One of the best parts about SB Nation is getting to pick the brains of folks who got to watch plenty of the player your team just acquired. Below is the Q&A between Albert Lee and I on the Nuggets new forward Jan Vesely.
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Nate Timmons: With the arrival of Jan Vesely in Denver … how many minutes would you play him knowing what you know about him?
Albert Lee: I would try to play Vesely around 10 minutes a game and preferably in situations when the Nuggets need a smaller lineup, and need to push the tempo.
NT: What were his strong suits in D.C.?
AL: Vesely's strong suit is his overall athleticism. He is able to run the floor in a lineup with John Wall and was on the receiving end of a good number of alley oop passes from him over the past two and a half seasons. Vesely also has an eye for getting offensive rebounds which he often can convert into put back dunks. This season, even in his limited time on the floor (14.2 mpg), he is averaging 1.6 offensive rebounds.
NT: What were his weaknesses in D.C.?
AL: The biggest weakness with Vesely is that he is a liability as a shooter from anywhere beyond baskets right at the hoop. Therefore his presence will not help stretch the defense out unless there are other shooters out there with him which can compensate for that.
In addition, his free throw shooting is at under 30% this season. You don't want him out there toward the end of games because he will be a more than ideal target for shooting free throws after the opposing team is in the penalty late in the game.
NT: Were you happy with the Andre Miller trade for Vesely?
AL: I’m happy to see that the Wizards were able to acquire a player like Andre Miller who will play regularly in the rotation and take some of the ball handling pressure off of John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Nene. In addition, Miller could help improve the half court offense and teach Wall how to be better in that regard. Either way, he is an upgrade over Eric Maynor, who fell out of favor in the rotation last December.
However, one concern that I have is that Miller is now 37 and that Wizards acquired a veteran player at the expense of two younger players in Vesely and Maynor to get this deal done, even if they don’t figure to mean much for the Wizards for the long term. In addition, this move may be considered by some fans as a “clean-up” move, considering that Eric Maynor was signed with the bi-annual exception this past offseason to be John Wall’s backup.
NT: Anything else we should know about him?
AL: If there's anything that I remember fondly about Vesely, he certainly made a flashy first impression by kissing his girlfriend right after his name was called in the 2011 Draft:
In addition, I appreciated his swagger here when he referred to Blake Griffin as the “American Jan Vesely.”
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Big thanks to Albert Lee for joining us! If you have any questions, leave them below and we’ll see if he’ll come answer them.
