The Washington Wizards went through nearly the entirety of their offseason without making any official hires for their front office after firing longtime team president Ernie Grunfeld. It was a curious decision, given the relative importance of this summer with a top 10 draft pick and plenty of roster maneuvering to do in free agency.
There were rumors right after the Raptors title win that they were going to heavily pursue Masai Ujiri, but he chose to stay in Toronto with a quick rebuff of any offers. Danny Ferry and some others were mentioned as having met with the team, but once they let interim GM Tommy Sheppard run things through the draft and free agency it became fairly clear who would get the permanent GM job.
On Monday morning, the Wizards made it official, announcing Sheppard has indeed been stripped of his interim tag and will lead the front office as GM, but he’s not alone in official hires. Washington announced an entirely new management structure, which includes Sheppard as GM, former Cleveland Browns GM Sashi Brown is the “chief planning and operations officer” for the team as well as their G-League and NBA 2K League affiliates, ex-Georgetown coach John Thompson III leading a new “athlete development and engagement” department, and Daniel Medina as the chief of athlete care and performance, coming to the team from the Sixers.
Monumental Sports and Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis offered an explanation for how the new structure will work in a team release.
Sheppard will lead strategy, analytics, player personnel, scouting and coaching for the Wizards, Go-Go and District Gaming while Brown and Medina will lead teams providing shared services to all Monumental Basketball franchises. Brown will manage efforts relating to technology, finance, communications, security, research and player engagement and Medina will head up medical, training, mental health, strength and conditioning, nutrition and physical therapy/recovery. Mike Thibault will continue to lead all basketball activities for the Mystics as head coach/general manager while Pops Mensah-Bonsu will continue as general manager for the Go-Go, reporting to Sheppard.
Given that they weren’t able to bring in a big fish like Ujiri, the pivot for Washington seems to have been to a comprehensive approach to filling in the gaps in the organization’s structure themselves, rather than hiring a new president and having them do so. How it will work remains to be seen, but it’s a franchise that desperately needs to change course and this is a large, sweeping change at the top, which they hope can lead to building something positive.
