. Not just converting opportunities with high efficiency at the rim. But he helps space the floor with his size and passing ability. He was effectively utilized setting off ball screens for shooters and he takes up a lot of room and can give teammates completely uncontested looks at the basket. And his passing was outstanding. That's what I mean about IQ. He just sees the floor very well and he understands angles and spacing and he knows where his teammates are at. He can definitely stuff the stat sheet, he did it last night.

On D he was rebounding and contesting all kinds of shots and again, he just takes up a lot of space. And he's comfortable operating in space. Great length and quickness. Good job getting into passing lanes. These are the kinds of performances he's capable of.

Everyone in the NBA has Talent, And so far this season he has been one of the worst players in the league by far NO QUESTION you can't deny that, just because he has a game where he has 10 points and plays well doesn't automatically wipe away the 35 terrible or inneffective games he has had all season. I want him too be a great player I am a Wizards fan but from what I have seen so far he doesn't have that IT factor. I still don't see this IQ, I saw a guy that had a good game the whole Wizards team by going off what you seen last night are potential all stars and legends. The guy had a good game, vs a bad Magic team that played the worst they have played all season. Now lets see if he can build off this game, I hope so but wouldn't see my house on it.

[stevemcqueen1]

Good post. I think part of what caused the rush to bury Vesely is that it fit in nicely with the "Ernie Must Go" line of thinking. It's readily apparent that Vesely has ELITE physical talent and above-average floor IQ. He needs seasoning, patience and a climate of success to be the player he can be. If we dont provide that for him, someone like Utah or Phoenix will and he will end up as yet another of the "One that got away" type of guys.

Go Wiz!

I don't think people gave credit to just how raw Vesely is. The expectations around him are unrealistic. He's not like Beal or Wall who came in with lots of developed skills and are able to go to them and produce on their own even with the rest of the organization struggling. Ves is almost totally raw. He has no dribbles and he can't spot up and shoot right now. For him to be able to do anything on offense, he needs a good system and he needs the ball to moving crisply around the floor. Really he needs the team to be playing up tempo to get the most out of him. People saw all that and thought "= useless, get rid of him." It's not true though. A player like Ves can definitely be useful when, like you said, you instill a culture of success and you run a system where he can fit right away. He does have some skills you can use immediately. He's a good finisher with some creativity and good touch around the basket. As a prospect in Europe I think I remember reading he converted something like 71% of his attempts around the rim which is very good. He's an excellent athlete and he was already a good passer when we drafted him.

And again, I think fan expectation of Ves was off. Fans thought, ah he's played in Europe professionally, he's 22, he should be fully developed. Well he's not. He was completely raw. His body still has lots of development left and he's got a long ways to go developing defensively and offensively. He's probably going to take that full four to six years to become the player he can eventually be. He's got some tools to project to him having a workable offensive game down the line--very good first step suggests to me that he'll be able to use to it get by bigs once he gets a few dribbles, solid shooting mechanics suggest he can eventually spot up and knock down mid range jumpers off those pick and pops we use to get Okafor looks.

Bottom line, Ves is a big project but the end result could yield a very useful and valuable player. I don't think Ves is untouchable and I would trade him if including him in a package could help get me someone good who is ready to go today but still has long term value. I'm just not in a rush to get rid of him and I'm not going to write him off as a stiff unless it's been several more seasons and he still hasn't developed. I think we're going to have other pieces emerging in the meantime like Wall and Beal, Nene, Okafor, etc. We won't need Ves to develop rapidly in order to compete. I think we can afford to take our time with him.

---------- Post added January-15th-2013 at 09:49 AM ----------

Everyone in the NBA has Talent, And so far this season he has been one of the worst players in the league by far NO QUESTION you can't deny that, just because he has a game where he has 10 points and plays well doesn't automatically wipe away the 35 terrible or inneffective games he has had all season. I want him too be a great player I am a Wizards fan but from what I have seen so far he doesn't have that IT factor. I still don't see this IQ, I saw a guy that had a good game the whole Wizards team by going off what you seen last night are potential all stars and legends. The guy had a good game, vs a bad Magic team that played the worst they have played all season. Now lets see if he can build off this game, I hope so but wouldn't see my house on it.

Not many players in the NBA have the kind of talent Ves does. 7 feet tall with quickness, good hands, and great bounce. That's just really rare. A big man with those qualities is worth being patient for because the potential payoff can be very good.

Look at what the Thunder have now in Serge Ibaka and what the Bulls have in Joakim Noah. Those guys are extremely valuable. And those guys weren't nearly as raw as Ves when they came into the league. Noah had four years on great teams at Florida that helped him grow. Ibaka's development got fast tracked playing for a great organization with two superstars who have been amazingly healthy. Durant's only missed four games since Ibaka was drafted and Westbrook has never missed a game. Ves is not going to develop as quickly as them but he has the potential to eventually take on a similar role to those two.

Also don't undersell how effective Ves looked last night. He demonstrated the range of his skill set. And it was his second good game in the past three. He's starting to come out of his shell now that Wall is back. I said before he's probably going to get better with Wall back, now I think he will probably look like a totally different player. I realize you've got to walk before you can run and I think the whole team is going to get a bucket of cold water over the head on this brutal 5 game west coast trip. But by the end of the season I think Ves will have made strides and started to carve out his role in the rotation.

[Patrick86L]