The Wizards tenure of Scott Brooks

[nate33]

His liking Robinson off the bench but not Bonga is just mind boggling.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but when you put it like that, it's even more inexplicable. There is absolutely no reason Robinson should play a single minute before Bonga has played all the minutes he can handle.

[BigA]

We've seen this consistently since Brooks was hired. He'll keep better players on the bench and give minutes to guys who don't deserve to play.

Remember when he didn't play Satoransky until forced to by injury?

Brooks also never reigns in "stars" for selfish play, crappy shot selection, lack of effort on defense, etc.

[NatP4]

Is Brooks gone after a loss to Chicago?

I never would’ve expected things to turn so quickly, but the media, including former wizard players, have been just ripping him.

[BigA]

Is Brooks gone after a loss to Chicago?

I never would’ve expected things to turn so quickly, but the media, including former wizard players, have been just ripping him.

Maybe Ted/Tommy have put out the word that it's okay to be critical, since they would only have to eat this final year of guaranteed money.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

A lot of people here had high expectations of Scott Brooks when he was hired. For reasons I never understood.

In fairness, no one could have succeeded with the Frankensquad Ernie put together. & losing Wall for 2 years was no help either.

But the basic fact remains: good players make the coach look good. & even though a handful of significant coaches get the best out of their players, no coach can make his players better than they are.

We say that as if all coaches get the same from the same players. I totally disagree respectfully, of course).

When Flip Saunders was hired he inherited a team that had made the playoffs many years under Eddie Jordan.

I hated his coaching of those players. He called the same dudes EJ had knuckleheads and Flip never owned the 27 or so wins. He added terrible players like Fabricio Oberto and he played Trent Hassell ahead of Nick young. The same players but different coaching makes a huge difference.

Gar Heard loved power forwards like Gerard King but hated Juwan Howard. He played Animal Smith a ton.

I’m gonna finish my rant with the word bias. Coaches have certain likes and most are very subjective. The Wizards cannot be using metrics and numerical analyses.

Some coaches (Brad Stevens for one) pay top dollar for number crunchers. An analogy I’ve used before is visual flight is okay UNTIL you need instruments .

R.I.P. Kobe—sorry but my minds all over the place...a better pilot and aircraft equipped would not have crashed. The Wizards aren’t doing what some teams obviously arre when it comes to evaluating talent. Defense must not matte.

[Silvie Lysandra]

The thing is I think the talent is there. The problem is that the org is a wreck on an institutional level, and there's no fixing it because Leonsis doesn't give a **** about basketball, so there's no structure and accountability, which allows a team to maximize its talent. It's the same problem with WFT, though Rivera might, MIGHT have enough power, clout and leadership to overcome this. Jerry Richardson was a trash owner too and Rivera took that team to the Super Bowl.

[BigA]

The thing is I think the talent is there. The problem is that the org is a wreck on an institutional level, and there's no fixing it because Leonsis doesn't give a **** about basketball, so there's no structure and accountability, which allows a team to maximize its talent. It's the same problem with WFT, though Rivera might, MIGHT have enough power, clout and leadership to overcome this. Jerry Richardson was a trash owner too and Rivera took that team to the Super Bowl.

Is the talent really there? I'm not sure. You might need to change coaches just to be able to evaluate.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Circle the wagons time for Scotty B.

(I hope no one is offended and this interjects levity)

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[queridiculo]

The thing is I think the talent is there. The problem is that the org is a wreck on an institutional level, and there's no fixing it because Leonsis doesn't give a **** about basketball, so there's no structure and accountability, which allows a team to maximize its talent. It's the same problem with WFT, though Rivera might, MIGHT have enough power, clout and leadership to overcome this. Jerry Richardson was a trash owner too and Rivera took that team to the Super Bowl.

Is the talent really there? I'm not sure. You might need to change coaches just to be able to evaluate.

The Wizards talent level is not great, but it is definitely better than what the 0-4 start seems to suggest.

Brooks not putting players in a position to be effective is the biggest issue to me, and it's been a problem for much of his tenure.

There's no rhyme or reason to anything he does, and there's been a distinct lack of discernible strategy.

This is from Bryan Ohringer who, to be fair, comes across quite bitter about his Wizards tenure most of the time.

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[tontoz]

Somebody please make it stop!

[TGW]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Anyway, my first choice for a replacement is Nate McMillian. He has a .529 career winning pct., and has a history of coaching up undertalented teams. He's not successful in the playoffs, and that is his Achilles heel, but he'll get us there.

[nate33]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Wittman is the only coach that got this team to play defense in the last 20 years. They were the 5th ranked defense in 2012-13 and in 2014-15. You have to go back to Wes Unseld to find a coach that had them in the top half of the league defensively.

It helped a lot that they had Nene. He was the last legitimately good defensive center we've had since Haywood.

Wittman was really frustrating because he absolutely refused to play any smallball with Pierce at the 4 even though it was the obvious answer to our offensive woes. And then he suddenly did so in the playoffs, and the team went up 2-1 over the 60-win Hawks in the Semifinals. And then when Wall broke his hand.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Wittman is the only coach that got this team to play defense in the last 20 years. They were the 5th ranked defense in 2012-13 and in 2014-15. You have to go back to Wes Unseld to find a coach that had them in the top half of the league defensively.

It helped a lot that they had Nene. He was the last legitimately good defensive center we've had since Haywood.

Wittman was really frustrating because he absolutely refused to play any smallball with Pierce at the 4 even though it was the obvious answer to our offensive woes. And then he suddenly did so in the playoffs, and the team went up 2-1 over the 60-win Hawks in the Semifinals. And then when Wall broke his hand.

Agreed.

Wittman was great at three things:

1. His teams played hard
2. His teams played defense
3. He made good adjustments in playoff series.

Let’s all not get too nostalgic, however. He purposefully designed his offense to get the most inefficient shots (long twos) as possible and he ignored lineups backed by stats.

For those reasons, many of us preferred the nickname ‘Half Witt’ over ‘Wittless.’

[NatP4]

I guess the time to fire him would be on Monday. Wiz play Sunday and not again until Wednesday 1/6. Between now and then they play Chicago tomorrow, Minnesota on Friday(probably without Westbrook, and Brooklyn on Sunday. Could easily be a couple losses in there and a 1-6 start with the way this team is playing. The nets look dynamic this year.

If it were up to me, I would fire him today, they need to win these few games against lesser competition before the schedule gets ridiculous after the new year. The team has quit on him, Beal is frustrated, the fanbase is frustrated, the media is frustrated. It’s obvious that it needs to happen. Fire him, sounds like Rui is almost back, make a small trade to shake things up, maybe move Ish and Robinson. Beat Chicago and Minny in the back to back to get to 2-4, turn it around.

[NatP4]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Wittman is the only coach that got this team to play defense in the last 20 years. They were the 5th ranked defense in 2012-13 and in 2014-15. You have to go back to Wes Unseld to find a coach that had them in the top half of the league defensively.

It helped a lot that they had Nene. He was the last legitimately good defensive center we've had since Haywood.

Wittman was really frustrating because he absolutely refused to play any smallball with Pierce at the 4 even though it was the obvious answer to our offensive woes. And then he suddenly did so in the playoffs, and the team went up 2-1 over the 60-win Hawks in the Semifinals. And then when Wall broke his hand.

Agreed.

Wittman was great at three things:

1. His teams played hard
2. His teams played defense
3. He made good adjustments in playoff series.

Let’s all not get too nostalgic, however. He purposefully designed his offense to get the most inefficient shots (long twos) as possible and he ignored lineups backed by stats.

For those reasons, many of us preferred the nickname ‘Half Witt’ over ‘Wittless.’

This, and then the following year or years (can’t remember exactly) the wiz had Oubre and were a juggernaut when they played small ball with Oubre and Otto together and went small like the rest of the league, but Witt refused to do it often. His love for Gary Neal was painful. The roster he had to work with was horrendous though, Kris Humphries was the best PF we had. Oubre wasn’t really NBA ready for 2-3 years, there wasn’t a solid backup option to be found. It was just Wall Beal Porter Gortat and an old washed up Nene.

[Silvie Lysandra]

Let’s all not get too nostalgic, however. He purposefully designed his offense to get the most inefficient shots (long twos) as possible and he ignored lineups backed by stats.

For those reasons, many of us preferred the nickname ‘Half Witt’ over ‘Wittless.’

Wittman would be an amazing coach under a directive that he hire an analytics wonk and defer to said wonk on lineups and playcalling. An offensive coordinator, if you will

[Endless Loop]

It's hard for me to get my head around the Brooks situation.

Is this guy an unknown? He's been around for 4 years already. The Wizards have a new brain trust, with a lot of capable people. If Brooks is so bad, is this really news?

The team has a bunch of assistant coaches. Aren't all of these people equally culpable for lack of discipline and poor schemes on the court? If not, then what's the point of having assistants if Brooks makes (poor) decisions unilaterally?

I just don't understand.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Anyway, my first choice for a replacement is Nate McMillian. He has a .529 career winning pct., and has a history of coaching up undertalented teams. He's not successful in the playoffs, and that is his Achilles heel, but he'll get us there.

I thought Randy Wittman did a good job overall .

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I had so much respect for Wittman during his tenure, and he got undeserved hate from people who didn't like his lineups.

He got this team to play defense at a high level, and demanded better play from Wall/Beal. But his offense wasn't sexy; it wasn't the Warriors. His brand of basketball didn't sell tickets.

So instead, Grunfeld (and Sheppard) went after a loser who took a year off from basketball because he didn't have offers on the table. A loser who couldn't win with a prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, with James Harden off the bench.

Anyway, my first choice for a replacement is Nate McMillian. He has a .529 career winning pct., and has a history of coaching up undertalented teams. He's not successful in the playoffs, and that is his Achilles heel, but he'll get us there.

I thought Randy Wittman did a good job overall .

[NatP4]

Random thought, I wanna see Ray Allen get into coaching. I think he would be great.