Inside look at Wizards’ structure
Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis looked at the success of his other sports franchises and had what he called an existential experience.
The Washington Capitals were among the best teams in the NHL and 2018 Stanley Cup champions. The Washington Mystics reached the 2018 WNBA Finals. His e-sports franchise was flourishing and he was helping revive the Arena Football League. But the Wizards, well, they were another story.
“Last year we thought the Wizards were a 50-win team and we lost 50 games,” Leonsis told USA TODAY Sports. “We had an existential experience, and I had to take responsibility for it. I said we’re going to spend 30-45 days in deep introspection and talk to every person in the organization. Every player, former coaches, former players, and we did that. The good news is that I found a lot of smart people whose voices were not reaching ownership, and I was very pleased with that.”
The result? A revamped, threepronged front-office structure called Monumental Basketball that focuses on basketball operations, player services and player health and wellness for the Wizards, Mystics, Capital City Go-go (G League) and Wizards District Gaming (2K League).
Tommy Sheppard, a longtime Wizards executive, has been named general manager of the Wizards.
Sashi Brown, a former NFL executive, is the chief planning and operations officer for Monumental Basketball and Daniel Medina is the chief of athlete care and performance for Monumental Basketball.
“The goal is to create a very collaborative, many-hands-make-light-work level and be prepared for the new NBA where data technology and health and wellness and all of these services merge with what is happening on the court,” Leonsis said. “Let’s start to create an identity of what a Wizards, a Monumental player-coachemployee looks like and let us be prepared for when there’s big moments – draft, free agency, trades – that all of those people have a seat at the table and we can get a 360 (degree) view of a decision and get true alignment the big investments that we will continue to make.”
By traditional standards, this is an unusual front-office setup. Sheppard, Brown and Medina are peers with distinct duties working together and reporting to ownership.
Whatever the Wizards were doing, it wasn’t working, and Leonsis gravitated toward this structure, including hiring someone with a football background to work in basketball.
Sheppard will focus on basketball — specifically roster construction, salary cap, analytics, the draft, free agency, scouting and coaching.
Brown will focus on technology, finance, communications, security, and research and player engagement.
Medina, who worked in European soccer before working with the Philadelphia 76ers the past two seasons, will focus on medical, training, mental health, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and physical therapy and recovery.
The Wizards also hired former Georgetown and Princeton coach John Thompson III to lead a player development and engagement department that will assist players on and off the court and help with post-playing career life. For Sheppard, this is the reward for his dedicated approach.
“It’s something that I really set a goal quite some time ago,” Sheppard told USA TODAY Sports. “For all of these things to come together with a fantastic franchise in a fantastic city, it’s humbling and very much an honor and I look forward to the challenge.”
When the Wizards dismissed longtime president Ernie Grunfeld in April, Leonsis asked Sheppard to run the team through the draft and free agency as Leonsis interviewed other candidates, including Tim Connelly of the Denver Nuggets and Troy Weaver of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I told him it was going to be uncomfortable and he never whined to me, he never reacted to the tweets and media,” Leonsis said. “He was steadfast in trying to show me what it would be like working with him.”
Leonsis asked Sheppard to come up with a plan for the draft and free agency. The Wizards selected Rui Hachimura with the No. 9 overall pick and got Admiral Schofield with the 42nd pick. They reshaped the roster with trades and freeagent signings, acquiring Isaiah Thomas, Davis Bertans, Ish Smith, C.J. Miles and Moritz Wagner. Leonsis was impressed. “I was just doing the job, I wasn’t trying to get the job,” Sheppard said. “I did what was asked of me, and I sincerely believe that you do the very best you can to the very best of your abilities, and everything takes care of itself. I relied on so many people. This was a group effort. We have a tremendous staff in place.”
During his deep dive into finding out what he wanted to do with his front office, Leonsis came away impressed with the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Look what Steve Ballmer is doing with the Clippers,” Leonsis said. “He’s got a great coach, he’s got a great outside consultant, he’s got a president, he’s got a GM, he has the brain trust.
“The only way you can get (a) competitive advantage is to try to get that added value from diversity. We always (talk about) diversity and we misinterpret it just as skin color or gender and diversity is really about different voices, different ideas and different experiences.”