Wes Unseld, Jr’s Firing Was Sad But Necessary for Wizards To Grow

Wes Unseld, Jr’s Firing Was Sad But Necessary for Wizards To Grow

[Applause] we have a big news day one that I don’t think we really expected but also one that’s not particularly surprising when your basketball team has won seven games and it’s January 25th the head coach is always going to be in trouble even if you knew that basketball team wasn’t

Going to be very good and ultimately the Washington Wizards decide this morning and the timing is funky as all get out and we’ll get to it but decide this morning that Wes unel Jr is no longer the best man for the role they move him to a front office advisory role lots of

Flexibility uh in short I would say they picked up a contract option on him in October uh that they probably had to pick up based off a deadline um I don’t know that for sure but that’s how those things typically work they pick up the option they’re going to have to pay him

His they like him personally his Insight is valuable he’s not the right man to be in the lead seat right now and so so they move him to this front office advisory role and really um it’s actually fairly simple why maybe it’s a slightly more complex than hey dummy

They’re seven and 36 no kidding they fired their coach but there there was two main things that had to happen this year and only one of the two is happening and the two things were not defined by me or anybody else outside the organization they were

Defined by Wes unel and of course Will Dawkins and Michael Winger but here was West unel Jr on set with me at Wizards media day describing exactly what needed to happen for the zaros in 2024 you know and that might not translate to wins um but you want teams

To walk away from playing the Wizards and know that you know what we we had to play to beat this team uh we have to compete at the highest level um you want our guys to enjoy competing you know enjoy the con the connectivity that it

Takes to be a really good team of course of course you know we have to find small measures you know I think we we’ve measured some things internally but to see the day-to-day Improvement the week toe Improvement you know the month to month Improvement individually and collectively I think we keep stacking

Those we’re we’ll be heading in the right direction The Good the good news for West unel Jr was that a lot of individual pieces were developing um Bilal kulali has been a bit of a revelation and there’s a chance that he is extremely good like if he Giannis is

Obviously a pipe dream but the Giannis e stuff he does the way he affects the game on the defensive end as a rookie the way that he has potential to grow not only uh bigger and stronger like you know physicality wise muscularly the way that Giannis went from a bean Pole to a

Brick house but the fact that he like Giannis came here at just 19 years old and theoretically could grow upwards he could go from 69 to 610 611 or even a seven-footer like if he does that then amazing if can he have the vision and the type of things that Giannis does

Probably not that’s it’s an incredible ask Giannis is one of one in the history of the league in terms of his exact mix of size speed and skill but could you get something that’s a pretty damn good impression out of kabali that maybe is even good enough to be the best player

On a championship team maybe more likely he’s your second best player when eventually this thing pops off if it gets there in the way that we all hope that it does that’s great Denny Avia having a very very good year Kyle kozma is more consistent than he was last year

Continuing to play the the number one role even if he’s probably best suited as a two or three on a true championship team but he’s getting better and all of that stuff you can’t separate from West sunel Jr and say like hey some whatever he’s doing on some level is working in

That department however the first part of his answer was not daily monthly weekly Improvement it was competitiveness and the Washington Wizards this year have largely been non-competitive they have at times and especially the last couple of weeks I mean their roster terrible and we know that that’s not that that is

Not something that is West unsell Jr’s fault it’s not this bad though and so there are times where you just go hey you don’t have a second big that’s a problem and since they address that with the Marvin Bagley trade they’ve been much better they’ve been more competitive but more competitive off of

Getting blown out by 35 once a week isn’t good enough they’re better than that and while I think a lot of the or not a lot of I don’t want to put too much on Jordan P I do think that there’s a decent amount of success this season

That’s not happening because they were banking on Jordan pool ref finding a really high level of form that he is nowhere close to approached um then and like those of those people like me like mopa I’ve said this when the rare times we’ve talked about the Wizards over the

Last couple of months because they’ve been so um non- newsy let’s say um I definitely thought that P was capable and he clearly is not there yet hopefully he finds that at some point he’s still young um and I don’t say this meanly or whatever like I everything you

Still hear out of out of there is that uh he works his tail off and he’s a great teammate he just not a very good NBA basketball player at the moment certainly not a number one option who I thought could lead the league in scoring because I thought he was going to be

Unleashed so certainly that’s hurt them a lot but even with that like the inability to find a good rotation and to ever seemingly hit the right button late in games there have been games that they’ve closed with the starters games they’ve closed with the bench games

They’ve closed with mix of guys and it always seems no matter what what West chooses it’s not the right move and eventually you go is it because there’s not one available or is because he doesn’t have the pulse of the team and I do think that you’ve also started to

Hear a little bit more grumbling and groaning out of the locker room and sometimes it’s just you need a new voice and I know there’s a lot of new players and and all of that stuff but I think that they’ve gotten to a point where you

Have a good locker room a locker room that’s pretty tight actually by by all accounts but one that is not maximizing its current potential even if you don’t really care if you win and you know you’re not going to win in any kind a major way but what you don’t want when

You talk about habits and you talk about culture and all of that stuff is anything to fester and so what you do is go hey Wes this ain’t really your fault but there is a level of accountability and there is a level of whether it’s sternness

Whether it’s uh being a little bit more willing to try stuff like he hasn’t really changed his starting lineup all year and he does have the authority to coach this team even if a lot of this is coming uh you know organizationally there’s been some decisions made that that

Aren’t at the coaching level that are at the Will Dawkins general manager at the Michael Winger president of basketball operations level like there’s there’s coaching level stuff that hasn’t hasn’t gone well and eventually you got to tr especially when you’re in this phase of we got to try stuff like

We’re we’re in the experiment phase you got to experiment and whether that’s billal in the starting lineup whether is splitting tus Jones and Jordan p and maybe some of that Wes was waiting for the trade deadline and ultimately he’s not going to get there it’s just become

Very clear that as the the consistency of competitiveness hasn’t grown the ability to string together multiple wins the ability to not get blown out by 40 once a week the ability to stop blowing fourth quarter leads you know a game like last night against Minnesota where

You’re kind of in it the entire time like if that was that was your season fine but every time they got within like six or seven Minnesota just stretch it back out to double digits and the inability to break through now 40 games into the season 43 games into the season

Over the halfway point is what ultimately cost Wes unzel Jr his job I will say Wes is a wonderful person I have thoroughly enjoyed Wes uh coming on the show I hope that there is a way that we can have him in the future like other

Shows have former coaches on and if the Wizards get good in a couple of years and Wes isn’t coaching somewhere else and he’s decided to take a different track with his career and he’s doing Media or whatever and we can get him on the show regularly to talk about a

Wizard’s team that matters I would be thrilled with that I I am a big West unseld fan and I have talked real basketball with him like off the Record we’re we’re catching up and we we at we talk and like that dude can talk ball he’s really smart but implementing is

Different coaching is different and that you talk to NBA people and they’ll tell you the 6 Ines between the second chair and the head coaching job is the biggest 6 inches in the NBA and for whatever reason here in Washington it never caught for him and

Today’s not a day that like today’s a day that both needed to happen but it’s not a day of Celebration um Wes unel Jr is a good man lost his job who deserved based off Merit to lose his job but I hate that it didn’t work out for him and

That’s where we are uh today we’ll keep ding into the Y as well Ava Wallace has a great beat on it is after all her beat 4:30 today she will join us and then she’ll pop on over into the Press Room and you’ll probably hear aa’s voice

Again because coming up live at 5 o’clock Michael Winger and will dokins will address the Press at Capitol One Arena and we will carry it your live here live for you of course on your home for Wizards basketball the team 980 next though your calls 30123 0980 you’re action to West unel Jr

Getting fired today relocated to the front office for the Wizards your calls next what’s up kiddos it’s your boy Clinton yat from ESPN it’s the hoffin show on the team 8 tell your mama I said what’s up

The Washington Wizards fired Wes Unseld, Jr. as their season was less competitive than was acceptable, and the team never took to his defensive schemes. I explain why the move was necessary, even if it was sad to see for a quality, qualified person in the NBA.

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