Washington Wizards Coaches: The Definitive Ranking
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
13. Flip Saunders: 2009-12
51-130
It was under Flip Saunders that the Washington Wizards franchise hit its ultimate rock bottom. Gun scandals. 20-win seasons. Mike Bibby. But the horrible travesty that was the Flip Saunders Era goes beyond win and losses.
After the waking nightmare that was the 2009-10 season and the jettisoning of most of DC’s veterans, Saunders suddenly had in his hands a very young – but very talented – team. Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee all had star promise, and under Flip Saunders, not one would ever come close to fulfilling their potential.
To me, one of the greatest tragedies to ever befall the Washington Wizards franchise was the way Andray Blatche’s career played out. He had absolute superstar potential – he was a big man with incredible natural talent, who could excel in any area of the game he wanted, and most importantly, he was just so smooth.
He could have been the greatest big man to play in DC since Elvin Hayes. In general, NBA players are a highly competent and self-motivated bunch – they don’t need disciplinarians or taskmasters to order them around. But at the very least, an NBA head coach needs to be able to both command the respect of his players and to have fostered a culture of accountability.
In that sense, and every other, Flip Saunders was a failure. And instead of becoming the All-NBA player he could have been, Andray Blatche is merely part of the Wizards’ lost generation.
12. Leonard Hamilton: 2000-01
19-63
You know Leonard Hamilton, the Florida State coach? Fun fact: he actually coached the Wizards for a year! Hamilton was a career college coach, a longtime assistant at Kentucky and later the head man at Oklahoma State and Miami, when the Wizards took a flyer on him in 2000 – it was a disaster. Let’s not speak of it anymore.
11. Garrell Heardker: 1999-2000
29-53
The era of Washington basketball between the reigns of Gene Shue and Eddie Jordan was terrifying and aimless. We were but mere babes, wandering through the mist – this was epitomized in the lost 1999-2000 season, where former NBA players Gar Heard and Darrell Walker combined for an exceedingly mediocre 29-53 record.
Gar Heard, at least, will live in NBA lore forever for his famous turnaround buzzer beater that sent one of the greatest games in the history of basketball, Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals, into triple overtime. In two stints as an NBA head coach, he went 23-74 – he was fired 44 games into the season in his lone campaign as Washington Wizards skipper.
Darrell Walker was a similarly failed former NBA coach who had had a nice NBA playing career. He spent 10 years in the league, four with the Bullets in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – in the 1989-90 season, he posted one of the NBA’s all-time weirdest stat lines, averaging 9.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8 assists for a full season.
He returned to DC after posting 41-90 in a year and a half as the head coach in Toronto. He went 15-23 with the Wizards, and never had a head job again.
10. Jim Lynam: 1994-97
82-128
Best known as the head coach for the Charles Barkley-era 76ers, Jim Lynam’s greatest glory came as the coach for St. Joseph’s during their Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in 1981.
In his three seasons as the Bullets head coach, Lynam never had a winning record, and was fired halfway through the 1996-97 season despite being just under .500. He’s now a studio analyst for the Philadelphia 76ers. He seems like a decent guy and a somewhat competent coach overall, and I have little to say about him. Thanks for all that you do, Jim Lynam.
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