What Should The Wizards Do Now?

Just this past weekend, the Washington Wizards seemed poised to hire Nuggets executive Tim Connelly to become the President of Basketball Operatons for the Wizards. It made sense, since Connelly grew up in nearby Baltimore and worked for the Wizards when he first worked in the league. His wife's family was also from the area and you would expect that he would want to come home to work for a team that would've paid him better than the Kroenke family ever would.

Then came the crushing blow. Tim Connelly rejected them.

Connelly turned down the gig on Monday to remain with the Nuggets, meaning that he will continue to build the franchise that he watched over. And as for the Wizards, that means they're back to square one in their coaching search.

The remaining three candidates on their radar are Danny Ferry, Tommy Sheppard, and Troy Weaver. Right now, there are no plans for the Wizards to offer any of them an contract. I personally believe they're not the right fits for this organization, even though Sheppard has run the team since Ernie Grunfeld was fired.

What is interesting about this is that Connelly did not want to meet formally with the Wizards. He didn't visit Capital One Arena or the Wizards' practice facility in Southeastern Washington. He instead met at Leonsis's residence to discuss the opening. Initially, Leonsis did not reach out with a contract offer but eventually gave one after being convinced at the meetings that Connelly would be the right fit for them.

Connelly did not want to leave Denver, multiple sources have said. Although he hails from the Washington area, many have said that he did not want to leave and found himself in love with Denver. Although I get that, I still believe you have to go where the money is.

Now, look, I understand why Connelly turned the job down, but family and money do speak more power in this case than staying with an organization that doesn't reward front office people that often. In this case, he was offered a new contract and signed it, but will still make significantly less money than what the Wizards offered him. It's a shame he probably didn't see the realization in that but I understand it.

As for the Wizards, it's back to the drawing board and it's back to starting over again. I'm not sure which candidates out there they're going to look for now, but they'll have to go back to the same search group to see if they can come up with a new candidate who could be the ideal fit that they saw in Connelly. However, whoever takes this job will be tasked with reshaping a culture that won't have John Wall for most of next year due to repairing an Achilles tendon, as well as the difficult task of trading Bradley Beal. The one other thing that Connelly had that the Wizards would like, is somebody who has a connection with the city and the team. They like people who hold that particular trait in them because those people understand the team better than anyone else.

It's going to be a tough search going forward, since Connelly fit the bill of what the Wizards were looking for. Now, you have to go out and find somebody who does fit the bill about the same or even better.