Washington Wizards, Where Are They Now: The Euro Resurgence (Jan Vesely and Oleksiy Pecherov)

Washington Wizards, Where Are They Now: The Euro Resurgence (Jan Vesely and Oleksiy Pecherov) by David Statman

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be releasing player previews for everyone on the Washington Wizards‘ roster.

DeJuan Blair, 2014-2015 regular season stats: 1.9 PPG, 1.9 RPG, .46 FG%, 6.2 minutes (29 games played)

Remember how excited you were when the Washington Wizards acquired DeJuan Blair from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the rights to a player who’ll never play in the NBA? Yeah, me neither.

Blair was supposed to replace Trevor Booker‘s heart, hustle, and most importantly, his production. The Cook Book was the heart and soul of the Wizards’ second unit. Blair possessed a similar skill-set, but unfortunately, he failed to get into game-shape and never truly recovered since training camp ended last year.

Washington was rumored to have interest in Blair in each of the last few seasons, so when they finally got him, we were all pretty excited to see the former Pitt star rock the red-white-blue. The Wizards lacked front court depth and Blair was supposed to become the team’s primary backup big man. Obviously, that never happened.

Kevin Seraphin outplayed Blair during camp and preseason, ultimately taking his spot in Randy Wittman‘s rotation.

Even though Wittman continued to say that Blair’s chance will come — like he does with every bench player — that chance never really came.

The Wizards valued Seraphin’s scoring and improved rim protection more than Blair’s rebounding, as they should.

Marcin Gortat, Nene, Kris Humphries, Drew Gooden and Seraphin comprised a stacked front court in D.C., so Blair’s playing time was nonexistent.

This upcoming season, though, the Washington Wizards don’t have much front court depth — which could be their fatal flaw.

During the off-season, Washington lost Seraphin and replaced a couple of other free agents with wing players.

In the process, the Wizards never really addressed their backup center position. Humphries will probably get some time at that position, but he’s not a legitimate center.

Inevitably, we’ll see DeJuan Blair get some playing time this upcoming season. Unless the Washington Wizards make an unexpected move, Blair should probably be penciled in as their backup center.

That’s a pretty scary thing to imagine at this point. If last year was any indication of how well he’ll play this upcoming season, the Wizards are in some trouble.

But to stay on the #PositivePixels route, let’s just assume that Blair will become a valuable contributor for the Washington Wizards.

The NBA has changed a lot over the past few seasons and players like Blair aren’t a commodity anymore. Spacing and shooting has become key in the NBA and undersized big men aren’t looked at the same way.

Blair still has some skills that Washington could possibly utilize. If he can get into shape and at least not become a hindrance on the offensive end of the floor, Wittman could at least get something positive out of Blair. He’s still a good rebounder, and at the very least, he’s a big body in the post.

This upcoming season will be very important for Blair, who’s entering the final season of his contract.

Typically players show some improvement before entering the free agent market, so let’s hope that’s the case with Blair. Washington needs him to prove he’s ready to take on a consistent role, otherwise he could be on his way out of the nation’s capital.