Top Stories of the Week: The Wizards wait for Tim Connelly after draft lottery, Mystics get ready for season, Jan Vesely wins EuroLeague MVP

Hope everyone is enjoying the May weekend. Here are some of the major storylines from the past week.

Tim Connelly is offered the Wizards’ top front office job

The Nuggets’ President of Basketball Operations was reportedly offered the Wizards’ top basketball operations job last Friday to a four-year deal. Now, the ball’s in his court. As Ben Mehic wrote on Saturday, this move is apparently “Connelly or Bust.” We’ll see if Connelly makes his move on Monday or later.

The Wizards will pick ninth in the 2019 NBA Draft

If it weren’t for the front office job search, this would have been the top story. But Washington will not pick Zion Williamson in the this year’s draft because ... they will pick ninth instead of first in the draft. The Wizards originally had the sixth-best odds of winning the top pick. While the draft order didn’t go in the Wizards’ favor, it isn’t changing the front office job search strategy that much. After all, Connelly has first dibs on what was Ernie Grunfeld’s job.

The Mystics finish the preseason 1-1

The Mystics split their preseason games with a loss to the Lynx and win over the Dream in the past week. Overall, the rotations seem to be rather set. We know Elena Delle Donne is the Mystics’ cornerstone and that Ariel Atkins is their wing player of the future. However, we still have no idea where Emma Meesseman fits with the team this season and beyond. Perhaps the first few games of this season will give us a better glimpse.

Jan Vesely won the EuroLeague MVP

The Wizards’ first-round pick is viewed as a bust and a waste by most American fans. I get why. He was a horrible free throw shooter and didn’t show much basketball skill on the court.

But if you’re Czech or a European basketball fan in general, you’d be happy to see that Vesely has transformed a strong player in his own right. This season, he won the EuroLeague MVP after averaging 12.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in continental play. Furthermore, he made 78.7 percent of his free throws in EuroLeague. Vesely’s numbers in the Turkish BSL are very similar.

Before you bash Vesely for averaging too few points, keep in mind that seven players averaged 8.5 or more points per game and that there are just 40 minutes a game in EuroLeague and BSL play. It’s common that European teams value scoring more evenly a bit more than their NBA counterparts.

Fenerbahçe is playing Real Madrid for the third place game in this season’s EuroLeague which is in progress.

That’s all I have. Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!