And away we go, episode one thousand two hundred fifty-nine of the Al-Galdi podcast. It is Thursday, February 12th, 2026. It is the final day before the

2006 NBA All-Star break and our rebuilding and tanking Washington Wizards. They go into the break

with the second worst record in the NBA in its 2025, 2026 regular season, 14 and 39 off a 138-113 loss at the Cleveland

Cavaliers on Wednesday night. Our Wizards for this game did not have any available centers,

but 53 games down, 29 games to go in this regular season.

Nothing's for sure, but the Wizards keeping their reported top eight protected first

round pick in the perceived to be loaded 2006 NBA draft is looking pretty good.

More on the Wizards later in the show.

Hello and welcome to this Thursday installment of the Al Galdi podcast. Next segment,

in-depth discussion of the Washington commander's new defensive coordinator, Durante Jones.

We on Tuesday afternoon had his introductory press conference. We on Tuesday afternoon also

had a press conference for head coach Dan Quinn, who talked a lot about Jones. And so we next

segment will get into a variety of items,

including Washington's, shall we say, lackluster history of defensive coordinators over the last 20

years. Jones doing something very different during his introductory press conference as

commander's defensive coordinator as compared to Joe Wid Jr. did during his introductory

press conference as Commander's defensive coordinator. Where Jones per Quinn was in the team's

defensive coordinator search, Quinn declaring that the Commander's defense now is Jones's system

and observations from Jones on key commanders defensive players. Is Durante Jones the man to fix the commander's

defense? You know, if you look at the franchise's history over the last 45 years, there are so few

defensive coordinators slash people in charge of defenses who have had extended runs of success.

Richie Pettibone for sure.

...