On June 4, the Wizards held a press conference
to announce what everyone already knew; that Randy Wittman would return next
season as their head coach. While he only mustered an 18-31 record since taking
over midseason, the move was not a surprise after the Wizards’ late season surge.
The Wizards finished out the campaign winning six straight and eight of their
last 10. The team finally seemed to respond to their coach which earned him at
least another year. But with all the other candidates available, did the
Wizards truly think Wittman was the best man for the job or did they just
settle for the easy candidate?
In his career, Wittman has gone only 118-238 as
a head coach. Any way you may look at it, a .331 winning percentage is not
good. What’s more is that the team’s final eight wins may not be as impressive
as they appear. They beat Charlotte twice, the worst team in the league, and
Cleveland once, another bottom feeder. They beat Chicago once and Miami twice,
but at first and second in the conference respectively neither team had much to
play for and did not give their stars much playing time. Orlando was a complete
mess without Dwight Howard and fell to Washington as well. So really of those
final eight wins, there is only one that you can really point to as a
legitimately impressive win, that against Milwaukee who desperately needed
every win in their fight to climb into the playoffs. I’m not saying that
winning eight of ten is meaningless, I’m just saying we should not be planning
any parades just yet.
Coaches are fired far too quickly in my opinion
in all the major sports. How many times have you seen teams fire a good/great
coach and replace him with someone who is a clear downgrade from their former
bench boss? When teams struggle, the onus always falls on the coach and
sometimes organizations will fire him in a complete knee-jerk reaction without
considering who will be available to take over. That is NOT what happened this
season. Stan Van Gundy, Jerry Sloan, and Patrick Ewing are all available (as
well as Phil Jackson, but I’m looking at realistic possibilities). Would any of
these coaches be interested in Washington? I have no idea, but neither do the
Wizards because they did not look for anyone other than Wittman. There were
reports that both Sloan and Ewing were possibly interested in coaching
Charlotte, a worse team and organization than the Wizards. If they’re
interested in that job, then they could have been talked into at least
considering Washington. Sure, Charlotte is owned by Michael Jordan which may be
a draw for some, but by all accounts his management of the team is what’s
keeping them in the basement. It is easy to foresee conflict between Jordan and
someone like Sloan, but that’s not an issue here. Still, the Wizards will never
know because they were content with Wittman.
My point is not that Wittman should not have
been brought back, I just feel the Wizards never considered any other
possibility. It looks like they did not do their homework. What would have been
the harm in looking? Would it upset Wittman? He’s an NBA coach. He would have
gotten out of coaching after his time in Minnesota if he could not handle
criticism. Even if he did feel slighted, one need only point to his winning
percentage to silence any complaint he might have. Would it upset the players?
Possibly if the team really had rallied around Wittman, but if management explained
they were out looking to make sure they had the best head coach available who
would argue? It’s not a case of slighting your head coach, it’s doing due
diligence to make sure your interim coach is the best man to take over the
reins.
Wittman may well be the right man for the job,
but I don’t think the Wizards know it. It seems like they just settled for what
they had rather than even consider someone else. Part of this may be by design.
There’s a difference between developmental coaches and competitive coaches. The
Wizards may be keeping Wittman around to develop the players until they become
ready to compete and then they’ll find someone else. Owner Ted Leonsis already
did this with the Capitals when Glen Hanlon was replaced by Bruce Boudreau. So
who knows? Maybe the Wizards know what they are doing after all, but something
just doesn’t seem to fit when looking at their extension of an18-31 coach.
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