Washington Wizards: 3 takeaways from the offseason

1. Leadership restructure

Perhaps the most prominent takeaway from the Wizards’ offseason is the team’s organizational reset, led by Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE) CEO Ted Leonsis.

According to an article written by The Washington Post’s Candace Buckner, Leonsis consulted 78 people in pro sports and beyond, with the aim of learning where he made mistakes and how he could best reorganize the Wizards franchise.

Specifically, Buckner’s piece says that Leonsis worked with U.K. sports executive Mike Forde, who “began to connect Leonsis with many of his clients from other leagues so Leonsis could gain insight about the structure of their organizations.”

What Leonsis’ conversations and considerations resulted in is “Monumental Basketball,” a collaborative initiative across the Wizards and MSE’s other sports franchises, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, G League-affiliate Capital City Go-Go, and NBA 2K League team Wizards District Gaming.

Sheppard has assumed the role of senior vice president of basketball operations, while former Cleveland Browns vice president Sashi Brown is chief planning and operations officer for the venture, former Georgetown head coach John Thompson III will run a new athlete development and engagement department and trainer Daniel Medina will be the head of athlete care and performance.

After the departure of former GM Ernie Grunfeld in April, there was clearly a need for an organizational reset and a definite plan that would lay the foundation for success going forward.

While no harm will come from organizational restructuring, the effectiveness of the Monumental Basketball initiative remains to be seen.

Leonsis and Sheppard’s direction in establishing a shared team culture and player engagement is valuable for the MSE organization.

"“My challenge now is to execute a vision we are looking at collectively and not just, ‘Hey, this is how I want everything to look,’” said Sheppard in a recent On Tap Magazine article. “It is critical to everyone working with us that they feel like they have a piece of this, and that’s part of the new NBA as well.”"

After nearly two decades of stagnation under Grunfeld, that could be a welcome change.