The Washington Wizards had an immensely disappointing season. The 2015-16 iteration of the team came into the year with huge expectations as a sizable number of fans and analysts picked them as the second best team in the East.
Instead, the Wizards whiffed and ended up out of the playoffs, entirely. The team currently sits at 40-41 capping their ceiling in this season at a disappointing .500 record. While injuries have played a massive role in the year, there has also been a clear scapegoat in head coach Randy Wittman.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, there is now a very real possibility that Wittman will be fired following the last game of the season (transcribed by Pro Basketball Talk):
“The Wizards…look, Randy’s probably 99 percent going to be fired on Thursday morning. There were people who legitimately make the case that the Wizards would have finished with the No. 2 record in the east this year, and they had all of the weapons required to go to the Eastern finals and make a run. Granted, they had so many injuries, I think three-quarters of the way into the season they had the most games missed. But their complete collapse defensively and their inability to execute despite having a lot of weapons at their disposal was just embarrassing.”
Wittman has had plenty of criticism before. His outdated system was blamed for the Wizards’ woes last season and despite attempting to change that this year, it has been much of the same for Washington. That has bled into publicly voiced frustrations by players as the season has gone in an entirely different direction than what was expected.
Injuries are certainly a major factor, and perhaps the largest one. However, it seems that Washington management is considering Wittman’s prior reputation in making this decision. It may be time for a change and there are a variety of talented free agent coaches who could turn the Wizards’ fortunes around next season. That includes the likes of Scott Brooks and Kevin Ollie who could be hired in order to lure Kevin Durant to his hometown.
