Tag: Ryan Richman

At 29 years old last season, he was the youngest front-of-the-bench assistant in the NBA. The Wizards flipped him from Scott Brooks’ staff to their G League team for the start of this season. Plenty believe Richman could be an NBA head coach one day. They wanted to hand him experience running a team. And he’s not trying to act older than his age. Instead, he’s embracing it. “He’s more of a big-brother-type vibe,” Schofield said. “I think that’s always different, but it’s good for our team with a lot of guys pretty much around the same age. … It’s fun. It’s a different vibe. He plays music during practice, that type of stuff.”

The Wizards felt it would be mutually beneficial to swap Christian’s and Richman’s roles before this season. Christian coached for five years in college and five more in the G League. He is used to working with young players. And the Wizards have a bunch of those on their NBA roster. His expertise would be invaluable. And Richman, meanwhile, would get a chance at running his own squad. He started as a grad assistant for Mark Turgeon at Maryland, where he was also a practice player for the women’s team. The Wizards hired him as a video coordinator in 2013. He rose to assistant coach from there. And so far, he’s impressed in his new gig. “I think Ryan’s doing a terrific job. He’s a good coach. I don’t look at him as a good, young coach. He’s a good coach,” Brooks said. “He’s gonna lead that team and be a big part of our organization and change things up. And we’re all one.”