WASHINGTON — Not a single moment, not a single loss prompted Washington Wizards executives to fire Wes Unseld Jr. as head coach on Thursday.
The decision was made because of an unmistakable pattern this season.
Although many players improved individually, the team as a whole continued to struggle with a few exceptions. The defense looked incompetent. The players' efforts often fell short. The same mistakes repeated themselves from game to game. And despite all that, Unseld didn't make any changes to the starting lineup when players were healthy and didn't cut the minutes of underperforming rotation players.
Under Unseld, the Wizards won just seven of their 43 games that season, but the point wasn't the sheer number of losses. It was more about the fact that they lost most of those games. Michael Winger, president of Monumental Basketball, and Will Dawkins, general manager of the Wizards, couldn't imagine that things would improve this season if Unseld remained as coach.
“It kind of became clearer that there was something that was less sustainable than our most competitive selves,” Winger said during a news conference. “You felt it and saw it again and again, and so did Wes. I mean, he saw it. He knew it. He felt it. And he gave everything he had.”
The new front office gave Unseld an inherently flawed roster this season with an undersized starting backfield tandem of 6-foot-1 shooting guard Jordan Poole, whose defensive production is often lacking, and 6-foot-1 point guard Tyus Jones. Their height and length disadvantages affect the entire defense.
Until Washington traded for Marvin Bagley III, Isaiah Livers and two future second-round picks on Jan. 14, Unseld was forced to use either the immobile Danilo Gallinari, who played out of position, or Mike Muscala as the backup center.
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But Winger and Dawkins concluded that Unseld should have gotten more improvement – and more fight – out of the squad. The Wizards suffered deficits of at least 22 points in 18 of their 36 losses this season with Unseld as coach.
“We especially know that our energy hasn't always been there,” Dawkins said during the press conference. “We know that our competitiveness has not always been there. And defensively there were nights that were unacceptable and we want to continue to work on that. And we believe that we need a fresh voice right here, right now, and also for the betterment of the future.”
Winger and Dawkins went out of their way to praise Unseld's character and said Unseld would take an advisory role in the team's front office.
“We are a better organization because of Wes,” Winger said. “Our players are individually better thanks to Wes. In the six or seven months that Will and I have been here, we're doing better thanks to Wes. And I’m really grateful that he was here.”
Third-year swingman Corey Kispert said he was “heartbroken for Wes,” adding that Unseld was “a really, really good man.” Poole said he was grateful to Unseld for helping him adjust after his offseason move from Golden State to Washington.
However, some players said Thursday that they felt they were not being held sufficiently accountable.
When asked about the front office's decision to name senior assistant coach Brian Keefe as interim coach for the remainder of the season, Kispert gave a meaningful answer.
“BK is keeping it 100 percent, and he's going to tell it like it is, and he's not going to hold back, good or bad,” Kispert said. “And we need a good portion of that in this locker room. If we want to grow and be the team we believe we can be for the rest of the season, we need to be held accountable for what we do and don’t do.”
Jordan Poole struggled on both ends for Washington. (Tommy Gilligan/USA Today)
Forward Kyle Kuzma said: “I think overall we're facing a shift in organizational mindset right now and that's defense and accountability and I think those are the first two building blocks that are a focus and something we're going to do. “It’s been missing somehow in the last 40 or so games. … When it comes to competitiveness and effort, the bench is the most important teacher of this. So if you don’t do that – if you don’t play for your teammate, if you don’t give it your all – you can learn on the bench and I think that will resonate.”
Unseld used the same starting lineup of Jones, Poole, forward Deni Avdija, Kuzma and center Daniel Gafford in 37 of Washington's 43 games this season. Neither Poole nor Gafford played in the other six games due to injury.
Unseld posted a 35-47 record in his first season as coach, a season marked by internal tensions from players upset about their role in the offense and by Bradley Beal's season-ending wrist injury had struck in January.
The Wizards posted a 35-47 record last season as the Wizards again suffered from serious injuries but also underperformed on defense. At the end of that season, team president and general manager Tommy Sheppard suggested there was not enough accountability.
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Wizards Ted Leonsis fired Sheppard in April. Leonsis hired Winger and Winger then hired Dawkins. The franchise dumped Beal and recruited raw but promising 19-year-old forward Bilal Coulibaly from France. The new executives invested more resources into the franchise's infrastructure.
Under Unseld this season, Washington ranked 29th in the league in points allowed per possession, 25th in points scored per possession and last in defensive rebound percentage.
Unseld's supporters across the league – and there are many in the coaching profession – often point out that it would be difficult for any coach to achieve even a semblance of success with Washington's roster.
But even in the early stages of the rebuild, those responsible for the Wizards expected more from their team.
“We talk a lot internally about how we can tolerate losing a game in which we were competitive for 48 minutes,” Winger said. “We can endure losing a basketball game where we see the team improving as a collective. In the absence of 48 minutes of competitiveness, in the absence of collective team basketball progress over time regardless of individual improvement, we have a problem to address.”
In the coming weeks and months, Winger and Dawkins will see whether their decision was the right one. They'll see if the new voice Keefe will provide can actually make a difference in the roster they've assembled.
(Top photo of Wes Unseld Jr. and Bilal Coulibaly: Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)