If the Washington Wizards follow the worn path, their next coach will be the opposite of Randy Wittman. It seems to be the organizational reaction throughout pro sports when a coach is fired: Find a guy who is not like the dismissed, then hire that person.
The latest example of this practice resides in Washington. Joke-cracking, storytelling, swag-filled Dusty Baker replaced rigid Matt Williams as manager of the Washington Nationals. If the Wizards are looking for Mr. Opposite to take over, they will be after a younger, more media-friendly, less curmudgeonly coach for next season. The trouble is there aren’t many of those guys available.
The Wizards’ coaching search is under way. It began the day after Wittman’s firing, according to team president and general manager Ernie Grunfeld. For the fifth time in 13 years, Grunfeld will be heading the search for a new coach. Eddie Jordan, Ed Tapscott, Flip Saunders and Wittman have all been dismissed during Grunfeld’s losing tenure as the team’s lead executive. In 13 seasons with Grunfeld in charge, Washington has a .423 winning percentage.
There is another standard line at work here, too: There are only 30 coaching jobs, which means taking over anywhere, particularly with John Wall and cap space, remains eternally attractive. Everyone likes bacon, even from a bad butcher.
The league has multiple coaching openings. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings are in search of new leadership. The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly taking a long look at Byron Scott’s status. He has two years remaining on his contract. Pressure on the Toronto Raptors is high, in part thanks to Wittman, as the second-seeded Raptors lost the first game of their first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers with Game 2 on Monday. Last season, the Wizards swept the Raptors in the first round. Should the Raptors lose to the Pacers, coach Dwane Casey’s job status will be a point of discussion. Openings in New York and Houston are also possible.
Grunfeld said there is no timeline to find a new coach, nor is prior NBA coaching experience a must-have for candidates.
With that in mind, there are five candidates the Wizards could consider:
Scott Brooks, former Oklahoma City Thunder coach
Brooks was fired after the Thunder missed the playoffs in 2015. Kevin Durant played just 27 games that season, so Brooks’ dismissal felt more retroactive to not having won an NBA title during his five previous full seasons. The Thunder went to the playoffs in each of those seasons. It made the NBA Finals once, Western Conference finals twice, and won at least 50 games four times, which tends to happen with Durant and Russell Westbrook on the same team. Those teams could score in ways no Washington team has. Brooks, 50, has been named the Wizards’ “top priority” by various reports. He also has a connection with Grunfeld: When Grunfeld was the Knicks’ general manager, he signed Brooks to play point guard.
Sam Cassell, Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach
If the Wizards wanted to try the opposite route, Cassell would fit. The 46-year-old is eight years removed from playing in the NBA, when he was known for big shots, borderline arrogance and not-safe-for-kids celebrations early in his career. Cassell was an assistant in Washington from 2009 through 2014 and moved to the Clippers to be with coach Doc Rivers the last two seasons. His path appears similar to that of Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, without the Shakespearean twists. Lue was an assistant to Rivers for four seasons before moving to Cleveland. Now, he’s in charge following the odd firing of David Blatt in the middle of this season. Cassell has been an assistant coach for seven years, has a bond with Wall and Bradley Beal, knows the town and management structurem but would be coaching his own team for the first time.
Tom Thibodeau, former Chicago Bulls coach
Thibodeau has not moved away from basketball since being fired by Chicago following the 2015 season. He was at the NCAA tournament midwest regional in Chicago. He has appeared at the well-known Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, has been a guest on multiple podcasts, and, in general, continues to hover around the game. The 58-year-old Thibodeau is viewed as the architect of modern defense. When an assistant with the Boston Celtics from 2007 through 2010, Thibodeau was able to devise ways to defend pick-and-rolls, overload a side of the floor without being punished and generally get stars to buy into defense. He was fortunate to have Kevin Garnett then, which allowed him to have a multi-faceted defensive leader from the start. Thibodeau was dismissed by the Bulls after reported tension with the front office. The Bulls made the playoffs in all five seasons he was in charge.
Mike D’Antoni, longtime former coach
It’s easy to be intrigued by what the 64-year-old D’Antoni could conjure if paired with the speed and pass-first thoughts of Wall. At the moment, D’Antoni is the associate head coach of the stuck-in-reverse Philadelphia 76ers after stints coaching the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers. His success was with the Suns, who twice made it to the Western Conference finals. Point guard Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP awards running D’Antoni’s swift offense. D’Antoni was named coach of the year in 2005. Though D’Antoni’s teams could score, they had trouble defensively. The same formula — with less-skilled offense — felled Washington last season. Grunfeld repeatedly mentioned defense as the problem when explaining why a coaching change was made, which makes D’Antoni seem a longshot option.
Jay Wright, Villanova coach
Wright is a longshot for a different reason. He’s the college coach de jour after leading Villanova to the national title this season. Wright, 54, has been at Villanova since 2001. He has often referred to the position as his “dream job.” He has twice been named the college coach of the year. Not long after winning the national title, suggestions that Wright could leave Villanova for the NBA began to arise, just as they had in 2009, when the Wildcats reached the Final Four. He has used a guard- and wing-oriented offense at Villanova that is reliant on multiple ball-handlers and switching on defense, which is the direction the NBA is going. As the door swung shot on leaving, Wright stuck out a hand to leave it a bit open, saying that he intends to stay at Villanova. He would at least be a creative consideration by the Wizards.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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