Why The Washington Wizards “Fired” Their Head Coach

Why The Washington Wizards “Fired” Their Head Coach

What is calac and fellow thermonuclear aers I am Dan valy coming at you with an emergency mini pod segment thing because the Wizards the most popular franchise in the NBA that’s going to drive a ton of traffic to this podcast and YouTube channel got rid of demoted they really

Fired Wes onel Jr and I didn’t want to put this we have a very big episode it’s like 80 minutes long I talked about the Toronto Raptors Direction with Samson folk going up on Friday and I didn’t really feel like attaching Wizards talk to that was a little bit too random

Whether you put it the beginning or the end so the Wizards get rid of West Hansel Jr everyone could kind of see this coming from the moment that the Wizards changed their front office regime having Michael Winger having Will Dawkins in charge the timing here though

Is interesting and they did and I think it was more a show of he has connections to the franchise and you don’t really ever want to have a lame duck coach in the NBA even though that’s essentially what he was because of the front office reg regime

Change they picked up his team option and so it’s just whatever the coaches don’t count against a salary cap and he was not one of the higher paid coaches in the league anyway whether it was a solid because of his connections to the organization whether it’s because they

Actually wanted to make sure that players respected him didn’t view him as a lame duck coach combination of the two he’s now moving into a front office role which is just that could be a no-show type of role he does have again connections to the organization so maybe it won’t be

The timing is interesting and I think it boils down to one reason why it’s not necessarily the overarching product although the Wizards are pretty bad I think that he specifically and the team in general is failing the development of balal kabali and anyone who’s listened to this channel this podcast before read

Any of my work over a bleach report knows I think the world that Bala Kali is a prospect and he has you know he’s slumping over the past month or so but he’s having a pretty good year he is a lot more polished Than People expected coming out of the NBA draft the

Three-point shooting again down now and it can be a little slow but he was hitting them he is a terror in transition he has the ability to attack some of the Open Spaces with the ball in his hands to get rid of the ball and make decisions when he’s moving downhill

With some live dribble stuff that ability is all there in addition to shouldering this incredible defensive workload where he’s essentially just on the opposition’s best player a ton of the time and to do that as a rookie for basically 25 26 27 minutes a game that’s

A big deal and in that aspect West unel being willing to throw him I mean not that you have all these other great options but West unel Jr being able to throw him on the opposition’s best player or experimenting with that deserves some credit there and even some

Of the ways that the wizard used him in transition however you start to look at it and just on the season his usage rate is so incredibly low he is basically just near the bottom of the Barrel in I think he’s eighth in touches per game for this team and that’s that’s actually

Been down his touches have been down since the start of January um we’ve seen him get very little agency to explore his own creation on the offensive end I mean this is someone whose usage rate on the year is incredibly low and since January the only rotation player on the

Wizards since the start of January to have a lower usage rate than Bal kabali is Daniel gaffard and so you have a lower usage rate than dlan Wright who just doesn’t even want to finish plays other than with a pass which isn’t factored into to usage rate there are

Some total usage stats out there usage rates just taking into account possessions that end in free throws turnovers or shot attempts and Delon Wright doesn’t want to shoot like we just Delon Wright doesn’t want to score so to be behind him is just wild but to

Be behind guys like a a Corey kispert yeah one thing Jordan P Kyle kumma but to be behind Marvin Bagley since he’s come over and to see him get more featured to have more touches per game in the front Court no less than balal kabali that is a failure year and I

Recognize that balal Kali could be hitting a rookie wall we’re more than halfway through the season he wasn’t necessarily playing a ton for the Metropolitan um 99 I think what what are they called but he was with Victor wanyama last year so he wasn’t playing a ton you’re dealing with more games more

Minutes again your defensive workload has just verged on in Insanity for a rookie I would say so I get that element and that could account for some of the efficiency drop off and the way that the Wizards have played it’s really benefited Denny Obi this year tus Jones

Has had some really good stretch stretches Jordan P’s largely played like dog [ __ ] Kyle kma I still tend to be higher on Kyle kma play both on offense and defense and the consensus I don’t know when that happened because I was probably lower than the consensus while

He was on the Lakers but for the past few years while he’s been in Washington and even kind of the end of his Lakers tenure I’ve just been a little bit higher on him and so yes there are bright spots individually on this team and you could point to other flaws for

The Wizards as to why you would make this decision and that’s they don’t have guiding principles um they’ve been I think that look the defense looks really bad at certain points and the effort can be terrible on certain plays they’ve done a little bit of a better job of

Like kind of getting at the lwh hanging fruit they’re not fouling a ton they don’t give up a ton of wide open jumpers relative to the rest of the league now part of that is going to be because they can just get attacked and there’s very little resistance outside of Denny AIA

BL kabali KY kma at certain stance you have D Wright and I do think individually they some guys whether it’s Daniel Gafford even tus Jones at some some points everyone relax I understand what tus Jones is on defense where they can provide some resistance straight up one-on-one and the the Wizards have

Actually been one of the better isolation defenses in the League this year on those possessions and I do think that matches with the eye test by the way but when you start to throw wrinkles into the equations and you’ve got guys moving off the ball or even more

Basically they just don’t know how to defend when screening action is involved or they could die on screens or or they’re getting lost there’s miscommunications on whether are they are they trying to trap are they trying to hedge are they stunting what are they doing and you can just tell in those

Moments uh there’s only one team in the league that is worse at defending off screens right now than than Washington and I think it’s it’s either Portland OR it’s San Antonio or it’s just one of the bottom feeding teams and so to be in that position to not have more

Discipline on the defensive end to go through moments where their transition defense could be worse but there’s also just stretches where it feels like guys aren’t getting back or don’t care to get back and then you just don’t have this guiding principle in general where it’s

What do the Wizards do they play fast and chaotic because they’re at a talent deficit and that’s what you do when you’re at a talent deficit is you play fast you play chaotic and yeah there’s there can be some entertainment value in that and it can work uh like for certain

Stints but it’s not going to be conducive to the most efficient offense and so you look at the Wizards right now offensively I don’t think you could even say aside from speed what’s the they’re gotting principal and they’re not even I mean they’re top four in average offensive possession time so they’re

Playing really fast and they’re fifth in average possession time after a made shot so the fact that speed is your guiding principle okay cool and that you’re going to run after every defensive rebound where the only team playing faster after defensive rebounds is a Spurs another team at a

Conventional halfcourt Talent deficit no one plays faster after forcing turnovers than the Wizards and they’re actually averaging 1.4 points per possession after a turnover that is in the league that’s a big freaking deal but when you’re going to look at this team well they’re they’re not really forcing turnovers and droves they’re about

League average there or worse in that department and so that is not even part of their identity like I said they don’t foul a lot they don’t give up a ton of wide open looks I do think a lot of that has to do with just the overall

Resistance when you’re going to have guys moving off the ball being able to get downhill so getting away from jumpers and being able to get to the rim which by the way teams have done against the the Wizards it feels like since the dawn of time this really just it pred

Ates it’s an issue that predates Wes anzel Jr of course um but this year specifically like yes you’ve been able to in in the previous three seasons I think the Wizards were very good at not limiting opponent shots at the rim and this year they’re just 25th in opponent

Rim attemp frequency that’s what I know and then the resistance I was referring to the Wizards have been basically like bottom five in raw opponent percentage at the rim for it feels like the dawn of time they’ve been pretty bad there and so the lack of gotting principles

Factors into it but even amid some of the bright spots you are failing the most important player in the organization in Bala kabali by not testing the depths of his offense more it can be ugly and I have been a big proponent of well you want to streamline

The roles of this so him being in more of a you know toned down role it can benefit him if you have other guys you’re evaluating for the long term and it’s we know Kyle kosma is not GNA be part of the bigger picture here we know

Jordan P they probably don’t want to be part of the bigger picture even though they might be stuck with him for a couple Seasons tus Jones will be traded D Wright will probably be traded there’s Denny AIA and even he might be traded just because there are so many teams

That are going to be interested in him and it’s easier to move guys while they’re on the poison pill provision now than ever if you’re dealing with a non tax team even for tax teams like there’s workarounds forward especially when you’re dealing with a salary that’s as

Modest as his both now and when his extension kicks in and and that’s when you factor in base your compensation so I understand the idea of well we want to play in a way where we don’t want balal to be baptized by fire at both say he’s

Being baptized by fire on defense I get that but like when you have a lack of long-term coherence in general we find out more about this player especially because he’s ahead of the curve there’s no reason just as an example one pick and roll possession as the ball handler

Per game for Bala Kali and that’s been down since the start of January one possession that should be at least doubled or tripled to where just three possessions just to see what happens so he gets a feel for live dribble playmaking for what to do in kind of the

In between zones against how defenses are are going to cover him can he work on the pull-up jumper at all there hasn’t been enough of that and so I believe that’s the primary reason W unel Jr was fired and then there’s a b reassigned I’m sorry uh the other thing

To note here though is the timing is still interesting because well most people probably expect that bow kali’s role will increase in prominence after the trade deadline when I would bet you know between tus Jones Denny AIA Delan Wright Kyle kosma and Jordan P he’s not

Going to get traded I’d be shocked if he did but like between that group probably two of those guys are getting traded so there should be more touches to go around maybe you start to see Shenanigans where Jordan p and kma aren’t playing as much down the stretch

Of the year not because they’re hurting your tank we know Jordan p is not but because you want to get some of these other guys touches I think the bigger thing here is well Brian Keefe he has ties to Will Dawkins and Michael Winger from their days in Oklahoma City

Together and the relationship between the three of them has been described as I think Josh Robbins of the athletic said strong and that matters the other thing is you you make the move because you want Brian Keefe to be a candidate you might be interested to him to be the

Permanent head coach I’m not saying they shouldn’t hold an extensive search after the season the all the reporting states that they will in fact hold a comprehensive search as they should we’ll see who’s available I think Kenny Atkins is a name to keep an eye on they

Might be in the mix for like a David Vanderpool um they probably will I think gravitate toward someone who doesn’t have a ton of head coaching experience or any head coaching experience at all but Brian Keefe if you’re looking at this guy you’re saying well we want to

See what he can do because we believe he might actually be a viable head coaching Prospect and I won’t say this is an excuse for not holding an extensive search Once the season’s over and there could just be other guys that lose their job around the league that all of a

Sudden become very interesting for this team I can’t think of necessarily one off the top of my head you’re not this is not oh Adrien Griffin or if chony bips gets fired in Portland and then you know if you know if Steve Kerr his contract is up in Golden State he’s not

Going to go to Washington if Greg papovich leaves the Spurs he’s he’s going to retire and so like you’re looking at some of these other options I don’t know you know Billy Donovan gets bounced I mean he signed the secret extension that’s not someone that you’re

Going to want in Washington but I’m just saying there could be other candidates that become available that really interest them I think it’s more so that they believe in Brian Keefe and so the team wasn’t good they’ve probably underachieved excuse me relative to the talent on the roster just by not

Having guiding principles on the court and and then the B kabali stuff that’s that’s the bigger one for me and that’s not to say I don’t think the person that was good enough for West unel Jun to do a much better job but if you’re not connecting with the players and if your

Biggest kind of Developmental Victory this season is look at what Denny avdi is doing and it’s because Denny AI just has this more prominent role and it’s well why didn’t this happen sooner you were in a position even before the Bradley be trade to do it because of all

The injuries that you were sling through we’ll have to see what this leads to I wouldn’t predict necessarily that Brian Kefi is still the head is still the head coach at you you know the start of next season but you make this move for two underlying reasons too that’s my firm

Belief here it has nothing to do with well has very little to do with expectations it’s the Bal Bala kulali developmental Arc should be on a more accelerated and aggressive trajectory than it is right now because he’s better than expected and then you’re actually very much interested in Brian Keefe

Being the guy moving forward those are my thoughts please remember to rate review subscribe to this podcast wherever you get it hit the sub button on YouTube like the video com comment help the algorithm love us back you can find us on Apple Spotify where you get your podcast and I can’t

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Dan gives his thoughts on the Washington Wizards deciding to fire, er, we mean, demote or reassign head coach Wes Unseld Jr. Spoiler alert: It has a lot to do with Bilal Coulibaly as well as Unseld’s interim replacement, Brian Keefe.

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