Jan and John: How John Wall's Return Will Benefit Jan Vesely

During his second season in the NBA, Czech forward Jan Vesley has taken a small step backwards in his growth as a basketball player.  Vesely's numbers are down as he has struggled to find his niche in the stagnant and slow Wizards offense.

Earlier in the season, Jan Vesely was an NBA starter.  That stint lasted just 4 games.  Vesely has logged 10 or more minutes just 16 out of the Wizards 33 games, a shade over 50%.  There were 7 games where Vesely DNP'd, not logging a single second, and another game where his playing time was actually under a full second.

As a rookie Vesely played almost 19 minutes per game, but in 2012-13 his minutes dropped down to around 13.  That stat would make more sense if the team had improved, but the Wizards have been decimated by injuries and losing at a rapid pace, yet JV can't seem to stay on the floor.

Part of the problem has to do with Vesely's propensity to foul.  This season Vesely averages over 6 fouls per 36 minutes.  With that line of reasoning Jan would foul out of EVERY SINGLE GAME if his minutes increased.  In fact, it took Jan all the way until Monday night's game against the Thunder to finally raise his points scored above his personal fouls for the first time since November!

Another part of the problem is the offense, created by the point guard situation.  With the ballhogging Jordan Crawford sharing this season's point guard duties with 2 D-Leaguers and AJ Price, a player far from elite, the fast break is almost dead.  The Wizards were ranked 3rd in fast break points in 2011-12 and have plummeted to 17th with John Wall shelved.  (Team Rankings)

Without John Wall, Vesely has been relegated to running around the floor like a chicken with its head cut off.  At times it looks like he is going in circles trying to set screens all over the floor hacking and whacking. When the Wizards do open up the offense, Vesely picks up easy dunks and alleyoops.

However, John Wall is scheduled to return to action on Saturday and no one is more excited than Jan Vesely.  To find out why you one only has to look at last year's statistics when Jan & John teamed up.

In 2011-12, John Wall was on the floor for 70% of Vesely's minutes.  In that time Wall helped generate another 2 points per game for JV.  That doesn't sound like much but during that time Jan's field goal percentage raised 9 percentage points as John Wall created easier baskets for Vesely.  With Wall on the bench Vesely ended up fouling more as well, which is what he turns to when the game slows down.  Jan was even with Wall on the floor, and a -11 when Wall was on the bench.  (NBA Advanced Stats)

Via NBA.com

Jan had a great game on Monday night against the Thunder, racking up 10 points and 7 rebounds.  The game may have been the beginning of something exciting.  Wall will be back next game and if Jan continues to play the way he did on Monday the addition of John Wall running the break could help JV finally make Varsity.