Wizards hire Troy Weaver to front office as Senior Advisor

[FAH1223]

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[Eli Babak]

He was horrible with the Pistons, but was well respected in Oklahoma I think. Could be one of the cases where old friends just take care of each other, haha.

[NatP4]

Yikes. Hope he’s not involved in any important decisions.

[closg00]

I would love to know what he will be doing to work 40 hours per week.

[nate33]

He was horrible with the Pistons, but was well respected in Oklahoma I think. Could be one of the cases where old friends just take care of each other, haha.

He made one disastrous pick of Killian Hayes in his first draft with the Pistons. (The next 5 guys taken were Toppin, Avdija, Jalen Smith, Vassell and Haliburton! Yikes!)

After that, he was actually fine, albeit not particularly inspiring. Detroit just kept getting a pick that was just outside the range where the talent lied.

After the 2020 draft disaster he did the following:

• Acquire Jerami Grant in free agency which ended up as a good value signing
• Traded a heavily protected future first for Isaiah Stewart. (The pick never conveyed.)
• In 2021 drafted Cade at #1. It was a consensus pick. Every GM would have done it.
• Traded Trey Lyles and spare parts for Marvin Bagley
• In 2022 drafted Jaden Ivey at #5. Mathurin, Sharpe, Daniels and Sochan went next. Maybe not the best pick, but none of those guys are setting the world on fire.
• Traded a 2025 FRP for the #13 pick to draft Jalen Duren. It looked like a great move at the time, though Duren's development has stalled.
• Traded Jerami Grant for a FRP and two SRPs
• Traded Saddiq Bey for Wiseman. Kind of a head-scratcher, but no harm done.
• IN 2023 drafted Ausar Thompson at #5. The next 4 draftees were Black, Coulibaly, Walker and Hendricks.

The Stewart trade, the Jerami Grant transactions and the Duren trade were pretty good uses of assets. And the recent picks: Cade, Ivey and Thompson were all fairly consensus, with none of them being egregious mistakes (though the Ivey one is looking kinda bad).

[DCZards]

Thanks for the perspective/research, Nate. Prefer it to the knee-jerk reaction of “he’s great” or “he’s horrible.”

[TGW]

Hayes and Ivey were bad picks in retrospect,but at the time those guys were supposed to go where they were drafted. I also was a fan of Hayes...I think he just went to the wrong team. The Pistons have been a mess and quite literally every young player they've drafted, including Cunningham, have been terrible. Their 65 million dollar coach mailed it in and the young guys didn't develop.

[Endless Loop]

My only concern is that the organization now seems like it's got too many senior guys with too few big decisions to make. With regard to the draft, there needs to be one person responsible for making the decisions, one person who is accountable for the results. Too much input from too many sources will almost always lead to the "safest"- consensus- pick, which especially in a draft like this one, may not be the best pick.

Seriously, just how much IS there to do basketball-wise in an organization with around 30 revenue-producing employees (including G League)? Especially at a senior level.

[FAH1223]

My only concern is that the organization now seems like it's got too many senior guys with too few big decisions to make. With regard to the draft, there needs to be one person responsible for making the decisions, one person who is accountable for the results. Too much input from too many sources will almost always lead to the "safest"- consensus- pick, which especially in a draft like this one, may not be the best pick.

Seriously, just how much IS there to do basketball-wise in an organization with around 30 revenue-producing employees (including G League)? Especially at a senior level.

Make no mistake, Dawkins is the one running the draft, free agency, and trades.

Winger makes final decisions.

[badinage]

^ Agreed.

It’s hilarious to see sports ape the corporate world — senior advisor this, vice president of special ops that. Talk of best practices, talk of assets, etc.

And for all the corporatizing and seriousness, and all the pixels devoted to telling us about process and method — they still get things wrong! lots and lots of things! and the game is still the game! and uniforms are uglier than they’ve ever been!

But.

Many, many more people are employed!

As for Weaver and our beloved team, I wonder: what made him so hot a prospect when he was with OKC? What was it he did there that had so many — including so many on this board (yes, you, CCJ, and many others, too) — thinking he was a star-to-be?

[NatP4]

anyone and everyone out of that OKC FO got their shot elsewhere.

We hired the draft guru guy and paired him with someone (Winger) to run the operations/administrative side of things. The best move Ted has ever made.

[badinage]

So Dawkins is acknowledged to be the ‘draft guru’? Tell me more. I didn’t know that. I just thought that he was the right-hand man to Presti, and a buzzed-about candidate for a GM job because of how sharp and composed he is.

[NatP4]

So Dawkins is acknowledged to be the ‘draft guru’? Tell me more. I didn’t know that. I just thought that he was the right-hand man to Presti, and a buzzed-about candidate for a GM job because of how sharp and composed he is.

That’s just guess on my part, based on:

Winger having more of an administrative background, and deferring all draft related questions in press conferences to Dawkins.

Dawkins holding positions in OKC of Scouting Coordinator, Director of College Player Personnel, VP of Identification and Intelligence, VP of Basketball Operations.

Dawkins being featured in the post draft press conferences with Presti

The new FO having a really good first draft in 2023.

[wewillnevertank]

He was horrible with the Pistons, but was well respected in Oklahoma I think. Could be one of the cases where old friends just take care of each other, haha.

Yep, this is definitely a networking hire, which I don't mind, as long as he's not, as Kevin Folli noted, influencing decisions in a major way. I also have a soft spot for people with local ties. Would love to see more players from local colleges get a shot in SL.

[Kanyewest]

Hayes and Ivey were bad picks in retrospect,but at the time those guys were supposed to go where they were drafted. I also was a fan of Hayes...I think he just went to the wrong team. The Pistons have been a mess and quite literally every young player they've drafted, including Cunningham, have been terrible. Their 65 million dollar coach mailed it in and the young guys didn't develop.

The big thing was that Hayes was taken over Halliburton. But everyone makes mistakes I suppose and he did have some good advice back with the Thunder (pushing them to get Westbrook).

[FAH1223]

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[payitforward]

Ok i like him already

[Wizardspride]

Welcome home Troy.

He's been trying to get back here for years.

[Rafael122]

So Dawkins is acknowledged to be the ‘draft guru’? Tell me more. I didn’t know that. I just thought that he was the right-hand man to Presti, and a buzzed-about candidate for a GM job because of how sharp and composed he is.

He was a scout and director of college player personnel at OKC.

[9 and 20]

Washington Generals asst GM not available?