The Washington Wizards will have a new chief decision-maker starting this offseason. After 20 seasons with the team in various roles, GM Tommy Sheppard’s days with Washington are done, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
Sheppard was hired back in 2003 as the vice president of basketball operations, meaning he’s had a hand in multiple eras, from Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to John Wall and JaVale McGee and, of course, Bradley Beal.
Yet, throughout all the rebuilding efforts, the Wizards were never able to become a strong contender for the ultimate prize. As Wizards fans know all too well, Washington has only been able to get as deep as the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which they did four times during Sheppard’s tenure.
But the last time they did so was back in 2017, and we’ve seen little progress since Sheppard was promoted to the team’s GM position in 2019. After missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, the Wizards finally have had enough.
Instead of Sheppard making roster decisions, some of the first names to emerge as potential candidates for the new vacancy include New Orleans’ Trajan Langdon and Minnesota’s Tim Connelly, who notoriously made the Rudy Gobert trade in his first year with the team, but has strong local ties to Washington. We should hear plenty of other names soon enough.