John Wall doesn’t yet have a personal relationship with Scott Brooks, but he was in favor of the Washington Wizards hiring Brooks as their next coach from the outset based on what he had heard about the former Oklahoma City Thunder head man. Wall works with the same trainer as Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook, who played seven seasons under Brooks, and the trainer reported only positives about Brooks. The Wizards’ three-time all-star was told Brooks was a players’ coach who also held players accountable, a difficult balance in today’s NBA. Wall said he was “very excited” when he heard Thursday that Brooks would be replacing Randy Wittman for the sum of $35 million over five years. Wall believes a coaching change was required after a disappointing 41-41 campaign and that Brooks is the right fit for the franchise. And he wants to make one thing clear: Brooks is coming to Washington, first and foremost, to coach the Wizards. Not to lure Kevin Durant. “We signed Scotty Brooks to win an NBA championship,” Wall said in a phone interview Friday night. “We didn’t sign Scotty Brooks to say, ‘Okay, Scotty, go get him. You got to bring us Kevin Durant.’ We got Scotty Brooks because we feel like he can help John Wall and make him a better player and make our team get to the next step. We didn’t get Scotty Brooks just to get Kevin Durant. That’s not what Scott is on board to do. And I hope everybody doesn’t expect just because we got Scotty Brooks, he’s automatically going to get K.D., he’s going to automatically jump.” Wall said he was made aware that Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld and Vice President Tommy Sheppard would interview Brooks, but that he was not closely involved with the process. The Wizards will pursue Durant, an impending unrestricted free agent, this summer. There is no doubt. They have deliberately crafted their payroll over the previous two years to ensure there would be enough cap space to sign the Washington area native. - See more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-durant/?postshare=771461420364384&tid=ss_tw
