Wizards have work to do to change NBA’s perceptions of their franchise (2025)

WASHINGTON — Outsiders cannot know for certain about another workplace’s culture until they immerse themselves in it and experience things firsthand.

Perceptions do not necessarily correspond with reality.

Respected NBA veterans Malcolm Brogdon, Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart did not join the Washington Wizards by choice. The Wizards brought them aboard via separate trades within the last nine months. When those trades occurred, each player thought he knew what to expect, and little of it was positive.

“It hasn’t been an organization that has had a lot of success over the last so many years,” Brogdon said the day after the team finished its 2024-25 regular season. “So, as a vet outside looking in, you think it’s going to be an easy game when you play the Wizards. You think you’re going to get a win. It’s not a team that you’re going to take as serious as the Boston Celtics. So, coming here, those were my thoughts.”

What Brogdon thought of the franchise last June, at the time of his draft-day trade, appears to be a prevailing opinion. The Wizards often are considered inept and rudderless by outsiders. In The Athletic’s 2025 anonymous NBA player poll, 158 players were asked to name the league’s worst organization; Washington received 20.4 percent of 113 votes cast, the second-highest share of the vote.

The results may be jarring, but they should not be considered a surprise, because players equate persistent losing with the overall quality of an organization. The rebuilding Wizards just completed their seventh consecutive losing season, including their second season in a row with the league’s second-worst record.

The Charlotte Hornets, who garnered a league-high 38.1 percent of the vote, and the New Orleans Pelicans, who received 11.5 percent of the vote, have never advanced to a conference finals in their relatively short histories. The Wizards last reached the conference finals during the 1978-79 season, when, led by Wes Unseld Sr. and Elvin Hayes, they were the defending NBA champs. The Sacramento Kings, who received 8.8 percent of the vote, have qualified for the playoffs just once since the 2006-07 season, snapping the NBA’s longest playoff drought just two seasons ago.

It’s worth noting that the teams’ owners have felt in recent years that they needed to make substantive changes. Two years ago, the Wizards hired a new president of Monumental Basketball, Michael Winger, away from the LA Clippers, and a new general manager, Will Dawkins, away from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Last year, the Hornets hired Jeff Peterson as their new president of basketball operations. Last week, the Pelicans fired executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin, and the Kings dismissed general manager Monte McNair and replaced him with Scott Perry.

In Washington, one of Winger and Dawkins’ goals has been to change the perceptions of the franchise — both on and off the court — and they have always acknowledged that it will require steady, painstaking work.

“Michael and I have only been here for 22 months,” Dawkins said, “but the goal is to kind of rebrand and, when people see what the Wizards logo (means), it means something different. I know that a few players and other teams have commented on just like, ‘You’re not walking in Washington anymore (and expect an easy game).’ It is what it is. We’re going to compete. We’re going to fight. It’s still TBD, but I think we’re moving in the right direction, and people see what we’re trying to do, and it starts with the player care, and it starts with the type of players we have in the environment.”

Winger and Dawkins have received significant financial support from the team’s principal owner, Ted Leonsis, investing the money to expand the team’s infrastructure. The athlete-care department has been beefed up, and the team also has hired a chef to join the team on its road trips. Last summer in Las Vegas, the Wizards rented a 14,000-square-foot ballroom and transformed it into a temporary practice facility that also included weight-room equipment, a large TV for film sessions and tables where athletic trainers and physical therapists treated players. Within the next several years, team officials also expect to build a new practice facility in Washington.

The Milwaukee Bucks traded Middleton to the Wizards in February, and Middleton said he expected he would be joining a team that didn’t “know where they’re headed” and was “trying to figure out their roster, trying to figure out who they want around.”

“Before I got traded here, you hear the rumors about what’s going on here, what type of organization it is,” Middleton told reporters after the regular season ended. “But once I got here, I can definitely say that hasn’t been the case at all. I’ve been surprised about how great this organization is and what they’re trying to build here.”

Wizards officials are the first to emphasize that it will take time to build their team, and that’s true. Washington completed its 2024-25 regular season with an 18-64 record and one of the worst net ratings in recent NBA history. The team lost 16 consecutive games from Nov. 2 to early Dec. 5 and 16 consecutive games again across January.

“These guys have a plan, and they’re super detail-oriented about how they’re going to execute it, and they’re doing it the right way,” said wing Corey Kispert, who just completed his fourth NBA season, all of them with Washington.

“The things that matter to you as players, they’re helping us take care of: the way our families are treated, the way that we operate on a day-to-day (and) scheduling. Even just the feeling you have when you walk in the building. You would think on a losing team for a whole year it would feel like you would come in here panicked, your heart rate would be up and you’d be nervous to come into work. But that’s the opposite of how I feel walking in here. The people in here are so genuine. They’ve done a great job helping us feel like we’re at home when we come to work every day, and that’s something that’s unique across the league, I’m pretty sure.”

Context is important here: The finish near the bottom of the standings wasn’t an accident. Washington devoted heavy minutes to rookies Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr and second-year wing Bilal Coulibaly. As coaches developed those young players, team officials hoped to maximize their lottery odds.

The plan does have short-term drawbacks. One of the casualties in the plan — at least in terms of perception — was Brian Keefe, who just completed his first full season as Washington’s head coach. When players across the league were asked to name the league’s worst opposing coach, Keefe finished first, garnering 24.7 percent of the vote.

He also received one vote for the league’s best coach.

But Keefe, whose extensive work experience includes two assistant-coaching stints with the Thunder, also was working with the roster he was given, and he followed the organization’s plan to develop its youngest players.

Brogdon said a successful NBA coach has to be able to command players’ respect and has to excel at X’s and O’s work.

“I think there are head coaches that don’t have both,” Brogdon said. “I think there are coaches that have one. I think there are coaches that have both, and I think B.K. has both. I think he’s a guy that guys respect based off of his résumé, who he’s coached, where he’s coached, the success he’s had in this league, and then, the knowledge he has for this game. I think the guys on our team and our locker room responded to him extremely well this season. And then, when push comes to shove and you need an ATO or you need something at the end of the game, B.K.’s getting on that board, and he’s putting something on the board that is excellent. So, I think he has what it takes.”

During a 10-game stretch from Feb. 24 through March 15, the Wizards compiled a 6-4 record, with consecutive road victories over the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets. Then, with their lottery odds threatened, the Wizards started to reduce their veteran players’ minutes.

Jordan Poole credits Keefe with playing him exclusively in a primary playmaker role, something Keefe started to do as an interim coach following the 2024 All-Star break. Since that change, Poole’s performance has improved significantly. This past season, Poole averaged a career-high 20.5 points per game and set a franchise record for 3-pointers made in a season, with 235.

“I think we were able to figure out that Coach B.K. is a player’s coach, extremely dedicated, extremely passionate (about) his craft (and) loves the game,” Poole said. “It’s something that I took away from this year; (and) I think the rest of a lot of the other guys did as well. He just loves coaching, and he loves trying to put us in a position to be successful, each and every player.”

Brogdon, Kispert, Middleton, Poole and Smart all indicated that the outside perceptions of the Wizards franchise and of Keefe do not match the reality.

Brogdon said his perceptions made “a complete 180” change from being inside the team, but he also said outside perceptions will not change overnight.

“With Winger and Will, they’re really turning this around inside-out,” Brogdon said. “A lot of the work and a lot of the good habits that they’re building right now with the organization on the daily aren’t going to be seen for another four years to the outside. But the players here, the staff here and the people that work in this building every day see the change happening right now. But it’s a change that will pay off later.”

— The Athletic’s David Aldridge and Sam Amick contributed.

(Top photo of Jordan Poole and Jaylen Brown: Bob DeChiara / Imagn Images)

Josh Robbins is a senior writer for The Athletic. He began covering the Washington Wizards in 2021 after spending more than a decade on the Orlando Magic beat for The Athletic and the Orlando Sentinel, where he worked for 18 years. His work has been honored by the Football Writers Association of America, the Green Eyeshade Awards and the Florida Society of News Editors. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2014 to 2023. Josh is a native of the greater Washington, D.C., area. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshuaBRobbins