The Washington Wizards have a new member of their executive team.
“According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com, the Wizards are hiring Michael Winger as president of basketball operations.
Winger was the general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers until this season. Prior to his time with the Clippers, Winger had long stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder. He worked in the Cleveland front office and later as an assistant general manager in Oklahoma City, assisting general manager Sam Presti.
He was named general manager of the Clippers after Clippers general manager Lawrence Frank was promoted to president. In April 2019, the Minnesota Timberwolves showed interest in him. Minnesota offered the winger the presidency, but he turned it down. Then, in July of that year, the Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard in the offseason and Paul George in a trade to create a formidable one-two punch.
This time, he’s moving to Washington. In addition to the Wizards, he will also manage the G-League affiliate Capital City Go-Go and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. As the president of the Wizards, it might seem like a no-brainer that he’d have some control over the G-League team and its players. But his influence extends to the WNBA franchise as well. 토토사이트
The Wizards fired head coach Tommy Shepherd after this season. They wanted to find someone new to lead the organization. Masai Ujiri (Toronto), Tim Connelly (Minnesota), and Thaddeus Langdon (New Orleans) were interested, but they likely chose to keep their positions with their existing organizations. They also reportedly met with Milwaukee head coach Milt Newton, but there was no word on a deal.
Washington also kept an eye on Bob Myers (Golden State). Myers’ contract is expiring, but no decision has been made yet, and assistant general manager Jeff Peterson (Brooklyn) is also a candidate. In the meantime, Washington met with Langdon and Winger to discuss the president’s job, and the decision was made to name Winger as the new president.
The Capitals have been led by Bradley Beal, with Kristaps Porzingis having an unusually injury-free season in recent years and Kyle Kuzma showing signs of improvement, but the team missed the playoffs due to Beal’s injury. They finished the season with 35 wins and 47 losses, good for 12th place in the Eastern Conference. It was the second straight year they missed the playoffs since 2021.