The Wizards picked 21-year old, 6′11″, 239 pound power forward Jan Vesely out of the Czech Republic with the 6th overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft. Vesely played in 52 games with three teams in Europe last year and he averaged 23.9 minutes, 10.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He played in 221 games in four years in Europe and he averaged 19.2 minutes, 7.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 0.8 steals per game. Vesely called Blake Griffin the American version of himself last night. It will be interesting to see if he can live up to what he said. The Wizards are very excited about him.

The Wizards have 8 free agents heading into the off-season.  In my mind, SG Nick Young is the only one of the free agents that the Wizards should try to bring back.  He is a restricted free agent and he’s likely to get some good offers, so he won’t come cheap if he returns to the Wizards in 2011-12.  Yi Jianlian is a restricted free agent but I think the Wizards will let him go.  He just didn’t show much for them last year.  Othyus Jeffers, Larry Owens, Hamady Ndiaye and Mustafa Shakur are all restricted free agents that aren’t going to cost the Wizards much to bring back, so they might bring some…if not all of them back.  SG/SF Maurice Evans and SG/SF Josh Howard will likely get deals that the Wizards won’t want to match.

The Wizards have signed 25-year old shooting guard Othyus Jeffers for the rest of the season. Jeffers has played in 12 games (1 start) for the Wizards so far this year and he is averaging 18.4 minutes, 5.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. In his last five games, Jeffers is averaging 25.6 minutes, 9.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He is shooting 66.7% from the floor over those five games as he has been outstanding. I have a feeling that Jeffers is going to get signed on for next year by the Washington Wizards.

The Washington Wizards have signed 28-year old small forward Larry Owens to help fill in the rest of the season. Owens played in 7 games (0 starts) earlier this season for the Spurs and he averaged 4.4 minutes, 1.3 points, 0.6 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game. Owens played in his first game for the Wizards last night and he worked 17 minutes in which he had 9 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Look for him to get decent minutes the rest of the year off the bench so the Wizards can see what he can and can’t do.

The Wizards have shut down SG Nick Young (knee), SG/SF Josh Howard (knee), rookie center Hamady N’Diaye (ankle) and SF Cartier Martin (ankle) for the rest of the 2010-11 season. 25-year old Nick Young had a breakout year for the Wizards. He played in 64 games (40 starts) for the Wizards this year and he averaged 31.8 minutes, 17.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Young will be a big part of the Wizards’ future. 30-year old Josh Howard has likely played his last game for the Wizards. He played in 18 games (10 starts) for the Wizards this year and he averaged 22.7 minutes, 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. 24-year old rookie center Hamady N’Diaye played in 15 games (0 starts) for the Wizards last year and he averaged 4.7 minutes, 0.9 points and 0.4 rebounds per game. He didn’t play too much so it’s hard to evaluate him right now. 26-year old small forward Cartier Martin played in 52 games (1 start) for the Wizards this year and he averaged 10.4 minutes, 4.0 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. The Wizards can’t wait for this season to end due to the gigantic rash of injuries they have suffered.

UPDATE: (4/7/2011) - The Wizards have waived Cartier Martin.