Wizards Owner Displays Patient Mindset Entering Rebuild's Next Phase

The Washington Wizards' longtime owner has been in the know all throughout the squad's arduous teardown phase, and he remains optimistic on his team's future with the regular season looming.

Mar 27, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis shoots a basketball before the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The Washington Wizards have only won 50 games over the last three NBA regular seasons, good for the worst mark league-wide over that span. In a vacuum, that would be more than enough for heads to start rolling up in the front office, but that won't be the case just yet in D.C.

And that's not due to any complacency up top. Ever since new team-building management took charge three summers ago, they've maintained the same head coach in Brian Keefe for the last 200+ games while only adding to the young corps they promised to eventually win with. All they needed was the grace to punt on a few regular seasons' worth of wins in the name of long-term talent acquisition, and the evaluation team's been granted with all of the patience they could have wanted to this point.

Mar 27, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma (33) speaks with Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis before the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Now, as Wizards GM Will Dawkins has repeatedly advertised, the time has come for Washington's plane to tuck in its wheels and lift off, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis sounds thrilled to witness the payoff from all these years of controlled losing. Even if results aren't immediate, the squad's majority owner sounds keyed in on how and why we got here to begin with.

"One of the hardest things in sports is having the patience to build something the right way," he wrote in an X post. "You want progress to be immediate. Fans do. Owners do. Everyone does. But young players need minutes. Coaches need time to learn their group. Roles have to be earned. Trust has to develop. The preseason is the first chance to see months of work move from the practice court into live games."

One of the hardest things in sports is having the patience to build something the right way.

You want progress to be immediate. Fans do. Owners do. Everyone does.

But young players need minutes. Coaches need time to learn their group. Roles have to be earned. Trust has to… pic.twitter.com/jMMTi13Cie

— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) October 8, 2026

Leonsis' Change in Perspective

Sports executives rarely want to pull the plug on a middling product and initiate a rebuild, and not just because of how unpleasant it can be to field a losing operation for years on end. Fewer guarantees at wins usually means worsened attendance numbers and merchandise sales, which'll usually end up as a net loss for whoever was unlucky enough to make such a tough long-term decision for a franchise.

That's just the spot where Leonsis found himself in 2023, when he was clearly unhappy with yet another missed playoff appearance thanks to a team that had no excuse to fall short of 40 wins. Staring down a bleak young corps headlined by the infamous Johnny Davis draft pick and saddled with Bradley Beal's all-time onerous contract, he started fresh with a new band of suits set on accruing assets and starting over fresh.

May 14, 2021; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook (4) is presented with a ceremonial jersey by owner Ted Leonsis prior to the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports

Gone were the days of trading for big, aging names like Russell Westbrook and Kristaps Porzingis as desperate meal tickets, with more recent acquisitions for superior options like Trae Young and Anthony Davis more so featuring as the shepherds for the Wizards' vast wealth of youthful riches. They're armed with a dozen players at or under the age of 25- including seven first round picks selected over this rebuilding span- giving fans and, most importantly for our services, Leonsis, plenty of hope to latch onto.

As reluctant as he was to end the Beal era before things got grisly, he finally exercised enough patience to give his basketball experts enough resources and time to build a new team with an inspiring future. With the preseason underway and the regular season's tip-off around the corner, the fruits of the vision that he enabled will soon be more visible than theoretical.

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