Jan Vesely Played 00:00 of in the Wizard's First Win

There was a lot of talk last night about how the Wizards got their first win of the season while relegating Jan Vesely to a DNP-CD.  And sure, the Wiz won the game over Portland to up their record to 1-12, and they hugged and smiled and cried in victory.  But then the refs conferred and decided that Wes Matthews had cleanly stolen Trevor Ariza's pass and called timeout in a span of just 0.3 seconds, leaving a grand total of 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

Yup, you guessed it: Vesely Time!  Coach Randy Wittman summoned him from the bench to guard against the Blazers' inbound pass, leading to the most impressive of box score lines:

Forget that Jan was largely ineffective as a pass guarder -- he allowed Portland to put the pass gently off the back of the rim for any would-be tip-ins.  The number six overall draft pick of the 2010 draft had made his mark on the game.

It has been a rough week for Vesely, as NBA.com writer David Aldridge called him out during a radio show Monday.

At this rate, I don’t see Jan Vesely lasting five years in this league.  Unless I am TOTALLY wrong on what he is.  But the skillset I see is nothing. Vesely's skillset is nothing.

Ouch.  Jan Vesely isn't the greatest player in the world, but if the +/- numbers mean something (and sometimes they don't), then the Wizards have been better off when he has been on the court than when he hasn't.

But to a point, Aldridge is right.  Vesely is tall and athletic, but he isn't terribly physical in the paint and his hands are made of gilded iron.  He has zero business taking a shot outside of 5 feet from the hoop. Jan fouls too often, and his girlfriend converts free throws at a rate that is twice what he does.  While the overall picture is not promising, but there is one last possibility for his partial salvation this season.

The one last glimmer of hope?  John Wall hasn't played yet.

With Wall as a partner last season, Vesely made 56% of his field goals, as opposed to the 47% of the attempts he converted without him.  Speculatively, the higher percentage came on the fast break, which is the one facet of basketball where both players excel.  You'll have to ask Ernie Grunfeld if he saw anything in the pair beyond that when he drafted them out of the lottery in successive years.

This season, Wall hasn't yet played; Vesely has been dreadful enough to earn Aldridge's harsh words: 29 points, 29 rebounds, 34 fouls.  But maybe, just maybe, Jan's play will get a nice uptick when Wall returns -- even if Mr. All-Circles Box Score never fully justifies being the sixth overall pick.

Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Feeling the Heat

Tonight the Bucks try to shake off the disappointment of blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead in Charlotte. To do it, they will have to knock off the defending champion Heat in Miami. The Heat have the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 8-3, and the Bucks surprisingly sit tied with Brooklyn for the third-best mark, 6-3. Miami, however, has done it while plowing through one of the more difficult parts of their schedule -- including a six-game road trip that took them through the West. They return to Miami for their first home game in two weeks tonight; they are 5-0 at home on the sesaon.

Projected starters

Miami:  Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade, Shane Battier, LeBron James, Chris Bosh
Milwaukee: Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis, Tobias Harris, Ersan Ilyasova(?), Samuel Dalembert

Dwyane Wade is expected to return tonight after missing three games with a sprained left foot.

Some numbers

The Heat now start Chris Bosh at center and LeBron at power forward. They also have stockpiled a cadre of older three-point shooters for their rotation: Mike Miller, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Shane Battier.

The result of throwing in so much offense at the expense of age and size has the Heat giving up a rather sour 107.2 points per 100 possessions, despite the fact that they trump that by scoring an astounding 112.1 points per 100 possessions on offense.

And speaking of going small... Is tonight the night that Ersan Ilyasova gets dropped from the starting lineup?  Coach Scott Skiles needed a power forward to check Byron Mullens in the fourth quarter of a game in Charlotte.  He picked rookie John Henson over Ersan.

Ilyasova has never been one to guard the quicker power forwards (such as in the pivotal Knick game last season when they shifted Carmelo to PF).  Would it work to switch Ersan to center for a night to have him guard Chris Bosh?  It will be extremely interesting to see if and how Skiles shuffles his lineup and rotations tonight.  (Okay, maybe not that interesting, but I'm a junkie.)

						Offense Four Factors				Defense Four Factors
Rk	Team	MOV	ORtg	DRtg	Pace	eFG%	TOV%	ORB%	FT/FGA	eFG%	TOV%	DRB%	FT/FGA
5	Miami Heat	4.45	112.1	107.2	92.4	.552	13.6	21.9	.213	.497	14.0	72.0	.207
12	Milwaukee Bucks	2.78	104.6	101.7	96.2	.495	13.4	25.4	.173	.494	15.9	77.5	.245
	League Average	0.00	103.8	103.8	92.2	.484	14.1	27.0	.211	.484	14.1	73.0	.211

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/21/2012.

The Bucks have been getting hammered in free throw differential.  They now sport the fourth-worst defensive FT/FGA ratio ahead of only bottom feeders Washington, Toronto, and Sacramento.  They can't afford to give up as many free throws as they do (unless they play better overall defense and bring down eFG% instead), while relying on guards who haven't gotten to the line as consistently as they should.

They also, quite frankly, need a little more love from the refs.  Can't see that happening tonight against one of the league's golden boys.

Lawler and Smith Give Haddadi the Silent Treatment

The Clippers television announcing crew of Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith haven't forgotten the one-game suspension handed to them by Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network in 2009 for insensitive remarks made about Iranian-born Memphis Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi.  In today's game between the Grizzlies and Clippers in Los Angeles, the duo stuck in a little reminder of their suspension.

With 1:01 remaining in the first half and Rudy Gay at the free throw line for a pair of shots, the camera panned to the scorer's table, where O.J. Mayo and Haddadi waited to enter the game.  It was Haddadi's first appearance in the game.

Lawler:  "Got lots of substitutions waiting at the scorer's table to come in.  O.J. Mayo is one of them. I'm not sure who the other fellow is.  You know that fella?"

Smith  "Nope."

Then Lawler chuckles audibly, but away from the mic.  One has to appreciate their cheekier (and less offensive) sense of humor this time around, especially from Lawler after more than 2,500 games (most of which weren't fit for human consumption).
__________

The 2009 miscue that got them suspended a year earlier was published on the Los Angeles Times website as follows:

Smith: "Look who's in."

Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"

Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA." (Smith pronounced Iranian as "Eye-ranian".)

Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA," (Repeating Smith's mispronunciation.)

Smith: "He's the only one."

Lawler: "He's from Iran?"

Smith: "I guess so."

Lawler: "That Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "The real Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "Wow. Haddadi that's H-A-D-D-A-D-I."

Smith: "You're sure it's not Borat's older brother?"

Smith: "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part."

Lawler: "Here's Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball."

Smith: "Especially the post players.

Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."

New USA Basketball Logo

It looks like USA Basketball has a new logo (uncolorized version).

Here is the old version, used in the 2008 Olympics, as well as more recent FIBA tournaments:

Do you like the new version?