Countdown To Randy Wittman Getting Fired

[Jay81]

There would be an extreme outrage if Randy got fired but Ernie didnt. Either its a package deal or its not happening. No way Randy gets fired and Ernie escapes again

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Would love to see what kind of influence a man--- Don Newman--- would have on these younger players versus this biased, jokester of a coach in Randy Wittman.

Younger coach wish: Shaka Smart

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Would love to see what kind of influence a man--- Don Newman--- would have on these younger players versus this biased, jokester of a coach in Randy Wittman.

Younger coach wish: Shaka Smart

The team consistently gets off to slow starts before fighting back. I thought Washington might be really close to laying down after getting blown out one game by Detroit. I expected more than what they had in the first half. I was concerned they might be tuning out the coach. However, during the game thread guys watching (I listened) mentioned missed layups weren't Wittman's fault. Also, in the second quarter the lineup kicked butt.

I still like Wilttman because he is a stand up guy who will play anyone and everyone who he thinks can help. He has done reasonably well with the talent or lack thereof he has to work with. I'm not mad at him….

The roster SUCKS and is imbalanced with high contract players that must play over young guys who need to play. None of that is Wittman's fault. Nene being only able to go for short durations is not his fault. Beal being a rookie and Crawford learning PG are not his fault. The second it looked like both Price and Ariza were playing their best they got hurt. Those things are not Wittman's fault, either.

They can go a different direction but I don't believe Randy has done anything that begs for him to be fired.

[pancakes3]

The NBA is a players' league. Their talent dictates the offense and their work ethic dictates the defense. A coach at the pro level can only manage. He's not going to teach or develop. The most a coach can do is motivate and institute a system. Whether or not a player improves is on his own dedication. Whether or not a team plays defense is on the team's collective willingness to buy into that scheme.

So in that sense, I can understand a team firing a coach if their team is underperforming (Lakers) or if that coach has just completely lost the faith of its players (Stan Van Gundy) but for being unable to win with a crap squad? I think that's just being petulant and if EG really does fire Randy, there will be very few "good" coaches willing to interview with us ESPECIALLY after firing Flip Saunders and EJ prior.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Would love to see what kind of influence a man--- Don Newman--- would have on these younger players versus this biased, jokester of a coach in Randy Wittman.

Younger coach wish: Shaka Smart

The team consistently gets off to slow starts before fighting back. I thought Washington might be really close to laying down after getting blown out one game by Detroit. I expected more than what they had in the first half. I was concerned they might be tuning out the coach. However, during the game thread guys watching (I listened) mentioned missed layups weren't Wittman's fault. Also, in the second quarter the lineup kicked butt.

I still like Wilttman because he is a stand up guy who will play anyone and everyone who he thinks can help. He has done reasonably well with the talent or lack thereof he has to work with. I'm not mad at him….

The roster SUCKS and is imbalanced with high contract players that must play over young guys who need to play. None of that is Wittman's fault. Nene being only able to go for short durations is not his fault. Beal being a rookie and Crawford learning PG are not his fault. The second it looked like both Price and Ariza were playing their best they got hurt. Those things are not Wittman's fault, either.

They can go a different direction but I don't believe Randy has done anything that begs for him to be fired.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Would love to see what kind of influence a man--- Don Newman--- would have on these younger players versus this biased, jokester of a coach in Randy Wittman.

Younger coach wish: Shaka Smart

The team consistently gets off to slow starts before fighting back. I thought Washington might be really close to laying down after getting blown out one game by Detroit. I expected more than what they had in the first half. I was concerned they might be tuning out the coach. However, during the game thread guys watching (I listened) mentioned missed layups weren't Wittman's fault. Also, in the second quarter the lineup kicked butt.

I still like Wilttman because he is a stand up guy who will play anyone and everyone who he thinks can help. He has done reasonably well with the talent or lack thereof he has to work with. I'm not mad at him….

The roster SUCKS and is imbalanced with high contract players that must play over young guys who need to play. None of that is Wittman's fault. Nene being only able to go for short durations is not his fault. Beal being a rookie and Crawford learning PG are not his fault. The second it looked like both Price and Ariza were playing their best they got hurt. Those things are not Wittman's fault, either.

They can go a different direction but I don't believe Randy has done anything that begs for him to be fired.

Wittman shouldn't get a pass and injuries shouldn't be used as an excuse for Wittman. You have what you have, you work with it. Wittman should be demanding that Seraphin gets his guy into foul trouble, he should be demanding that Seraphin gets to the free throw line at least 4 times in a game, but as it stands, Seraphin has been to the line the same amount of times that Jan Vesely has (19) however, Seraphin is fourth on the team in minutes played. Wittman's fault.

Now look at Crawford, Beal, and Webster all leaders in minutes, all great free throw shooters. So why doesn't Wittman have these guys committed to attacking the rim---whether the refs blow the whistle or not---versus living and dying with the three point shot? There's no reason why the Heat, being the league's best three point shooting team should have the Wizards, who are almost the league's worst three point shooting team trailing directly behind them when it comes to three pointers attepmted a game. This has nothing to do with injuries or an imbalanced roster IMO, this has everything to do with Wittman not having control over the way players act once they step on-court. Wittman's fault. It's this type of play that has the team fall behind and lose games which in turn lends way to Wittman's repetitive explanations as to why the Wizards lost again. Players settling for jumpshots and not being aggressive, playing selfish basketball---you can fill in the rest.

This is just as much Wittman's fault as anybody.

[payitforward]

The NBA is a players' league. Their talent dictates the offense and their work ethic dictates the defense. A coach at the pro level can only manage. He's not going to teach or develop. The most a coach can do is motivate and institute a system. Whether or not a player improves is on his own dedication. Whether or not a team plays defense is on the team's collective willingness to buy into that scheme.

So in that sense, I can understand a team firing a coach if their team is underperforming (Lakers) or if that coach has just completely lost the faith of its players (Stan Van Gundy) but for being unable to win with a crap squad? I think that's just being petulant and if EG really does fire Randy, there will be very few "good" coaches willing to interview with us ESPECIALLY after firing Flip Saunders and EJ prior.

What he said. In triplicate.

[closg00]

The NBA is a players' league. Their talent dictates the offense and their work ethic dictates the defense. A coach at the pro level can only manage. He's not going to teach or develop. The most a coach can do is motivate and institute a system. Whether or not a player improves is on his own dedication. Whether or not a team plays defense is on the team's collective willingness to buy into that scheme.

So in that sense, I can understand a team firing a coach if their team is underperforming (Lakers) or if that coach has just completely lost the faith of its players (Stan Van Gundy) but for being unable to win with a crap squad? I think that's just being petulant and if EG really does fire Randy, there will be very few "good" coaches willing to interview with us ESPECIALLY after firing Flip Saunders and EJ prior.

What he said. In triplicate.

+1,000,000

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Wittman should be fired because he is a chump. He's a joke of a coach. How could anyone expect a specific and winning style of play to be on display consistently with a coach who plays favorites. Wittman doesn't hold every player accountable, so it's only fitting that an unnamed player is citing a lack of player accountability as a source of the Wizards' problems. Wittman is an absolute chump who can't bring himself to get on Crawford when he screws up because he knows Crawford has an ego as big as his own and his "coaching" would fall on deaf ears, he never gets on Nene when he makes mistakes, why? Because Nene is a veteran, but more than that, because Nene is a man. Shift focus to Kevin Seraphin, he is neither of these aforementioned things. Seraphin is neither egocentric, nor a man, a man-child but not a man. That's why you see Randy "The Bully" Wittman constantly badgering Seraphin for the slightest mistake. He'd rather be friends with the cool kids than ruffle their feathers and then take his pent up frustration from their errors and release it on a guy like Seraphin.

Wittman needs to get the hell out along with Grunfeld. I'm tired of hearing Wittman receive sympathy like he's doing the best he can with the hand he's been dealt. He's a big reason why the Wizards don't have an identity on offense.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The NBA is a players' league. Their talent dictates the offense and their work ethic dictates the defense. A coach at the pro level can only manage. He's not going to teach or develop. The most a coach can do is motivate and institute a system. Whether or not a player improves is on his own dedication. Whether or not a team plays defense is on the team's collective willingness to buy into that scheme.

So in that sense, I can understand a team firing a coach if their team is underperforming (Lakers) or if that coach has just completely lost the faith of its players (Stan Van Gundy) but for being unable to win with a crap squad? I think that's just being petulant and if EG really does fire Randy, there will be very few "good" coaches willing to interview with us ESPECIALLY after firing Flip Saunders and EJ prior.

What he said. In triplicate.

+1,000,000

+1,000.001

[hands11]

My take falls somewhere in between.

I agree they can't fire him. That would be a step backward structurally. We just extended him to a two year contract in part because Wall and other players showed support for him. Wall hasn't even played yet. You can't have a revolving door of coaches. He will be here for better or for worse the entire year.

Was he dealt a really bad hand. Of course he was. Wall and Nene their two best players were injured and Wall hasn't played yet. Hell, even Kevin started the year hurt. And since then Crawford sprained and ankle, Booker went out and stayed out, Trevor A went out and stayed out, and Price is with a finger and stay out.

Could he of line them up better. Hell yeah. His line ups have stunk and he had better options. And because they started off so wrong, he has changed them 20 times trying to recover from it. You can't win with constantly changing line ups. It all starts with your guard play and he messed up at both spots. As a result, we have seen 4 different starting PG in 25 games and we are living with the decision to start a rookie 19 year old SG. That right there showed they were not committed to winning right now.

Crawford should have been the PG from day one and he should have gotten more playing time over the summer at a min. What he really should have done was start getting more minutes there starting last year. Price would have been fine as the back up PG. Instead we watched him learn to do it in live games and because they didn't see Crawford as the best PG option, he has had 5 different starting PG on the way to figuring it out with his last option being his best option. That is bad coaching.

At SG, he shouldn't have started Beal who is only 19. Beal should have come off the bench. Martin or Webster should have started at SG with Beal coming off the bench. This would have given Beal a much better environment to learn the game. Martin is shooting .403 from 3 land which is the best on the team. He could have spotted up while Crawford drove and dished.

I'm fine with him starting Trevor A. He had a terrible summer but he eventually started to work it out. He is a good defender and can slash pretty well. Singleton would have been fine as the back up.

And in the front court, he started with Booker and Okafor which was a terrible combination and Booker wasn't even 100%. With Nene and Kevin out to start the year, he should have gone with Ves and Okafor. Instead we had Booker and Okafor and then Singleton and Okafor.

So would he of had knock out line up. No. But what he did was way worse and has left him changing the line ups constantly which has compounded the problem. No one know where they will play, with whom from one game to the next.

Should have been

Crawford/Price/Pargo
Martin or Webster/Beal
Trevor A/Singleton
Ves/Booker
Okafor/Barron

vs

Price/Pargo
Beal/Crawford/Martin routing on the bench
Trevor A/Webster
Booker/Singleton/Ves
Okafor/Ves/Barron

And once Kevin was healthy enough to play he could have gone

Crawford/Price/Pargo
Martin or Webster/Beal
Trevor A/Singleton
Ves/Kevin S/Booker - he was playing injured so he needed to rest
Okafor/Barron

There should have been much more stability in the line ups. Starting Crawford at PG would have helped a lot. Not starting a 19 year old rookie at SG would have helped as well. He started Price and Beal instead of Crawford with one of Martin or Webster. And to start the year he did that. That was a terrible decision. Hell, I would start Crawford and Martin over Price and Beal even today. And on top of that, he didn't use the 7-0 Barron near enough to help at center for rebounding while Nene was out.

Randy's line up have been down right terrible.

He gets Trevor A back this week or next. Lets see if he can get to something that gives them a chance to compete. This is what he should have. They have 3-4 weeks before Price is ready so Crawford and Mack should get a good run covering the PG duties. At least the bleeding will have stopped at that spot.

Crawford/Mack
Beal/Martin/Webster
Trevor A/Singleton or Webster
Nene/Ves - Booker eventually
Okafor/Kevin S

We started the year with

Price/Pargo
Beal/Crawford/Martin routing on the bench
Trevor A/Webster
Booker/Singleton/Ves
Okafor/Ves/Barron

This forces Kevin to center when I think he is more of a PF, but maybe this will help him learn to bang more and get him closer to the basket where he won't be so quick to jack shots from the outside which has has started to do. This also gives Ves a slot on the rotation again. I would probably still start Martin at SG at this point because Beal is just to inconsistent as a shoot from outside, but he is getting there as a SG in general with driving and a mid range game.

Right now, what would help the team the most would be two things. Beal and Kevin S stepping it up and both have the talent to do it. PG should finally be set for now. But between Martin and Beal, we need some consistent outside shooting. If they can get consistent play from PG and SG, everything will be a lot easier. But Kevin needs to get on a roll again. He had three games of 10 rebounds and double digit scoring. We need that again.

Given we started with this, I think they will start the play better. Randy should be able to start establishing line ups and rotations and pretty much ever position looks better and the clutter is gone for now. When Booker returns, he will be the 3rd PF which is a good spot for him as a energy guy coming off injury.

[WizardsWorld]

The fact that Avery Johnson got fired today and Randy still has his job shows the sense of urgency in one organization and the lack of urgency or just the I don't give a crap mentality in ours.

[mohammed10]

The fact that Avery Johnson got fired today and Randy still has his job shows the sense of urgency in one organization and the lack of urgency or just the I don't give a crap mentality in ours.

Should be posted on Ted's blog...

[SUPERBALLMAN]

The fact that Avery Johnson got fired today and Randy still has his job shows the sense of urgency in one organization and the lack of urgency or just the I don't give a crap mentality in ours.

Should be posted on Ted's blog...

The Wizards should be on the phone to Avery Johnson immediately!!

A young coach, former pg, who as won NBA Championships as a player AND as a head coach. They should be on him ASAP!

[Mickstix]

The Wizards should be on the phone to Avery Johnson immediately!!

Maybe if Ted called him personally, Im sure he'd tell Ernie to pound sand..

[Upper Decker]

Sadly Avery Johnson would be way to expensive for Ted. Remember, Ted's paying Flip, he'd be paying Randy, and then he'd be paying Avery. Why pay so much for coaches when the group of players is hot garbage? Besides, who is Avery without Dirk?

Avery with Dallas
194 W 70 L 73.5%

Avery in NJ
60 W 116 L 34.1%

[pancakes3]

Agreed with Upper Decker.

First off all, hiring any coach right now would be chasing good money after bad money. You could resurrect Naismith, Auerbach, and Chuck Daly and none of them would have had this squad at double-digit wins. The team simply does not have the horses. We NEED talent. Our team is 1/3 d-leaguers, 1/3 rookie contracts, and 1/3 journeymen. We're a joke of a squad. Our roster has cumulatively played 93 NBA seasons and there are exactly 0 all-star seasons between the 18 of them. So just color me dubious when people want to blame the lineups or the coaching. Color me frustrated when people want to blame "player development" or "coaching" when it's obvious that management is just simply not signing talented players.

[Mickstix]

Agreed with Upper Decker.

First off all, hiring any coach right now would be chasing good money after bad money. You could resurrect Naismith, Auerbach, and Chuck Daly and none of them would have had this squad at double-digit wins.

Like was mentioned in the Nene thread.. If Ted happened to land a shark like P. Jackson, they could bring the clout needed to remove EG and actually get the franschise turned around.. But yea, new coach with same GM = hitting self in head repeatedly, with large hammer..

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Agreed with Upper Decker.

First off all, hiring any coach right now would be chasing good money after bad money. You could resurrect Naismith, Auerbach, and Chuck Daly and none of them would have had this squad at double-digit wins.

Like was mentioned in the Nene thread.. If Ted happened to land a shark like P. Jackson, they could bring the clout needed to remove EG and actually get the franschise turned around.. But yea, new coach with same GM = hitting self in head repeatedly, with large hammer..

This is true, but at the same time you gotta start somewhere. I mean I keep watching these games and seeing Wittman on the Wizards sideline and imagining other teams looking at him there, knowing this guy is a chump, and knowing they are going to win the game.

A good, well known and well respected coach at least would bring some sense of status to this team that it currently lacks. At least some hope a free agent may say he would like to play here.

I actually felt we had that to some degree with Eddie Jordan. Avery Johnson would bring that IMO, as a young head coach who has already experienced success at a high level. Without going the dinosaur route of a Larry Brown or Jerry Sloan. A guy who worked his way into the league as an undrafted player, won a championship as a PG, and won a championship as a head coach.

He has also had some failures yes, learning experiences of what works and what doesn't. He was doing a solid job in NJ without an especially talented team either I thought. I really think he'd be a perfect fit here.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Post from Was vs. Chi 12/29 thread:

How isn't it Randy Wittman's fault that the Wizards put zero pressure on the Bulls defense having them over the team foul limit with almost nine minutes (8:53 to be exact) left to play in the game? Why was the non-shooting foul at the 5-minute mark that sent Mack to the line the only one within that time?
...they could've dug their way back in without trying very hard if only they played smart. No way a better team doesn't take advantage of that.

Many people seem to want to spare Wittman of any blame and just point to Grunfeld for the construction of the team, but please explain this and how it isn't evidence that Wittman isn't anymore the guy the Wizards need than Grunfeld is.