Wizards

Wizards, who haven’t won 50 games since 1979, focused on small victories

December 14, 2023

It’s been a long time since the Washington Wizards won at least 50 games. In fact, they weren’t even called the Wizards the last time it happened.

Instead, they were called the Bullets and it came one year after the lone championship in franchise history. The title came in 1978, when Washington finished 44-38. The next season they went 54-28, losing to the Seattle SuperSonics in a Finals rematch.

The late and legendary Wes Unseld was the starting center on those teams. His son is the head coach of the team today.

But don’t expect any immediate miracles from Wes Unseld Jr., and the front office is OK with that. While the Wizards are getting pummeled on the court, new head of basketball operations Michael Winger told Josh Robbins and David Aldridge of The Athletic that it’s all about baby steps.

And hey, progress can be measured in a number of ways.

“First, (tracking small wins) gives each player a set of measurable improvements to work on throughout the year and not rely on game wins and losses as a proxy for individual success,” Winger said. “If the players are pursuing and achieving these small wins, they’re individually getting better. When players know they can come to your team and become better basketball players, that’s a wonderful badge of honor for a team. Over time, as the talent on our team increases and the experience increases and guys are compounding those incremental wins, the game wins will naturally come.

“Secondly, it’s a strong cultural identifier, particularly during the frustrations and occasional hopelessness that stems from a bad loss, a losing streak or run of injuries. …

“It’s a marathon mentality — one stride at a time, protecting that one stride because every stride thereafter relies on the pace, power, accuracy and safe launch and landing of every stride before it, starting with the very first one. And finally, it sets a tone of resisting shortcuts, not settling for mediocre, not circumventing sustainability. Whether that’s on the court, in the weight room, in the cafe, film room or within our production team; marketing, PR, health-and-wellness — up and down the organization.”

Granted, team execs and general managers tend to try to sell things as positive when everyone else sees a mess. It’s one way to keep their jobs.

But the Wizards do seem to have a plan in place here, and they weren’t exactly expecting to be competitive this season. They wanted assets and to develop the young guys, such as first-round pick Bilal Coulibaly, who’s already displayed loads of promise.

With that being the goal, Winger makes some valid points and the Wizards (3-20 at this writing) at least have a vision. Let’s just hope for their sake it’s not another 44 years before they hit 50 wins in a season.

For more, I urge you to check out the excellent piece from Robbins and Aldridge, which is just Part I of a three-part series on the Wizards’ rebuild.