The Washington Wizards have fired coach Flip Saunders after their NBA-worst record fell to 2-15 with a 103-83 blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, their 11th loss by double digits this season.
Assistant coach Randy Wittman will take over for the remainder of the season, and the rest of Saunders’ coaching staff will remain intact, with Don Zierden, Sam Cassell, Gene Banks and Ryan Saunders, Flip Saunders’ son.
“We felt the team had become unresponsive and we will look to Randy to provide a different voice and a change in philosophy moving forward,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said in a statement. “We have been transparent in how we would evaluate our team this season and we were disappointed in the lack of development of our players at this point in our rebuilding plan.”
The team will hold a press conference at 3 p.m.
Saunders, who was hired after the 2008-09 season, leaves the Wizards with a 51-130 record over two and a quarter seasons of a four-year contract. He was hired after a year in which the Wizards started by losing 10 of their first 11 games, at which point the team fired then-coach Eddie Jordan. Ed Tapscott was named interim coach as Washington finished with a franchise-worst 19-63 record.
With Saunders at the helm and veterans Mike Miller and Randy Foye added to the roster in exchange for sending the fifth pick in the 2009 NBA draft to Minnesota, the Wizards were expected to contend in the Eastern Conference, perhaps even far enough to gain homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Saunders won two of his first three games and then sunk into losing territory with a six-game losing streak. The Wizards were 11-21 when Gilbert Arenas was suspended for the remainder of the season after bringing guns into the team locker room, and they suffered a franchise-record 16-game losing streak in the spring of 2010.
On Monday in Philadelphia, the Wizards matched their season-low with 14 points in the first quarter and trailed by as many as 30 points. Starting guard Nick Young was also benched for the beginning of the second half, and players were informed after the game that there would be a coaching change.
Although the Wizards had played better over the last week, Saunders was perceived to be on the hot seat after the Wizards set a franchise record with eight losses to start the year.
With stints at Minnesota and Cleveland, Wittman has a career head coaching record of 100-207.
