Washington Wizards part ways with embattled head coach Flip Saunders – NBA News Update
The inevitable has finally happened.
After a franchise worst 0-8 start to the season, a period which saw Andray Blatche and John Wall publically expressing their displeasure over their roles and the spirit within the team, it was widely expected that Flip Saunders,
the Wizards head coach, who was in the third year of a four-year, $18 million contract, will be fired.
But, the team management, hoping against hope, stuck with their man that time.
Now after the quarter of a season has gone past and the Wizards are still languishing at a league worst 2-15 record, their patience has run out. On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the Wizards replaced Saunders with assistant coach Randy
Wittman till the end of the season.
Giving details of the decision, Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said;
"I felt like at this time, our players were not responding, and I think we needed a different voice. This doesn't change our overall plan, which always has been very transparent for us, which is to build through the draft, get
salary-cap space going forward and develop our young players. They probably haven't developed as quickly as we'd like for them to develop. That's something we need to continue to work on."
The Wizards have been all over the place in the first 17 games of the season. There has been no sense of direction in their approach and selfishness, complemented by the lack of accuracy, on the offensive has been there for all
to see.
The most worrying thing for them has been the dip in performance of their young point guard, last year’s number one draft pick, John Wall.
Wall has been a disappointment so far and is a major reason for the Wizard’s offensive slump. He has failed to make plays and find open spaces for his scorers consistently – the drop in his assists per game as compared to last
season (7.2 - 8.3) is a testament to that. In addition to that, he has also been struggling on the shooting front and is quickly losing on the reputation of the next break out star.
Randy Wittman, who has more than four more years of coaching experience under his belt, in his first statement made it very clear that his young brigade has to get its act together and didn’t guarantee minutes for anybody;
"We have to develop these kids, there's no question about it," Wittman said. "There comes a point, if you know you're going to be out there, you'll play whatever way you want to play. And I think that has to change a little bit."
Under the new coach, the Wizards next take on the Charlotte Bobcats, a team which is also struggling to find its feet this season. A new coach and a struggling opposition might just be the tonic the Wizards need to get it going.
Whether they will manage to do that, remains to be seen.
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