Wes Unseld Jr.

Westley Sissel Unseld Jr. (born September 20, 1975) is an American professional basketball coach who is a front office advisor for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

He is the son of Basketball Hall of Fame player, coach, and executive Wes Unseld.

Unseld was born on September 20, 1975, and grew up in Catonsville, Maryland.

At a young age, he developed a close attachment to basketball; his father is Basketball Hall of Fame member Wes Unseld.

From the age of five, he was in locker rooms with his father before games, and after drove home with him.

As an adult, he remembers "a great family atmosphere in the locker room".

He played high school basketball as a center at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland.

Standing at 6ft 4in, he played as a small forward during his college basketball career with the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and graduated in 1997.

Unseld went directly from college to the NBA, starting as a personnel scout for the Washington Wizards, working for his father who was general manager.

He had planned to go to graduate school after graduation but decided to give basketball one year to see if he would enjoy it.

In his ninth year, after eight years of personnel and advance scouting, he was promoted to assistant coach.

Unseld has been given credit for creating Washington's offensive game plan, which led to three consecutive top-ten offensive seasons from 2004 to 2007.

He also worked as a scout and assistant coach for the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.

In 2011, Unseld Jr. left the Wizards for the Golden State Warriors after being denied a position as a front-row bench coach.

After one season with the Warriors, Unseld went to the Orlando Magic as an assistant coach in 2012.

After a 15–37 start to the 2014–15 season Unseld was fired, along with coach Jacque Vaughn, in February, 2015.

When his lifelong friend, Tim Connelly, became general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2015, he offered Unseld a job as an assistant coach.

In 2016 he was made lead assistant coach.

His special assignment had been to manage a defense that had been poor; the Nuggets went from 28th in defense in 2017–18 to 10th in the 2018–19 season.

From 2018 until 2021, Denver ranked among the top six in defensive efficiency.

Unseld Jr. signed a four-year contract to become the head coach of the Washington Wizards on July 17, 2021.

On January 25, 2024, Unseld Jr. was relieved of his coaching duties and moved to a front office position.

Unseld is married with two children.

The family resides in Potomac, Maryland.

He has been credited with the development of Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. In 2019, he interviewed for the vacant Cleveland Cavaliers head coaching job, but did not get the job.