Washington Wizards forward Jan Vesely speaks about his experience in NBA so far
After a lacklustre debut season with the Washington Wizards, Jan Vesely recently opened up about his experience in the NBA so far.
The Wizards had a torrid in the regular season and had it not been for the listless Charlotte Bobcats, they would have been the worst team in the NBA. However they did find form at the end of the season, closing it out on a 6-game winning streak.
Vesely was very happy with the way he and his team performed the in the final stages of the season.
“It was fun to play the last couple of weeks,” Vesely said. “We got more confident on the court. We played hard. We played team basketball so it was very fun.”
From being a key member of Partizan Belgrade, which won the Adriatic League, Serbian Cup and Serbian League, it would have been a very tough progression to joining a team which finished with the second worst record in the league.
The Wizards started the season by losing their first 8 games and Vesely described it as very tough stage;
“It’s tough to be on the court and losing. It doesn’t matter if you play or don’t play. All the time, it’s tough to lose,” Vesely said. “It was hard for all of us in the beginning of the season.”
In his first year in the NBA, Vesely averaged around 18.9 minutes per game and in that he posted only 4.7 points. However his energy levels were phenomenal while he was on the court. He averaged 4.4 rebounds every game and showed signs of a good post player.
Vesely`s performances got an astounding rise with the increased number of minutes in the final stages of the season. He got to start the last 15 games for the Wizards due to an injury to Trevor Booker he did not disappoint head coach Randy Whitman, averaging 8.5 points to go along with 7 rebounds.
The major weakness in Vesely’s arsenal is his poor perimeter shooting. Throughout the season, the Czech forward seemed more intent on making the inside shots and was found wanted from mid range. Vesely however has vowed to work on his outside shot and make perimeter shooting his key asset during the summer.
“Work on outside shot. This is the first goal, what I want to do this summer,” Vesely said.
Coming from a foreign country, it is tough to get accustomed to the new way of life very quickly, however Vesely said he took inspiration from Dirk Nowitzki and described playing against him as a great experience.
Now with one year gone by, Vesely has his eyes set on the future and is looking to work with his team to get a better start to next season.
However another task that is going to come in between are the Olympics as Jan will be a part of the Czech Republic team taking part in the London Games.
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