“It’s fun because basketball is fun,” said Randy Wittman, who will celebrate his 55th birthday on Tuesday, a day before the Wizards open their regular season in Miami against the Heat. “And we got a good group of guys. Sometimes that’s half the battle.” (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

Randy Wittman did not want the job. The idea was awkward, receiving a promotion to replace a coach fired midseason, because he empathized: About three years earlier the Minnesota Timberwolves decided to do the same to him.

Whom he would succeed as coach of the Washington Wizards further vexed Wittman. Flip Saunders was a close friend. They became colleagues with the Timberwolves in 1995, when Saunders was the coach and Wittman was the assistant. The experience served as a launching pad for Wittman’s first lead gig, with the Cleveland Cavaliers starting in 1999. In 2009, when Saunders became coach of the Wizards, he hired Wittman again.

The friendship weighed on Wittman when the Wizards offered him the opportunity to take over for Saunders as interim coach following a 2-15 start in January 2012.

“You never go into a job like that,” Wittman said. “I didn’t want to take the job. It’s just a tough situation. I’ve been in it on the other side, being let go. It’s just an uncomfortable situation.”

Friendships aside, coaching the Wizards wasn’t exactly enticing. The team was recovering from the disastrous conclusion to the Gilbert Arenas era and had accumulated a .363 winning percentage since it last advanced to the postseason in 2008. A taxing rebuilding process was underway, and rarely do front offices maintain the patience to allow coaches to complete the turnaround. Wittman had been cut loose from such a situation twice already.

But Saunders and others eventually convinced Wittman to accept the offer. And a couple years later, after spending much of eight seasons coaching doomed teams, Wittman is finally overseeing a roster primed to win.

Preseason forecasts peg the Wizards as possible Eastern Conference finalists this season after their run to the semifinals in May. That was Wittman’s first postseason experience as a head coach and the furthest Washington advanced since 2005. He was rewarded with a three-year contract extension in June, granting him the opportunity to finally experience sustained success.

“It’s fun because basketball is fun,” said Wittman, who will celebrate his 55th birthday on Tuesday, a day before the Wizards open their regular season in Miami against the Heat. “And we got a good group of guys. Sometimes that’s half the battle.”

Led by the talented back court of John Wall and Bradley Beal, the bar has been raised to arguably its highest point in decades, particularly after an active offseason. Of course, in customary Wizards fashion, adversity has emerged before the regular season has tipped.

Beal suffered a fractured wrist in a preseason game Oct. 10, an injury the Wizards said would sideline their emerging star for approximately six weeks. Swingman Martell Webster has not been cleared for contact since undergoing back surgery in late June. Forward Kris Humphries required surgery on his right hand after slicing it on the rim. Shooting guard Glen Rice Jr. has a sprained right ankle. And starting power forward Nene and backup big man DeJuan Blair will miss the season opener because of suspensions.

Rice and Humphries are expected to return within the first handful of games, but the setbacks will provide an obstacle for the Wizards, who are annual slow starters under Wittman. Two years ago, they began 0-12. Last year, they were 2-7. But Wittman has been through worse.

“I’m a basketball coach, and situations are what they are,” Wittman said. “So I don’t fret or worry about the situation. I just go in and try to do the best job I can do.”

‘A cerebral player’

Mike Fratello and Wittman were rookies together with the Atlanta Hawks in 1983. Fratello was the first-time head coach. Wittman was the first-round pick out of Indiana . Wittman, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, became a mainstay in the starting lineup, Fratello recalled, without the natural ability others possessed.

“He was a cerebral player,” said Fratello, an analyst for Brooklyn Nets broadcasts on the YES Network. “He wasn’t the fastest, he didn’t jump the highest, he wasn’t the quickest, but he produced.”

After a knee injury cut short his 1991-92 season with the Indiana Pacers, Wittman was contemplating whether to continue his playing career when Donnie Walsh, then general manager of the Pacers, offered him a position on Bob Hill’s staff.

“I didn’t know if I would enjoy it,” Wittman admitted. “But I wanted to look at it. And then, from Day One, once I got into it, I found it was something I really liked and really enjoyed.”

Four years and two jobs later, at age 39, he replaced Fratello as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He inherited a team on the decline — a season removed from its ninth playoff appearance in 11 years and early in a seven-year playoff drought. One of his players was a rookie first-round selection named Andre Miller, who emerged as the club’s starting point guard as the Cavaliers sputtered to a 32-50 record.

“I remember the practices and his coaching style just going up and down the court,” said Miller, Wittman’s backup point guard in Washington 15 years later. “It was a kind of mixture of up-and-down and motion-type offense. We had some guys who can play from the inside in Shawn Kemp and some other veterans. We just couldn’t put it all together in that short amount of time.”

Wittman’s tenure was brief. He was fired after the Cavaliers won two fewer games the next season — two years before Cleveland landed LeBron James. He jumped back on the assistant coaching carousel until three months into the 2007 season, when the Timberwolves fired Dwane Casey and Wittman was made interim coach.

But like in Cleveland, Wittman took over a team light years from success. His interim tag was removed at the end of the season, but the franchise hit rock bottom when Minnesota traded disgruntled franchise cornerstone Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics. They finished 22-60 in Wittman’s first full season, and he was relieved of his duties 19 games into the following season. Wittman was 49 years old, and another head coaching job was far from a guarantee.

“When he took the jobs, I would say to myself, ‘Well, he’s just a temporary guy. He’s probably going to be out of there at the end of the summer,” said Walsh, now a front office consultant with the Pacers. “He just needed a legitimate chance to show what he can do.”

Patience required

Wittman’s philosophy hasn’t changed since his first job as a head coach. He strives to impart a rugged, defense-first mentality even as the NBA game has shifted to a spread-the-floor, score-first, fan-pleasing iteration. But there have been slight modifications.

“You learn from your mistakes and grow as you move along — patience being number one probably,” Wittman said. “Early on, patience can sometimes be too little, and you got to learn to go with the flow of what’s happening and figure out ways to get through it rather than think the Earth is coming to an end.”

Patience has been required. Wittman’s early results — an 18-31 finish after replacing Saunders — were promising enough to warrant a two-year contract and high expectations the following season, but a knee injury to Wall derailed it all. Without Wall, Washington began the 2012-13 campaign 4-28, and Wittman again was overseeing an inexperienced, injury-riddled roster. The grisly results, along with his previous history, sparked questions about his ability to elevate a team to the next level.

Wizards brass, however, was pleased with the team’s effort and encouraged when it finished 23-25 following Wall’s return.

“Randy got the players to play hard every night,” Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “He had a defensive system that the players bought into. He communicates with the guys, and they enjoy playing for him because he’s no nonsense. He tells it like it is, and he wants to win, and the players feel that.”

Owner Ted Leonsis supported Wittman, but applied pressure before the start of last season — the last on Wittman’s contract — when he declared a postseason mandate. Again, Wittman was facing the prospect of a short stint as a head coach. But the Wizards avoided devastating injuries, and the talent, led by Wall and Beal, met expectations.

This season, Wittman finally has the opportunity to reap the benefits of a rebuilding process, not just the hardship during the losing. It just took some convincing.

“Whether it was Cleveland, Minnesota, here, you just try to do the best you can,” Wittman said. “There’s only 30 of these jobs, and I feel very lucky to have the opportunity now with three different teams to be in this position. It doesn’t happen all the time.”