Breaking: Randy Wittman Signs Extension With Wizards

The Wizards and Coach Randy Wittman have agreed to terms for a contract extension. The deal will be officially announced via press conference on Wednesday.

Wittman helped guide the Wizards to the fifth seed in this year’s playoffs, and was monumental in helping the team escape the first round against the Chicago Bulls. It was the first time the Wizards had made the playoffs since 2008.

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The Bulls are a defense-oriented team, with the league’s best points-allowed average and the defensive player of the year in Joakim Noah, a daunting task for any coach. But Wittman led a balanced team of young gunners (John Wall and Bradley Beal) and seasoned veterans (Marcin Gortat, Trevor Ariza, Nene), and handily outplayed the Bulls, taking three of the necessary four wins in the series on the road in Chicago.

Their series that followed against Indiana was a forgettable one. Something didn’t click the way things did in the first round, and the sleeping giant that is Roy Hibbert awoke just in time to put the Wizards out of their misery and eliminate them from contention.

But Wittman demonstrated that he was capable of pushing this team to play their best basketball at the right time and that kind of resilient performance in the postseason translates into reward, and the Wizards have responded by offering Wittman an extension. The Wizards have not officially disclosed terms of the deal, but other news outlets are reporting that it is a 3-year deal, worth $3 million per season, with the final year being a team option.

For All Over the Hill’s assessment of the fan reaction, my cohort wrote a piece that you can find here.