{"id":21557,"date":"2021-07-18T02:25:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-18T07:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=21557"},"modified":"2021-07-18T02:25:48","modified_gmt":"2021-07-18T07:25:48","slug":"washington-wizards-hire-wes-unseld-jr-as-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=21557","title":{"rendered":"Washington Wizards hire Wes Unseld Jr. as new head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NBA Wizards name Unseld Jr., son of former star, as coach<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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Wes Unseld Jr. was named coach of the NBA’s Washington Wizards on Saturday and will guide a club he grew up around as the son of a former player, coach and executive. \"a <\/span> \u00a9 <\/span>Wes Unseld Jr. was named head coach of the NBA’s Washington Wizards on Saturday, his first head coaching job after 16 seasons as an assistant coach <\/span> <\/span>Unseld Jr., has spent the past 16 NBA seasons as an assistant coach and gets his first head coaching chance on the same team where his late father, Wes Sr., was a Hall of Fame center, former coach, general manager and vice president.”Becoming a head coach in the NBA is a goal I’ve pursued my entire adult life and to have that dream realized by coming full circle back to Washington is truly special,” Unseld Jr. said. “I look forward to… connecting with our fans and establishing a new standard for Wizards basketball.”The Wizards parted ways with coach Scott Brooks when his contract expired last month after Washington lost to Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs following a 34-38 campaign, their third straight losing season.<\/strong>“Wes is one of the most highly-regarded assistant coaches in the NBA and clearly separated himself from the large and diverse group of candidates we considered,” Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said.<\/strong>“His strong record as an in-game tactician along with his attention to detail on both sides of the ball, combined with his reputation for player development and outstanding character, left no doubt that he was the best choice to guide our team to the next level.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. was a Wizards assistant from 2005-2011 and had stints with Golden State and Orlando before spending the past six seasons in Denver.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. was a key figure in the development of Nikola Jokic, the Serbian center named this season’s NBA Most Valuable Player.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Sr., who died last year, was the 1969 NBA MVP and helped spark Washington to the 1978 NBA title.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wes Unseld Jr.<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Wes Unseld Jr.<\/strong><\/caption>\n
Washington Wizards<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Position<\/strong><\/th>\nHead coach<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
League<\/strong><\/th>\nNBA<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Personal information<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Born<\/strong><\/th>\nCatonsville, Maryland<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nationality<\/strong><\/th>\nAmerican<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Listed height<\/strong><\/th>\n6\u00a0ft 2\u00a0in (1.88\u00a0m)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Career information<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
High school<\/strong><\/th>\nLoyola<\/a> (Towson, Maryland<\/a>)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
College<\/strong><\/th>\nJohns Hopkins<\/a> (1994\u20131997)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NBA draft<\/a><\/strong><\/th>\n1997<\/a> \/ Undrafted<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coaching career<\/strong><\/th>\n2005\u2013present<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Career history<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
As coach:<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
2005\u20132011<\/strong><\/th>\nWashington Wizards<\/a> (assistant)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011\u20132012<\/strong><\/th>\nGolden State Warriors<\/a> (assistant)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2012\u20132015<\/strong><\/th>\nOrlando Magic<\/a> (assistant)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015\u20132021<\/strong><\/th>\nDenver Nuggets<\/a> (assistant)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2021<\/a>\u2013present<\/strong><\/th>\nWashington Wizards<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Wes Unseld Jr. is an American professional basketball<\/a> coach who is the head coach of the Washington Wizards<\/a> of the National Basketball Association<\/a> (NBA). He is the son of Wes Unseld<\/a>, a Basketball Hall of Fame<\/a> member who was a player, coach, and executive with Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Wizards name Wes Unseld Jr. head coach<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Longtime NBA Assistant Becomes 25th Head Coach in Franchise History<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 The Washington Wizards have named Wes Unseld Jr. as the franchise\u2019s new head coach. Unseld Jr. becomes the 25th head coach in the organization\u2019s history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWes is one of the most highly-regarded assistant coaches in the NBA and clearly separated himself from the large and diverse group of candidates we considered,\u201d said Wizards General Manager Tommy Sheppard. \u201cHis strong record as an in-game tactician along with his attention to detail on both sides of the ball, combined with his reputation for player development and outstanding character during his 20+ years of coaching left no doubt that he was the best choice to guide our team to the next level.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. comes to Washington after spending the past six seasons in Denver, including this past season as the Nuggets\u2019 associate head coach. Under his guidance, the Nuggets finished fifth in the West in opponents points per game during the 2020-21 season and 11th overall in defensive rating (while finishing sixth overall in offensive rating). During his six seasons in Denver, the Nuggets finished at least 10 games over .500 four times (including a 54-win season in 2018-19) and have made the playoffs each of the last three seasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank Tommy and Mr. Leonsis for the opportunity to lead this talented team both on and off the court and to continue moving the franchise in a positive direction,\u201d said Unseld Jr. \u201cBecoming a head coach in the NBA is a goal that I have pursued my entire adult life and to have that dream realized by coming full circle back to Washington is truly special. I look forward to representing the DMV, connecting with our fans and establishing a new standard for Wizards basketball.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. was instrumental in both developing Nikola Jokic into the lowest-drafted MVP in NBA history and the year-to-year improvement of Jamal Murray as one of the top young guards in the NBA. He also helped develop several mid-first round and second round picks into important contributors during his time in Denver.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTommy was very thorough during our search and the intelligence, information and recommendations he had gathered on Wes were exceeded by how impressive his preparation and planning were during the interview process,\u201d said Monumental Sports and Entertainment CEO and Washington Wizards Governor Ted Leonsis. \u201cWe are excited to bring him on board and see those attributes in action with our players and in the community with our fans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to joining the Nuggets, he spent two seasons (2012-14) as an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic (where he worked with Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo during the early stages of their careers) and one season (2011-12) with the Golden State Warriors (where he worked with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson during the early stages of their careers).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. returns to Washington after beginning his career with the Wizards as an advance\/pro scout in 1997. He would continue in that role through 2005, while also serving as an advance scout for the Mystics for three seasons (which included a stint as an assistant coach in the 1998 season), before being promoted to assistant coach for the Wizards in 2005. During his six seasons on the Wizards bench, Unseld Jr. was instrumental in game planning and player development and was largely credited with the success of the Wizards\u2019 offensive game plans, with the team posting four consecutive playoff appearances (2005-08) and three straight top 10 offensive finishes (2004-07).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unseld Jr. played collegiately at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and played high school basketball at Loyola High School in Towson, MD. He is the son of franchise legend\/Hall-of-Famer Wes Unseld Sr., the greatest player in franchise history and one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NBA Wizards name Unseld Jr., son of former star, as coach Wes Unseld Jr. was named coach of the NBA’s Washington Wizards on Saturday and will guide a club he grew up around as the son of a former player, coach and executive. \u00a9 Wes Unseld Jr. was named head coach of the NBA’s Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2405,330,11,8,1314,2432,1456,1156,2416,13,2404,2406,14,106,104,187,1,12,7,9,10],"tags":[4459,4458],"class_list":["post-21557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-basketball-sports","category-business","category-entertainment","category-global-business-entrepreneurs","category-global-gamers","category-global-news-updates-and-more","category-global-sports","category-hall-of-fame","category-health","category-high-school-sports","category-mbs-hss","category-most-commented","category-nba-sports-news","category-ncaa","category-ncaa-basketball","category-news","category-scitech","category-sports","category-us","category-world","tag-maryland-nationality-american-listed-height-6-ft-2-in-1-88-m-career-information-high-school-loyola-towson","tag-wes-unseld-jr-washington-wizards-position-head-coach-league-nba-personal-information-born-catonsville","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}