We’ve known this is coming for days now, but Washington is about to make official they are making the safe play.
Monday afternoon the Washington Wizards will host a press conference to announce Randy Wittman will have the interim tag removed as coach and he will return with a two-year deal. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo was the first to report this.
It’s a move that will be welcomed by John Wall, who lobbied for it. But that’s only part of the reason he got the gig.
This was the safe, affordable play by Washington. They walked up to the tee and pulled out a three iron. Which is what ownership wanted to do right now.
Wittman was 18-31 as the interim coach in Washington, which included a nice little six-game winning streak to end the season. Wittman appeared to connect with and get more out of the roster than Flip Saunders (who he replaced 17 games into the season), he helped bring a little more discipline to a young team.
But this is not a game-changer hire. And Wittman is more affordable for a rebuilding franchise than bringing in a big name (Mike D’Antoni, Stan Van Gundy types). This is a team that will have Wall in his third season (when he needs to break out, but that’s another topic), Nene at center and whomever they get with the No. 3 pick (buzz is they want Kansas power forward Thomas Robinson). The franchise likely will be rid of Rashard Lewis and Andray Blatche by next training camp.
Wittman’s getting a real chance, this could be a team on the rise in the East. We’ll see what he does with it. For the Wizards, it’s a safe iron play down the middle of the fairway.