McRae was called up to fill the empty roster spot left by Meeks' departure, and Ian Mahinmi was tabbed to start in place of Howard, who was still recovering from his injury. The Wizards opened their season at Capital One Arena against the Miami Heat. The next day, the team announced that they had hired Washington Mystics player Kristi Toliver as an assistant coach for player development. Īs the preseason drew to a close, the Wizards made a couple additional personnel changes: On October 15, the team sent Meeks along with a future conditional second-round draft pick to the Milwaukee Bucks in a salary dump, receiving nothing more than the Bucks future conditional second-round draft pick in return. Meanwhile, Howard stayed out of preseason play entirely, as he dealt with a recurring back injury throughout the preseason, leading to speculation he would miss the team's season opener on October 18. The Wizards would later go on to win the rest of their matches in the preseason. Among those fouls, Markieff Morris was ejected in the second quarter after picking up a second technical foul from a verbal altercation with Knicks rookie Mitchell Robinson. The game was notable for the combined 83 fouls, resulting in 90 shots, accumulated by both teams over the course of the game. The Wizards opened their preseason with an overtime loss to the New York Knicks, 124–121. ![]() The Go-Go also held open tryouts in September to fill the remaining spots on their roster. Pops Mensah-Bonsu was chosen as the Go-Go's General Manager, and Jarell Christian as their Head Coach. ![]() On August 7, 2018, the Wizards unveiled the new management team behind their first ever NBA G League franchise to be directly affiliated with the team, the Capital City Go-Go, as they were set to play their inaugural season in 2018. The Wizards rounded out their roster by signing Jordan McRae to a two-way contract, officially adding him to the team in September. Brown later joined the team, while Sanon was chosen as a "draft-and-stash" player, who would be allowed to continue playing with the professional Slovenian basketball team Olimpija Ljubljana while the Wizards retained his draft rights. Issuf Sanon, a Ukrainian Guard, was selected with the team's 44th pick in the second round. Instead, they used the draft to acquire two additional players: Troy Brown Jr., a Freshman from Oregon who traditionally played at Small Forward, was acquired with the Wizards' 15th pick in the first round. Unlike in the previous two years, the Wizards did not trade away their picks in the 2018 NBA draft. Meanwhile, the team chose not to re-sign five players whose contracts had expired and became unrestricted free agents: Mike Scott, Tim Frazier, Ty Lawson, Chris McCullough, and Ramon Sessions. The Wizards then boosted their depth by acquiring veterans Thomas Bryant, Jeff Green and Dwight Howard in free agency. On June 27th, the team traded their starting center Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers for Austin Rivers, as both players were entering the final year of the respective contracts and were growing increasingly disgruntled with their teams. The Wizards made several moves over the summer to overhaul their roster. Jodie Meeks also exercised his player option nearly a month later, despite having to serve the remainder of his 25-game suspension in the 2018-19 NBA season for violating the NBA's Anti-Drug Program in April. In May, Jason Smith exercised his player option to stay with the team. Shortly after the Washington Wizards exited the 2018 NBA Playoffs in late April, General Manager Ernie Grunfeld was quietly granted a two-year extension for his incumbent role with the team. On April 2, the Wizards fired long-standing team president and general manager Ernie Grunfeld, replacing him with longtime assistant Tommy Sheppard. Wall was reunited with his former college teammate DeMarcus Cousins in Houston, both of whom played for the Kentucky Wildcats from 2009-2010. Wall would get traded to the Houston Rockets for Russell Westbrook and a 2023 first round draft pick following that season. This season would also mark the end of the John Wall era in Washington, as he played his last game as a Wizard on Decemand would undergo a season-ending surgery on his left heel and then later an Achilles injury from slipping and falling in his home that would cause him to miss the entire 2019-20 season. On March 28, 2019, they were eliminated from playoff contention after the Milwaukee Bucks' victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. ![]() The 2018–19 Washington Wizards season was the 58th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 46th in the Washington, D.C. NBA professional basketball team season 2018–19 Washington Wizards season
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