The Wizards' next coach

[cwb3]

No love for Jerry Sloan here? He kept Utah relevant for a long time. Granted Stockton>Malone helped quite a bit, but I'd think he could be a good coach for this bunch.

[Illuminaire]

Sloan looked old and tired his last few years at Utah. He might have something left in the tank... but there is all Gibbs 2.0 potential if he returned to the bench. I think the Wizards would be better served looking for a young, hungry, and talented coach.

Or at least, the last two.

Of the available retreads, I find myself tentatively intrigued by George Karl. I know the common narrative is that he's a great regular season coach who burns out in the post season... but I want to look at that closer. Talent tends to win out in the post season. It's a strange divergence and it makes me wonder if the narrative might be inverted - maybe George is actually just plain good, and his teams routinely over-achieved before crashing against superior squads.

[WallToWall]

We need a new coach who plays to the strength of the players and team. On the offense, we have 3 players who I consider above average 3 point shooters. Somehow they are not as good with long 2's, perhaps because they are covered more...I don't know, but I digress... The 3s that we make are preceded by pretty good ball movement and passes to get the ball to the open shooter. We need a coach who can put this into the playbook more. The pick and roll seems to be above average for us as well. So we play that to the advantage more. Crashing the boards as a team seems to work as well. Anyway playing to these two strengths, and designing ways to go from p+r to 3 pointer to p+r (rinse and repeat) may work for us. Get the buy-in from the players and practice it till they can do it in their sleep.
I think however that the team should be built around defense. We need two thugs who can clog up the inside and make the opponent pay for and fear driving into the middle. We need a coach and a couple players who can set the tone of our D.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

[CobraCommander]

With Golden State firing Mark Jackson, would the wiz be a better team with Jackson than Wittman? I know it's bad form to plan to replace a coach that has a 5-1 playoff record but I watched the Wiz struggle all year and I could only blame a lot of that on coaching.

Thoughts?

[fishercob]

Bump for merge with Mark Jackson thread.

Welcome CobraCommander.

xoxo

-Destro

[dlts20]

I hated Wiz offense and rotations. He's a beast defensive coach. I still dont think this system is idea for our Franchise player. However, Im not a hater and if you produce good results then I will give you credit. The fact is maybe Witt wasnt all the way horrible and it just took us all this time for us to finally get what he was trying to teach them. Our ball movement is crazy right now and our D is lock down. Thats what he's always wanted and we are on point with it. I cant knock him right now.

[TGW]

Bump for merge with Mark Jackson thread.

Welcome CobraCommander.

xoxo

-Destro

you just wanted to bump your own thread up...i see what you did there, hands.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

--As my signature presently says, Randy Wittman is 5-1 in NBA playoffs.
--The Wizards, as presently constructed, are a team which any of 5 different players may lead in scoring on a given night.
--The Wizards are an outstanding defensive team.

Why would the Wizards replace Wittman with Jackson? Would the Wizards have more wins and be still alive in the playoffs? What do you think Wittman's record have been coaching the GS Warriors?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Randy Wittman

[Jay81]

i dont think Ted is going to fire Randy

http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com/2 ... zon-center

[queridiculo]

i dont think Ted is going to fire Randy

http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com/2 ... zon-center

He doesn't need to fire Wittman, he's not under contract past this season.

[Ruzious]

With Golden State firing Mark Jackson, would the wiz be a better team with Jackson than Wittman? I know it's bad form to plan to replace a coach that has a 5-1 playoff record but I watched the Wiz struggle all year and I could only blame a lot of that on coaching.

Thoughts?

Jackson did a tremendous job the last 2 years in GS, and I'd rate him a top 10 coach in the NBA. But there's zero percent chance the Wiz don't keep Wittman.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

With Golden State firing Mark Jackson, would the wiz be a better team with Jackson than Wittman? I know it's bad form to plan to replace a coach that has a 5-1 playoff record but I watched the Wiz struggle all year and I could only blame a lot of that on coaching.

Thoughts?

Jackson did a tremendous job the last 2 years in GS, and I'd rate him a top 10 coach in the NBA. But there's zero percent chance the Wiz don't keep Wittman.

Pretty much sums it up. No chance Witty boy is not resigned at this point.

[MikeTheKid]

--As my signature presently says, Randy Wittman is 5-1 in NBA playoffs.
--The Wizards, as presently constructed, are a team which any of 5 different players may lead in scoring on a given night.
--The Wizards are an outstanding defensive team.

Why would the Wizards replace Wittman with Jackson? Would the Wizards have more wins and be still alive in the playoffs? What do you think Wittman's record have been coaching the GS Warriors?

CCJ is 100% spot on, honestly maybe its because of Witt's track record that we didn't want to give him time with his philosophy but our offense and defense are a beauty to watch (though I give a lot of credit to Don Newman with that too cause our ball movement looks alot like Prime Dynasty mid 2000s Spurs right now) and there's no way Witt is not retained unless another team scoops him up at a higher price.

PS Noobs coming out the woodwork right now

[FreeBalling]

.

[Zonkerbl]

All credit to Witt for being a good listener.

When EG hired Thibs to be an assistant I think he left after talking to EJ and realizing EJ didn't give a crap about defense and wasn't going to listen to him.

Witt cares about defense and totally endorses what his assistants are suggesting and that's a super-undervalued leadership skill.

[jmrosenth]

IBTL

Why are the mods here such slackers? Who appointed them?

[Illmatic12]

--As my signature presently says, Randy Wittman is 5-1 in NBA playoffs.
--The Wizards, as presently constructed, are a team which any of 5 different players may lead in scoring on a given night.
--The Wizards are an outstanding defensive team.

Why would the Wizards replace Wittman with Jackson? Would the Wizards have more wins and be still alive in the playoffs? What do you think Wittman's record have been coaching the GS Warriors?

CCJ is 100% spot on, honestly maybe its because of Witt's track record that we didn't want to give him time with his philosophy but our offense and defense are a beauty to watch (though I give a lot of credit to Don Newman with that too cause our ball movement looks alot like Prime Dynasty mid 2000s Spurs right now) and there's no way Witt is not retained unless another team scoops him up at a higher price.

PS Noobs coming out the woodwork right now

Our offense isn't that beautiful to watch. We just happen to be hitting a lot of jumpshots in the postseason. We still go through way too many lulls to be considered a great offensive team.


But on the other side of the ball, definitely. I've been watching most of the playoff games, and I don't know if I've seen any team more disciplined with defensive rotations than Washington. In the postseason, we rank second in defensive efficiency to Indiana (and I suspect that may flip flop..)

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamst ... asontype/3


And speaking of the Spurs, I was in awe watching them dismantle Portland last night. The difference between their offense and ours is that Parker can take over with his midrange game, Wall can't do that yet. TP is always a triple threat to either go to the basket, pull up from midrange, or dump it off to his bigs. Wall is really only a threat for 2 of those things (and has barely been getting to the basket lately)

Parker doesn't telegraph when he wants to pull up for jumpers like Wall does, he keeps the defense guessing. If Wall ever gets to that point he'll be unguardable.

[dlts20]

illmatic, I disagree about our O strictly due to the last 4 games of the year and the playoffs. Its not just about hitting shots. Our ball movement is crazy good right now. I still would prefer better screens and not as many long 2's but we are lighting up the 2 best defenses in the NBA. People are sleeping on us. I respect the Heat's ability to turn it up but on a consistent basis they are not the Pacers or Bulls. Our D hasnt played against a O like theres but Im telling you one thing right now, if you think our O has looked good so far, just wait until the ECF. We will torch either of those defenses

[SirCharles3434]

Why would they fire Randy with a 5-1 record in the playoffs right now? That would be silly, IMO.