Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks has been subject to a great deal of criticism from fans and some media who cover the team. His 49-win season in 2016-17 and navigating through injuries to lead Washington to the postseason the following season are now distant memories.
Despite the Wizards recent surge, winning 17 of their last 23 games, to earn a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament, Brooks remains on the hot seat.
That seat got even hotter when Wizards owner Ted Leonsis failed to commit to Brooks beyond this season when speaking to the media earlier this week.
However, after clinching the eighth seed in the East with a win over the Charlotte Hornets, one half of the Wizards dynamic backcourt, Russell Westbrook, made a telling endorsement of Coach Brooks.
“You’ve got to give credit to our coach, number one because he’s done an amazing job of making adjustments,” Westbrook said of Brooks, per Hoops District.
That’s a contradiction to what many naysayers have said of Brooks. Critics have hung their frustration of Brooks on his inability to make adjustments in critical moments. However, according to Westbrook that’s furthest from the truth.
“Behind the scenes, Scotty is one hell of a coach, not just that, a person … All the outside noise it really doesn’t matter honestly.” Westbrook added.
Brooks is in the final year of his five-year, $35 million contract with the Wizards. As head coach, Brooks led the Wizards to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. That included losing Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics in 2017.
Unfortunately, the Wizards have failed to duplicate that success since. The two seasons that followed were marred by John Wall’s Achilles injury and Washington failed to reach the playoffs in each season. The team tried to readjust its fortunes by trading Wall and a protected first-round pick to the Houston Rockets for Westbrook to jump start their retooling process.
Initially their efforts seem for naught, as the Wizards stumbled to a 17-32 record this season. Injuries, including Westbrook’s quad injury, and an COVID-19 outbreak kept Washington off balanced. However, they’ve since recovered for the most part, and went 17-6 to close out the regular season.
In the span they climbed from 13th in the East standings to clinching the eighth seed with a 115-110 win Sunday against the Hornets.
Westbrook’s endorsement of Brooks is not surprising. Brooks was Westbrook’s first NBA coach. The pair were together for seven seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where they reached the 2012 NBA Finals as Westbrook played alongside a young James Harden and Kevin Durant.
Brooks and Westbrook have flipped their reunion into old times with the Wizards surging towards the play-in tournament.
Will the late surge and a potential playoff berth be enough to earn Brooks a new contract? Or will Leonsis and the team’s brass deem a change as the next necessary step to push the Wizards forward?
