Randy Wittman To Return As Washington Wizards Coach

Randy Wittman To Return As Wizards Coach, Team Announces

There's been speculation for quite awhile, but the team finally made it official on Monday morning: Randy Wittman will drop the interim tag for next season, making him the head coach of the Washington Wizards. Terms of the deal were not released, but it was reported that he was under contract through the 2012-13 season prior to this announcement.

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."

The Wizards will add the third overall pick in this year's draft along with John Wall, Nene and a host of other young players with potential. Whether Wittman's able to turn the young team around remains to be seen, but it's nice to see the veteran coach being given an opportunity following the end to Washington's season.

For more on the Wizards, be sure to visit Bullets Forever and SB Nation DC.

Randy Wittman To Get 2-Year Extension As Wizards' Coach, Report Says

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's never really been a successful coach - he's 118-236, which if you do the math, is twice as many losses as wins - but he's never really had much to work with. Maybe he can turn Washington's rebuilding process into an actual, you know, building process.

For more on the Wizards, be sure to visit Bullets Forever and SB Nation DC.

Randy Wittman's Return As Washington Wizards Coach All But Certain, According To Report

Randy Wittman will return to the Washington Wizards next season after ending this year as the team's interim head coach.