The Wizards made a move on Wednesday, shifting head coach Wes Unseld Jr. from the bench to a front office advisory role and making assistant Brian Keefe the interim head coach the rest of the year.
Maybe not a surprise even with the Wiz at 7-36, but it’s one that NBA TV’s Chris Miles thinks fits in perfectly with the plan of the new regime.
“I’ll tell you this much: for the first time in like maybe six years, I love what the Wizards are doing. I think the kind of guys they're bringing in...as far as what Winger and that front office is doing, I really like the decisions that have been made so far,” Miles told BMitch and Finlay. “Like, go all the way down to the bottom, draft guys like Coulibaly, get some guys who are younger that can potentially become stars as opposed to drafting guys who are never going to be that. You just wish they did it a year earlier, right, so there was a Victor Wembanyama chance in there, but if you look at the draft the next two years, it's star loaded, and I can give you names throughout like that. I just see kids where I'm like, man, if you have multiple picks in the 2025 and 2026 draft, you're likely to get a star to lead you to your next generation, and I think Winger and the group knows that. I think as a group, they know that and when you switch the head coach, it's like, Wes Unseld Jr. just didn't look like he was a good head coach, right? But you keep him within the family, his dad's a legend, and I love that move all around for those reasons.”
Miles named Marvin Bagley as an example of the plan on the floor, adding a veteran who has flown under the radar and it getting a chance to shine while mentoring some younger players, but yes, this is going to be more of a process like the Sixers than a quick fix.
“You almost have to erase your memory and say the day Winger took over is Day 1. Look what happened with the Bradley Beal trade – you heard me for years saying you gotta move him while you can and get a ton of draft picks, and you could have had what the Thunder have now if you move Bradley Beal in 2020 or 2021,” Miles said. “The Wizards finally seem to be playing that game where it's like, okay, Coulibaly is an NBA player. Is he a star? I don't know, but you got somebody that's better than the kids you've been drafting in the past decade or so. And you went and got Bagley, a young guy that's looking to prove himself that can put numbers on a board. You gotta go find that star, whether it's in the draft or whether it's making a savvy move for the next SGA, and then you're cooking.”
But why make the Unseld move now?
“I’m not around the locker room every day, but I will say when you have a young team, voices get old faster, and whatever he's preaching, they're not picking up on,” Miles said. “It's good to see that the Wizards aren't waiting around. That's the way I see it. We were making fun of th e Wizards’ late-game execution last year, but this year, as bad as their record is, they're just young and growing, and you see signs. You gotta find the coach, like, the next Taylor Jenkins like they have in Memphis, who will get them to compete every single night and the players will say coach is right, I don't think Wes Unseld Jr. was that guy from what we saw.”