Wizards take pair of Soviets

The Washington Wizards selected Ukrainian Oleksiy Pecherov and Belarusian Vladimir Veremeenko with their first and second picks in the NBA draft, respectively. Read more here.

I'm encouraged by these comments from an unnamed scouting service:

[Pecherov is] ...a very skilled big man who can play both inside and out. Decent athlete. Excellent shooter. Has the ability to put the ball on the floor though that seems to be somewhat diminished as he's filling out. Has developed into an excellent rebounder.

I'm discouraged by his size (7ft, 210 pounds... this guy needs to start eating breakfast) and the fact that he last played for a team called Paris Basket Racing (sounds like a small town fair event). But hey, he doesn't have to be great to improve the Wizard's anemic inside game. 10 boards and 6 points a night would be huge.

Check out TrueHoop and Bill Simmons for comprehensive draft coverage. (Photo: Dusan Vranic/Associated Press)