The Amazingly Sucky Wes Unseld Jr. Thread

[keynote]

On the Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers and Simmons were talking about the Wizards - Simmons said that the Wizards coach is probably going to get fired- Rivers replied back that Unseld Jr. is an excellent coach but that the situation in Washington is pretty bad- referring to Jordan Poole's behavior.

Earlier in that segment, they praised Udokah for beginning to turn around Houston's culture. Doc emphasized that the amount and length of a coach's contract is tangible evidence of the authority and trust ownership and the GM are vesting in the coach.

Houston and Detroit have a 2-3 year head start on their tank, and as a result have far more young talent (even without a guaranteed future superstar). They both spent big money to recruit big name culture-driving coaches. The Wizards game Wes a little extension, but just enough so that he's not a literal lame duck.
Udokah and Monty have prior success, and Wes is a struggling first time head coach. But I wonder if Wes would have had better results with a higher salary and longer term extension. We could still fire him and eat the extra cost, but the risk of that outcome would be worth taking if Wes needed evidence of vested authority in order to rein in the likes of Poole.

[leswizards]

On the Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers and Simmons were talking about the Wizards - Simmons said that the Wizards coach is probably going to get fired- Rivers replied back that Unseld Jr. is an excellent coach but that the situation in Washington is pretty bad- referring to Jordan Poole's behavior.

Jordan Poole is second on the team in minutes played.

The following wizards are capable of playing sg, and are playing better than Poole: Bilal, Kispert, Shamet, Rollins, Davis, and Delon (granted he is injured, but he was available to replace Poole early in the season).

With all due respect to doc rivers, unless someone in the front office is demanding that wuj plays Poole, pointing to the Poole situation does not absolve wuj of the responsibility for what is happening on this team. Instead, it demonstrates how bad wuj is at distributing minutes.

[nate33]

On the Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers and Simmons were talking about the Wizards - Simmons said that the Wizards coach is probably going to get fired- Rivers replied back that Unseld Jr. is an excellent coach but that the situation in Washington is pretty bad- referring to Jordan Poole's behavior.

Earlier in that segment, they praised Udokah for beginning to turn around Houston's culture. Doc emphasized that the amount and length of a coach's contract is tangible evidence of the authority and trust ownership and the GM are vesting in the coach.

Houston and Detroit have a 2-3 year head start on their tank, and as a result have far more young talent (even without a guaranteed future superstar). They both spent big money to recruit big name culture-driving coaches. The Wizards game Wes a little extension, but just enough so that he's not a literal lame duck.
Udokah and Monty have prior success, and Wes is a struggling first time head coach. But I wonder if Wes would have had better results with a higher salary and longer term extension. We could still fire him and eat the extra cost, but the risk of that outcome would be worth taking if Wes needed evidence of vested authority in order to rein in the likes of Poole.

I get this argument, but I think it really applies to teams that have veteran stars. A coach with more pull may have gotten Beal to play better D and quit barking at refs, for example. But I'm not so sure that a coach with a bigger, longer contract would make all that much difference in the current situation. Jordan Poole just isn't a big enough star to outrank even a 2nd rate coach with 2-years left on his deal. If Poole is becoming a problem, WUJ should just bench him. It's not the same thing as benching an All-Star like Bradley Beal.

And as far as the rest of our team is concerned, they're mostly a bunch of boy scouts. I don't think many of them are testing the coach and seeing what they can get away with. If Wes isn't getting the job done, I don't think it's an issue of respect and motivation. I think it's that Wes is either doing a poor job of communicating what he wants done, or his actual strategies are being implemented properly, and they are simply ineffective. I see a team that looks disorganized, but not one that is lazy or indifferent.

[NatP4]

Or Wes is an incompetent yes man afraid of stepping on the toes of mediocre players that he thinks are stars and has a completely misaligned goal of winning 31/32 games vs the FO goal of tanking/rebuilding.

[nate33]

Or Wes is an incompetent yes man afraid of stepping on the toes of mediocre players that he thinks are stars and has a completely misaligned goal of winning 31/32 games vs the FO goal of tanking/rebuilding.

Yes. That may well be the case. He might be incompetent. I'm just saying that I don't think the cause of his incompetence is a lack of a big, long contract that ensures that he outranks his players in the hierarchy.

[Godymas]

If Cleveland fires Bickerstaff, I'd so much rather have him than WUJ

I have no clue what WUJ even does, is he really a player's coach? I had a hard time believing that he had any buy in from the stars last year. He was supposed to be some defensive minded coach, and yet the team's defense has been trash?

At least JB shows real passion and buy-in from his players, WUJ seems incapable of coaching in the playoffs let alone the regular season.

[Godymas]

On the Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers and Simmons were talking about the Wizards - Simmons said that the Wizards coach is probably going to get fired- Rivers replied back that Unseld Jr. is an excellent coach but that the situation in Washington is pretty bad- referring to Jordan Poole's behavior.

Earlier in that segment, they praised Udokah for beginning to turn around Houston's culture. Doc emphasized that the amount and length of a coach's contract is tangible evidence of the authority and trust ownership and the GM are vesting in the coach.

Houston and Detroit have a 2-3 year head start on their tank, and as a result have far more young talent (even without a guaranteed future superstar). They both spent big money to recruit big name culture-driving coaches. The Wizards game Wes a little extension, but just enough so that he's not a literal lame duck.
Udokah and Monty have prior success, and Wes is a struggling first time head coach. But I wonder if Wes would have had better results with a higher salary and longer term extension. We could still fire him and eat the extra cost, but the risk of that outcome would be worth taking if Wes needed evidence of vested authority in order to rein in the likes of Poole.

haha Ted Leonsis wasting money on a fired coach? Have we learned nothing? Better to fire them after it's too late than eat the bullet early on and consider paying TWO salaries at once

[Kanyewest]

On the Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers and Simmons were talking about the Wizards - Simmons said that the Wizards coach is probably going to get fired- Rivers replied back that Unseld Jr. is an excellent coach but that the situation in Washington is pretty bad- referring to Jordan Poole's behavior.

Time stamp?

Around 1 hour and 2 minutes - starts off talking about Ime and then Simmons brings up Washington.

[closg00]

Why did the FO pick-up Wes's option early as-opposed to letting the season play out?

[FAH1223]

Why did the FO pick-up Wes's option early as-opposed to letting the season play out?

so he's not a lame duck

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[nate33]

Read on Twitter

This is basically what NatP4 is saying.

Everything is fine because we are tanking hard while the young players that matter are playing well.

[closg00]

Since we're tanking, why aren't we seeing any of Johnny Davis unless it's garbage time?

[leswizards]

Last season, I said if wuj and Kyle were back, I was done with the Wizards. Well, I wanted to give new management the benefit of the doubt. I liked most of what they did, but I hated that they brought back wuj and Kyle, but I still wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I was wrong about wuj and Kyle. This season I thought I began to see glimpses that Kyle had turned the corner. So I was a little hopeful. However, my optimism was tempered by seeing absolutely no improvement in wuj.

Well, it appears I was overly optimistic about Kyle. His 2pa% has regressed to his career norms (albeit his 3pa %has improved to his career norms, but he is still one of the worst 3 point shooters on the team, yet leads the team in 3PA). Nate was excited about the drop in his turnovers, but they have risen back to just about his career norms.

Throw on top of that, Jordan Poole is having an awful season.

So, the Wizards have a coach who has never shown the ability to get his team to play defense. Lets good players languish on the bench. Get less production out of players who play much better elsewhere. And gives the most minutes to 2 of the worst players on the team. And apparently has a new management team that sees absolutely nothing wrong in any of this.

I am done with this.

Good luck, I wish you guys well. Hopefully, for your sakes, I am wrong.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?t=szMzG1Gd0EYz-rk4AJFTKA&s=19

[gambitx777]

Look he's not a good HC he wasn't good with Beal when we had a play in contender team and under preformed.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[closg00]

Look he's not a good HC he wasn't good with Beal when we had a play in contender team and under preformed.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

Good point, Wes could not get to the play-in with a starting 5 of:

Monte Morris
Brad Beal
Kuzma
Porzingis
Gafford

That's pretty bad

[mhd]

I think he sucks as a coach and was a hire based strictly on nepotism. Shows no emotions ever on the sideline. Just another example of Turd being completely inept as an owner. He's on borrowed time and is strictly the tank commander for the season LOL. Probably is only coaching because Turd is so cheap that he doesn't want to pay two coaches.

Remember, Turd was too cheap to retain the one coach who delivered him a title in Barry Trotz.

[Endless Loop]

So interesting to compare the Wiz and Commanders. Both teams need a coaching change, both have underperformed for years and years, and in both cases it seems like everyone but ownership knows the change is needed.

Interesting to read about the difficulties the Pistons are having. Monte Williams says, "My job is to teach and help guys break habits that they’ve had for a while." Well, current Wiz management are still in the let's-dig-the-hole-deeper mode.

It's hard to imagine that 7/8 of the season is still ahead for this team. Only true die-hards or consultants on expense accounts will be able to tolerate this nonsense for a full 82 games.

If the goal is to win- whether now or later- then you should never accept incompetence. Which is how I'd label the coaching performance thus far.

It's hard to imagine tolerating an endless string of 20 point blowouts just for the purpose of increasing odds in a LOTTERY by a couple of percentage points.

[Kanyewest]

The Commanders coaching job is worse, who were favored to beat the Giants by a large margin, as much as 10 points on Thursday.