Ted Leonsis should sell the Washington Wizards.
The owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment won’t, though, because the NBA team is the cornerstone franchise of the fistful of local teams he oversees. Leonsis has been a poor steward of a franchise that was once among the league’s greats in a town that loves hoops.
Leonsis fired president/general manager Tommy Sheppard on Wednesday. Sheppard made some decent moves in his four seasons like unloading John Wall’s mega-contract. He also blew the Rui Hachimura trade and his drafts have been spotty at best.
That said, Leonsis is responsible for overpaying players that limited the team. He stuck with Gilbert Arenas for too long. Wall’s deal was too much. Now Bradley Beal will be the fifth-highest NBA player next season when he really only suited to play second-fiddle on the court.
These types of moves aren’t done by GMs. They’re overseen by owners because of the money. But when local fans finally rid themselves of Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder soon, the natural move is to focus on Leonsis.
“Failure to make the playoffs the last two seasons was very disappointing to our organization and our fans,” said Leonsis over firing Sheppard.
Two seasons? Try 13 years for Leonsis’ rein. He became the majority owner in 2010 after first buying into the Capitals and Wizards in 1999. Ironically, Leonsis only bought the Caps to get the Wiz, but quickly became “Uncle Teddy” to hockey fans as he worked the concourse, even once fighting a fan.
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The Caps have been consistently good despite missing the playoffs this season. Alex Ovechkin is one of the sport’s all-time greats and the team won the Stanley Cup in 2018. The best game experience in town belongs to them.
Meanwhile, the Wiz largely stink every year, including 35-47 the past two seasons while missing the playoffs four of five years. The team has just five playoff appearances and four winning seasons under Leonsis and no 50-win seasons or extended postseason success.
It seems Leonsis is more concerned with filling Capital One Arena plus the Entertainment & Sports Arena with WNBA, Arena Football League and NBA G League teams. He has even made a bid to buy the Washington Nationals. As a businessman, the person who created those AOL discs at the dawn of the internet is brilliant. But as an NBA owner, not so much.
Not that Sheppard didn’t deserve to go. The understudy of Ernie Grunfeld, a truly awful GM, Sheppard’s teams were 129-179 over four seasons. Sheppard managed to turn Wall’s max contract into Russell Westbrook, who took the team to the playoffs in his one season.
But, it was under Sheppard’s watch the Wiz gave Beal a supermax deal that will haunt them for years. Sheppard gave away 2019 first-rounder Hachimura recently for a bag of balls. Sheppard drafted Johnny Davis, who just spent most of his rookie year in the G League.
The Wiz are kings of “middle building.” They can’t break the malaise of being a below-average team without even crashing badly enough for top draft picks. Washington can’t attract a top free agent for a rebuild, either.
Leonsis needs to find a young GM who’s smart enough to revive the team. There are people out there who can do it.
But the franchise needs an owner focused on smashing through the generation of mediocrity, too. Leonsis doesn’t seem to be the person to do it.
Follow Rick Snider on Twitter: @Snide_Remarks
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