The Washington Wizards may be better than you think this year and not solely because of You Know Who. They also should be vastly improved based on the history of their new coach.

	Doug Collins is all smiles after becoming the head coach of the Wizards.

Michael Jordan made some good moves from his executive's perch last season. But the one which may yield the most fruit -- save, of course, for his own decision to return -- was the one to bring back Doug Collins.

Even without Jordan, the Wizards would be better than last year's hapless 19-63 cabal with Collins in charge. With Jordan, the Wizards take on a whole new look because (a) the coach has a track record for turning things around, (b) has a track record of working well (at least initially) with young players and (c) for the first time, the coach has someone who can feel his pain and possibly prevent a third implosion down the road.

Then again, maybe Doug and Michael will be back on the golf course in three years and wondering why they did what they did. But, for now, they're soulmates as well as coach and star. Jordan knows Collins' shortcomings. He also knows Collins' strengths. He saw what happened in Chicago and he saw what happened in Detroit. Both teams were better when Collins left than when he arrived, even if the coach wasn't.

"I've never started in a good situation," Collins said, almost as a point of pride. Even as a player, that was true. He was the No. 1 pick of the worst team in NBA history, the 9-73 Philadelphia 76ers of 1972-73. Four years later, with some help from the collapsed ABA, that team was in the NBA Finals.

But it's as coach where Collins has shown an ability to win, win quickly and, well, also wear thin. The first two characteristics are what concern Jordan & Co. right now. Laugh if you must, but you can't completely count the Wizards out of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Jordan is one reason. Collins is another, almost equally critical one.

"He wants me to coach the team," Collins said, speaking of his unusual relationship with his boss/player. "He trusts me to coach the team. I've been around young players and they've all gotten better. Michael feels I know the game and know how to teach it. I think he feels I can take a lot of pressure off him."

	“	He trusts me to coach the team. I've been around young players and they've all gotten better. Michael feels I know the game and know how to teach it. I think he feels I can take a lot of pressure off him. ”
		— Collins

Let's go to the record. Collins was a surprise hire by the Chicago Bulls in 1986, shortly after they'd been eliminated by the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. He didn't have much of a coaching resume at that point; he had been an assistant under Bob Weinhauer at both Penn and Arizona State.

The Bulls were 30-52 in 1985-86, but that record was misleading given that Jordan missed most of the season. In Collins' first year, the Bulls won 40 games and the following year, they won 50 and upset Rick Pitino's Atlantic Division champion Knicks to advance to the conference finals. They were back in the conference finals in 1988-89, Collins' last season, even leading 2-1 before the Pistons closed with three straight wins.

Fast forward to Collins' Detroit days. After a six-year hiatus, he got the call to revive a team that only five years earlier had won an NBA title. The Pistons were 28-54 the year before Collins got there. They won 100 games over the next two seasons (46 and 54) although they could not get past the first round of the playoffs. Collins only lasted 45 games in Year 3.

By the end of each coaching stint, it was hard to find a player on either team who hadn't totally tired of Collins. Even Jordan couldn't (or wouldn't) fall on the sword in Chicago. Joe Torre, he isn't.

But at the ripe old age of 50, Collins swears he has learned from the past (if he hasn't, he's condemned to repeat it again, of course) and will act accordingly. The one big difference in Washington -- he'll be around his boss every day who can, if he chooses, talk his coach off the ledge after the fifth loss in seven days. There's a sense of togetherness in this thing between Jordan and Collins, something Collins lacked in Detroit and Chicago. The two are driven and competitive and look to lean on each other as much as on others.

"I've been away three years," Collins said. "I hope I'm smarter."

Uh, Doug, if you're not, you should have stuck with that no-heavy-lifting gig at NBC.

"I'm so darn competitive," Collins said. "I drive so hard. I want so much for great things to happen to the people who are with me. But one thing I hope more than anything else is to deal with the negativity that comes with you guys (reporters) doing your jobs. There will be negative things and I can't let them hurt me so badly. I get stung by people who are negative to me. I have to grow from that."

He sure does. He is coaching the most scrutinized team in the league right now. The guess here is that he's making excellent progress along those lines. He knows a lot of the reporters from his previous coaching stops as well as his work at NBC. He knows, or should know, that any criticism directed at him will likely be professional, not personal. If he starts to let such things affect him, he's got no shot.

But he also has to understand that his coaching career is a cautionary tale. It's a story about an excellent, enthusiastic young teacher who wrought excellent and instant results. It's also a story about someone who was his own worst enemy and who, in the end, self-destructed.

But the one irrefutable about Doug Collins is that he knows the game and can coach it. He has had success doing it on two teams. He has an intriguing team with some very intriguing personalities (Courtney Alexander, Etan Thomas, Kwame Brown) as well as a few veterans who have been around (MJ, Christian Laettner.)

If he can tame his legendary fire and try to perhaps enjoy this thing, it's got a chance to work. We all believed Michael when he said he wouldn't play for anyone but Phil Jackson. The fact that he's decided to do so for Doug Collins speaks volumes about both men.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.