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Randy Wittman dishes on Otto Porter, Jan Vesely, Glen Rice Jr. and more

A quick transcript of Randy Wittman's appearance on NBATV during the Nuggets-Wizards Summer League game.

By Mike Prada
Jonathan Daniel

Randy Wittman took some time to sit down with Steve Smith and Matt Devlin on NBATV during the Wizards' blowout win over the Nuggets on Tuesday night. I didn't hear it live, but listened to it afterwards. (Here's the full interview). Some highlights.

On young players in general: "It's always interesting coming out here. We got a young guy out here in Otto Porter, and we obviously want to get his feet wet. The thing it is, sometimes we don't realize these are young kids. I think this is a valuable too to come out here. Even in summer league, the pace of the game, the speed of the game is so much faster than they're accustomed to in college. So it's really beneficial to those guys."

You can be the best basketball player, but if you don't have confidence, you aren't going to be worth a crack."-Randy Wittman on Jan Vesely

On Jan Vesely: "He's got to play with confidence. He's got great length, great size, speed. Defensively, he gets in the passing lanes. [But] he's got to believe in himself. Coming from overseas, he had never played this caliber of basketball before. I think he's gone through a couple of situations early on where he doesn't believe in himself. Let me tell you what: you can be the best basketball player, but if you don't have confidence, you aren't going to be worth a crack."

On Glen Rice Jr's D-League stint: "It woke him up. When he was at Georgia Tech, he had some troubles there, the suspension. I give the kid credit for taking that route. He could have easily transferred, sat out a year and then see what happens. But for a kid to say, 'I want to go down to the D-League' -- and talking to the people down there, he didn't play for the first two or three weeks. He sat and had to wait for his time, but he did a great job with the time once he got it, and in the playoffs, he led all players in scoring ...

"That told me a little bit about his character too. I think he's like, 'You know what, I've got to really redeem myself here. I really screwed up. And we all have. We've all made mistakes in our lives where we wish we'd say, 'Boy, I wish I had this over again.' This is him having it over again."

On Otto Porter: "Otto is a very smart player. He's one of those players where, when you played pickup in the summertime, you want that guy on your team because he made everyone around you better. He made the right plays, he did the right things. He's a jack-of-all-trades right now is what I'm seeing a little bit. He's going to have to develop range on his shot. He's playing the small forward positing a lot, so he needs to develop the NBA 3 range, and his ability to handle the ball. For us, we're a running team. We want to get the ball thrown up the floor to our wings where they can look to attack before the defense gets set. That's something he's going to have to work on."

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