[Josh Robbins] Wes Unseld Jr. will remain the Washington Wizards’ coach for the 2023-24 season, @TheAthletic has learned exclusively.
Wes Unseld Jr. will remain the Washington Wizards’ coach for the 2023-24 season, @TheAthletic has learned exclusively. Story:https://t.co/VbMAw0DbqE
— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) April 5, 2023
by KingRagerBlade
17 Comments
I am fine keeping WUJ personally as long as the front office is not afraid to fire him ASAP if we encounter any sort of turbulence where it looks like he is losing control of the locker room again or making awful rotations blowing leads. Knowing the franchise history I doubt that will happen and this is more just letting his contract run just as they did with Brooks. I’m rooting for WUJ tho he seems like a great dude who is certainly trying but he absolutely needs good results this season.
I hate it here man
It doesn’t matter who is coach so long as ownership and GM doesn’t change.
One more uninspiring season is awaiting us.
Is this tanking?
If they’re keeping WUJ, that means Beal’s staying, to me. If Beal’s staying that confirms we’ll likely sign Kuz and KP and run it back with whoever we get out of the draft and whoever we can trade some of the underperformers for. Going to be interesting to see what pick we get in the draft.
The tank continues 🫡
Leonsis isn’t firing someone. We’re stuck with WUJ and Sheppard at least until their contracts are over.
He’s okay. Still has yet to have a winning season though.
The clown show goes on.
will be trip if WUJ is head coach for like 10 years but never has a winning season
GM Beal never flexes his muscles when we actually want him to. This is an odd one, but maybe they all like him as HC? The body language has told another story at times though..
He absolutely has to make the playoffs next year. I like WUJ as a person and good dude, but some of the underperformance is completely on him.
Initial reaction I hate it.
It is true that our players have been developing nicely though
I mean I think he has been p medicore, but realistically only a great coach could do a lot better with this roster.
Criticisms about WUJ essentially boil down to:
* He does not give [my favorite player] more minutes or time with the ball.
* He doesn’t call timeouts when I think he should call timeouts.
* He allows the offense to run through Beal too often.
I’m gonna give some more nuanced criticism of WUJ to balance it out.
1. I think he relies too much on zone defense. Sometimes it has been used intelligently, but when teams are shooting the 3 well against us he ends up being a bit helpless. Part of it is that he has a team full of bad defenders, which I get, but they need to learn to defend the perimeter consistently.
2. Failure to get Kuz involved in play actions. The two-man game between Beal and KP is actually very good. The way they use the DHO and threat of KP’s range allows them to flummox opposing defenses as Brad comes off screens and pindowns, back cuts, etc; however, Kuz should be used as a third threat on these plays rather than just standing around in the opposite corner. He’s rarely involved with Beal/KP plays and I think that’s a shame, because there’s a lot of potential there. Usually a Kuz play is *just* a Kuz play where he’s attacking the basket and either looking to score or find a pass opportunity, which is why he was often playing with the bench lineup. I don’t think that’s a formula for consistent success.
3. Neglecting the offensive boards. Obviously this year the Wizards got killed on the glass and second chance opportunities were a huge problem, but I’m a little baffled as to why WUJ doesn’t emphasize second chance points of our own. The Wizards are ranked #24 in OREB this season. If a shot goes up, most of the time everyone else is running back. If you have a team that’s bad at shooting like we do, you can take a Grizzlies approach and just try to fight for offensive boards a bit more. Obviously the Grizzlies have Steven Adams, one of the best rebounders of all time, but I think the concept still holds up.
Ultimately I think WUJ is an average coach with a team of below-average talent. I’m not opposed to letting him serve out his contract because no one else is gonna take this awful job, but there are definitely areas for improvement. I’ll give him credit for how he improved on ATO plays this season and I think some of the offensive schemes we saw were actually pretty solid, but defenses ultimately adjusted and we couldn’t find a solution. Here’s to another year of WUJ! Hope he manages to get this shit show under control.
Sometimes, people can be so horrible in their job and still keep it.
If there is a better available head coach that wants to join the Wizards, we should sign him ASAP and demote WUJ to an assistant coach like he was all that time.
Otherwise, we just keep wasting our time.
WUJ could become a better coach, but we aren’t here to wait and see. Unless we want to tank, he is expert at it with his 4 guards lineup.
He’ll be the first coach on the hot seat next year