Tommy Shepherd signs Contract extension and promoted to President and GM...

[MikeTheKid]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/11/17/tommy-sheppard-sashi-brown-wizards-extensions/

By Ava Wallace
Today at 10:01 a.m. EST


CHARLOTTE — Amid the Washington Wizards’ best start to a season since 1974-75, the franchise announced Wednesday that General Manager Tommy Sheppard and Chief Planning and Operations Officer Sashi Brown have both signed multiyear extensions and received promotions. Terms of their deals have not been disclosed.

Sheppard, who was named the organization’s top basketball executive in July 2019, received a new title of president and general manager and will continue to oversee all basketball decisions related to the Wizards, the Capital City Go-Go and the franchise’s esports team.

Brown, also hired in July 2019, is now the president of Monumental Basketball and special adviser to Monumental CEO Ted Leonsis. In addition to leading various operations for the franchise, Brown will oversee chief of athlete care and performance Daniel Medina as well as Washington Mystics Head Coach and General Manager Mike Thibault. Brown now represents Monumental Basketball at WNBA owners’ meetings along with Owner Sheila Johnson.

[nate33]

Good for Sheppard!

His skills as a team builder, cap manager, and assessing free agency and trades are first rate. Hopefully, he'll get better at the draft or hire guys that are better to help him. His drafting seems average so far.

[tontoz]

Congats to Sheppard. He proved me wrong.

Back when Wall was still here i said i didn't see any path to being a good team with Beal on the roster. I thought we had to choose between being bad/mediocre or blowing it up.

Now here we sit on top of the east.

[Doug_Blew]

I'm not sure how to react to having a good GM and Coach. This is unchartered territory to me.

[payitforward]

Tommy deserves the promotion; that's obvious.

I don't know the first thing about Sashi Brown. But, tell me, if he's "president of Monumental Basketball," does that mean Tommy works for him?

& what does it mean that Brown is "special advisor to" Teddy Longsits?

[CobraCommander]

I'm not sure how to react to having a good GM and Coach. This is unchartered territory to me.

Same-

A part of me feels like this is a quick promotion on some preliminary results, but it’s been 2 years and we can’t knock the results.

The pieces for Westbrook fell into our lap...he takes credit but it’s not like the Lakers didn’t obviously blunder that trade but The hire of Wes looks masterful.

Wes appears to be beyond ready. Even how Wes (honestly the whole team) has been handling the small things like time outs all the way to the biggest thing ongoing for Wiz, Rui. Tommy and Wes are handling it better than the rest of the teams in similar situations.

Congrats to Tommy!

[CobraCommander]

Good for Sheppard!

His skills as a team builder, cap manager, and assessing free agency and trades are first rate. Hopefully, he'll get better at the draft or hire guys that are better to help him. His drafting is average at best.

Who did he miss on in the draft? Rui or Cam or Herro? Is that what you are referring too?

[nate33]

Good for Sheppard!

His skills as a team builder, cap manager, and assessing free agency and trades are first rate. Hopefully, he'll get better at the draft or hire guys that are better to help him. His drafting is average at best.

Who did he miss on in the draft? Rui or Cam or Herro? Is that what you are referring too?

Herro and PJ look better than Rui. And there were tradedown options for guys like Thybulle, Clarke and Keldon Johnson

The next year, Vassell and Haliburton where there when he took Avdija. I think they will be better pros (but admittedly, the jury is still out).

I'm not thrilled about Kispert so far. Sengun was there.

[J-Ves]

Good for Sheppard!

His skills as a team builder, cap manager, and assessing free agency and trades are first rate. Hopefully, he'll get better at the draft or hire guys that are better to help him. His drafting is average at best.

Once Deni settles into his facilitator+defensive ace forward role a la Draymond Green or Ben Simmons Tommy’s draft record will look a lot better

[queridiculo]

Congrats, now he can hire somebody to run the draft.

[keynote]

Sashi doesn't work for Shep; Sashi reports to Ted.

Sashi appears to manage "everything else" aside from Wizards basketball. Thibault and the training staff report to Sashi now. Sashi also manages MSE arena ops, etc. I don't know how that interacts with the Caps side of the house; I suspect Sashi only runs the practice facility/Go-Gos' arena, and not Cap One itself.

[CobraCommander]

Good for Sheppard!

His skills as a team builder, cap manager, and assessing free agency and trades are first rate. Hopefully, he'll get better at the draft or hire guys that are better to help him. His drafting is average at best.

Who did he miss on in the draft? Rui or Cam or Herro? Is that what you are referring too?

Herro and PJ look better than Rui. And there were tradedown options for guys like Thybulle, Clarke and Keldon Johnson

The next year, Vassell and Haliburton where there when he took Avdija. I think they will be better pros (but admittedly, the jury is still out).

I'm not thrilled about Kispert so far. Sengun was there.

Can you really judge our guys when they played for Scotty so early in their career?

I think Rui, when playing can be a more consistent pro than Herro. Herro’ s upside appears to be higher in the short run, but I think Rui could end up being a 20 and 8 guy in a few years in the right spot. No real opinion on PJ

Deni has played decent this year defensively but it does scare me that he had a 0-0 game with significant minutes...you have to score to stay on the floor as a small forward or 2

I think with Wes, we will see what we have...Spo and Butler make Herro.


It’s too early for Kispert

[WallToWall]

He deserves the props and the $ for making good hires, and trades. He traded Wall and got back a lot of reasonably good pieces. He didn’t re-hire the former coach (good evaluation), and hired a better coach. He built a team around Beal, and even without Beal, the team can be reasonably good. The salary cap has been managed well in the process. This is deserving of a new title, raise and an extension.
I am not so enamored with his drafts. I don’t think he is doing as well in judging college level players and where they should be picked. He certainly knows how to get the best value for known but undervalued NBA talent.

[nate33]

Who did he miss on in the draft? Rui or Cam or Herro? Is that what you are referring too?

Herro and PJ look better than Rui. And there were tradedown options for guys like Thybulle, Clarke and Keldon Johnson

The next year, Vassell and Haliburton where there when he took Avdija. I think they will be better pros (but admittedly, the jury is still out).

I'm not thrilled about Kispert so far. Sengun was there.

Can you really judge our guys when they played for Scotty so early in their career?

I think Rui, when playing can be a more consistent pro than Herro. Herro’ s upside appears to be higher in the short run, but I think Rui could end up being a 20 and 8 guy in a few years in the right spot. No real opinion on PJ

Deni has played decent this year defensively but it does scare me that he had a 0-0 game with significant minutes...you have to score to stay on the floor as a small forward or 2

I think with Wes, we will see what we have...Spo and Butler make Herro.


It’s too early for Kispert

Yeah, perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on Sheppard's drafting. I reworded my original post to say he "seems average" rather than "average at best".

[NatP4]

He’s been fantastic. Like Nate said, the only critique I would have is the drafting at times, but even that is starting to look a lot better with Kispert and Avdija playing really well.

Still can’t believe he traded away the face of the franchise in John Wall. I never expected anyone in the wiz organization to have those balls.

The culture in DC has been built by Sheppard and Beal. They make a great duo. It’s nice to have a GM that seems like an intelligent likeable human being as opposed to a total ass like Ernie.

[nuposse04]

I think Shep takes rather low risk draft prospects, might be only real problem with his management so far... that and not canning Brooks much earlier. That might have been out of his hands though.

[penbeast0]

I think you reward success and he has to be judged a success at the moment. I hope he can sustain it and even build a real contender. The Wizards have been a watchword for mediocrity since well before the name change, let's hope what we have now isn't fool's gold, but it's fun to watch so far.

[CobraCommander]

He’s been fantastic. Like Nate said, the only critique I would have is the drafting at times, but even that is starting to look a lot better with Kispert and Avdija playing really well.

Still can’t believe he traded away the face of the franchise in John Wall. I never expected anyone in the wiz organization to have those balls.

The culture in DC has been built by Sheppard and Beal. They make a great duo. It’s nice to have a GM that seems like an intelligent likeable human being as opposed to a total ass like Ernie.

Great point about the team being built around Beal. If Beal is a top 10 player, then with this roster, coach and GM, we should be able to make noise beyond just the reg season.

[9 and 20]

The same way I hope Tatum to DC becomes a thing, I hope Masai Ujiri to DC doesn't die. Mostly to annoy fans of other teams. I get joy out of that because I'm terrible and my heart is a lump of coal.

Congrats to Tommy S. Well earned, not just for his work this year but for his many years of work under Grunfeld, where he learned the importance of planning scouting trips to Europe in spring, how to explain away poop in shoes and gunplay in the locker room, and how to overpay Ian Mahinmi.

[TGW]

The mom and pop shop continues.