Wizards GM Will Dawkins Creating His Own Path to Team Building

The Washington Wizards continue to get younger, and fans can now finally see the vision for the teams rebuild.

It’s a new day for the Washington Wizards organization and for the first time in recent memory the team has a very clear path and direction, which is to get younger. The Wizards started off Day 1 of the NBA draft by making the first big splash of the day when they traded Deni Avdija to the Portland Trail Blazers in a deal for the 14th overall pick in the first round of the draft, Malcolm Brogdon, a 2029 first round pick, and future second round picks. The Wizards will get the second most favorable of the 2029 first round pick of the three the Blazers own, including their own and the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks.

The next big domino to fall on draft night was the Wizards taking French big man Alex Sarr with the number two overall pick, filling an immediate void for an NBA quality “big” in their rotation for next season. Sarr is an extremely talented young prospect at just 19 years old and standing at 7-foot-1 he has a lot of room for growth in development both in his game on the court and continuing to grow into his frame as a person. 

There was a lot of chatter about what the Wizards would do with that pick but as the weeks before the draft started to countdown, it became very apparent in NBA circles that the Wizards were set on taking either Zacharrie Risacher or Alex Sarr with that second pick and would be more than content to take which prospect would be available after the Atlanta Hawks selected first. It was a pleasant surprise to have reports come out that Alex Sarr actually wanted to go to the Wizards, which is something that Wizards fans are not accustomed to, players actually wanting to come to the District.

With the pick that the Wizards acquired from the Trail Blazers, the Wizards selected Bub Carrington, a scoring guard from The University of Pittsburgh. Carrington, who is a Baltimore native, will add a dynamic playmaking guard to the Wizards rotation and be able to create offensive opportunities for himself and others. At just 18 years old, there is still plenty of room for growth with Carrington’s game and standing at 6-foot-4, with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, he fits the mold of long athletes that the Wizards have shown interest in over the last two drafts.

With the selection of Carrington and the trading of Deni Avdija, the Wizards have established a much clearer timeline for what this rebuilding process will look like. As the great analyst Fran Fraschilla once said about NBA prospect Bruno Caboclo, the Wizards are now “two years away, from being two years away.” Deni Avdija’s contract ends in 2028 and the players that the Wizards drafted tonight will be ending their rookie contracts and looking for extensions. 

The Wizards also made a third first round selection by drafting University of Miami forward, Kyshawn George with the 24th overall pick after trading up two spots from 26th overall to the New York Knicks in exchange for the 51st pick and a future second round pick.

Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins, is charting his own path as the lead decision maker for basketball operations with the Wizards and given his tenure with the Oklahoma City Thunder, this path is very clear to see. The Thunder strategy to team building is very simple, acquire as many draft picks as possible, then draft well. The Wizards were able to add three very young, but talented prospects and will rely heavily on their newly hired head coach Brian Keefe to be in charge of the development of these prospects. 

Keefe, who also spent a lot of time in Oklahoma City may just be the perfect fit to help navigate a young team over the next few seasons and make sure that these young prospects turn into good basketball players. With the Wizards hiring Keefe after he took over mid-season for Wes Unseld Jr, Michael Winger and Will Dawkins are again separating themselves from the old Wizards regime of Tommy Sheppard and bring in their own “guys’ throughout the organization. 

Earlier this summer the Wizards moved on from longtime director of Public Relations, Scott Hall and will be bringing in a new head of PR to take over for communications with the franchise. This move along with the hiring of former Detroit Pistons General Manager Troy Weaver as a special advisor leads me to believe that Winger and Dawkins are moving pieces around throughout the organization to tailor it to their specific vision. My league sources also tell me that there have been other firings and demotions within the organization and that Will Dawkins is now surrounding himself with people he is handpicking to help him build this franchise.

Wizards fans can have a sense of solace knowing that the organization has a clear path to how they want to rebuild this basketball team and only time will tell if these moves will result in the team reaching contention in the future, but at the very least we can all finally see the vision.