Randy Wittman To Return As Washington Wizards Coach

Wittman took Washington over in January after Flip Saunders struggled to get the team to respond to him. It wasn’t exactly a quick turnaround, as Washington still ended up with one of the worst records in the league, but the team found momentum late as they closed out the season by winning eight of their final 10 games.

“We are excited to bring Randy back as head coach and give him the opportunity to build on the positive momentum that the team showed under his leadership last season,” team president Ernie Grunfeld said in a press release. “We were very pleased with the development of our young players and the commitment to winning he instilled despite taking over the team under difficult circumstances.”

It was already more or less well known that Randy Wittman would return as the Washington Wizards’ head coach, but now it’s official. Well, Adrian Wojnarowski reported it, which is more or less official.

The coach will apparently sign a two-year contract extension that will be announced next week. This is probably a good thing for the Wizards: Wittman took a team that was 2-15 and seemingly unwilling to listen under Flip Saunders and went 18-31 with them over the course of the rest of the season. Now he has John Wall, Nene, and whoever the team decides to take with the third overall pick to work with, and things are sorta looking up for Washington. I mean, to a certain extent, but it’s better than what Flip had been doing. They haven’t given Wittman a long-term deal - two years is pretty non-committal - but they’re sticking with him.

Wittman was inserted as the team’s head coach following the firing of Flip Saunders due to a 2-15 start. It took the coaching veteran awhile to turn things around, but he was eventually able to pick up some momentum as the Wizards ended the season on a six-game winning streak.

The wins didn’t especially matter aside from pride at that point of the season, of course, but ESPN’s Ric Bucher reports that it was enough of a statement to get Wittman the role again next season.