Washington Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld cautioned that the team's trade for veteran center Nene doesn't mean the team is abandoning its plan to build through the draft and develop their young players.
Nene has been called a top-10 center in the NBA by several league analysts. If healthy, he could be a major piece of the rebuild the Washington Wizards began last year when they drafted point guard John Wall and ended the run of the former "Big Three" of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison.
At the halfway point of this truncated NBA campaign, the Washington Wizards have seven wins in 33 games, giving them a lower winning percentage than every team except Charlotte — which is 0-2 against the Wizards.
Like a teacher with a classroom full of young students, Washington Wizards coach Randy Wittman does what he can, given the challenges of a post-lockout season. The instruction, Wittman believes, is getting through to his charges. But then they promptly go out and flunk the test.
Maurice Evans has had a great view of the Wizards games so far, but he would prefer the view from on the court than the one at the end of the bench. Evans had played in just three games for the Wizards this season, totaling barely 15 minutes, then played 15 minutes and 22 seconds in Monday's overtime win against the Toronto Raptors.
The Wizards' new coach did not look happy Wednesday morning. And for a good reason.
The Washington Wizards parted ways with Flip Saunders on Tuesday and named Randy Wittman as interim head coach. Washington has the NBA's worst record at 2-15, and it was evident that the players stopped responding to Saunders' message.
Flip Saunders was fired Tuesday as coach of the NBA-worst Washington Wizards and replaced by assistant Randy Wittman, who has the job for the rest of the season.
