The Official Will Dawkins / Wiz Front Office Appreciation Thread

[AFM]

https://www.si.com/nba/wizards/washington-wizards-news/washington-wizards-midseason-grades-kyshawn-george-steal-draft

"3Shawn" -- I like it.

[AFM]

Watch on YouTube

Great vid.

[DCZards]

Coming away with Bub, Sarr, Kyshawn, and AJ from a single draft is quite a haul. Kudos to the FO.

[tontoz]

I like the fact that they actually have a spine in negotiations, for contracts and trades. Getting AJ included in the Kuzma trade surely wasn't easy.

[payitforward]

Coming away with Bub, Sarr, Kyshawn, and AJ from a single draft is quite a haul. Kudos to the FO.

No kidding!
& if you add the Colby Jones acquisition, sewing up Justin Champagnie, & grabbing the 20-year old Jaylen Martin... they added 7 guys with an average age of under 21 years old! Wow!

[payitforward]

This year, with 4 games left, we have played 18,730 minutes of regular season basketball.

8671 of those minutes -- almost half! -- have been played by guys who are 21 or younger.

Amazing! Add 1152 for Champagnie & 352 for Jones/Thor, & 10,175 minutes have been played by guys 23 or younger.

[pcbothwel]

I still have my eyes on Summer of 2027. Jokic and Giannis will opt out, and both their teams are 4/5 seeds that have mortgaged their futures through 2030. Hell, Denver may fall to the 8th seed this year.
The 2025 & 2026 top 5 picks will set the tone, but I could see us vying for a play-in spot in 26/27 and then heading into the offseason with 60M in cap space and selling agents/FA's on us being the next OKC.

[9 and 20]

Couple days late with this after Beal's one point game (taken from Reddit)

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Can’t lose with the addition of Patrick Ewing, Sarr take notes!

Will Dawkins’ brilliance shines brighter each season; he and this front office are alive!

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Read on Twitter

Latest addition to the Front Office!

Read on Twitter

New Lead Assistant!

Congrats to the guys!

[AFM]

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!! #RISEANDGRIND

[payitforward]

Just noticing...

Of the 17 players we have under contract:

5 were acquired in trades -- AD, Trae, Ayton, Middleton, & Cam.
Overall, if you add up what we gave for those 5, it doesn't amount to much.

1 other guy (Bub) was acquired with a pick that cost us a player (Deni) -- & in that trade we also acquired 3 other picks which haven't been used yet, hence we can't entirely close the book on it yet. All the same, the Deni trade remains controversial.

9 guys were drafted by us: Bilal, Vukcevic, Sarr, Ky, Tre, Will, Jamir, AJ, & Okpara. Only 1 of them (Vuk) looks to have been a poor choice.

The 2 remaining guys (JC & Reese) were signed as young undrafted players. We don't yet know how Reese will turn out, but obviously signing Champagnie was a terrific move.

That's a lot of good work overall in just over 3 years.

[doclinkin]

1 other guy (Bub) was acquired with a pick that cost us a player (Deni) -- & in that trade we also acquired 3 other picks which haven't been used yet, hence we can't entirely close the book on it yet. All the same, the Deni trade remains controversial.

When I teased it out I believe we are only waiting on a first round pick.

The 2nd rounders ultimately netted us Anthony Davis.

Via convoluted zigzags I think it amounts to that we traded:

Deni + Kuzma
for
Anthony Davis + Bub Carrington + a 2029 1st under the new flattened lotto system.

Plus the draft position that earned us Tre Johnson and AJ Dybantsa. Instead of losing one of those picks.

[closg00]

21st ranked FO

Read on Twitter

[bsilver]

21st ranked FO

Read on Twitter

Very interesting evaluations of all the FOs.
Though, from the way he eviscerates the Wiz FO, this article belongs in the “Amazingly Suck” thread.

[closg00]

21st ranked FO

Read on Twitter

Very interesting evaluations of all the FOs.
Though, from the way he eviscerates the Wiz FO, this article belongs in the “Amazingly Suck” thread.

I considered putting this in the other thread, everything is riding on whether or not they give AD a stupid contract.

[doclinkin]

21st ranked FO

Read on Twitter

In another era, the accumulation of young talent would be enough for a much higher ranking. In this one, managing resources and the cap means more than ever. That has been the area Washington has struggled with under Michael Winger and Will Dawkins.

Utterly misunderstanding the cap floor situation on a team with 11 players on cheap/rookie contracts. And control of 14 picks over the next 5 years. In a flattened lotto era.

The team is building with youth and building with Young. A floor general raises the game and value of the players around him. The team has tripled down on player development. Building chemistry and skill starting with facilities, staff, analytics and scouting. Fully committed to drafting a contender, not buying one.

Recruiting a team leader who can swiftly bring players up to speed is key. A floor general raises rookies’ confidence by feeding them easy baskets, teaching nuances of the offensive game. Trae Young is probably the 2nd/3rd best passer in the league after Jokic, maybe Luka. With Kyrie he may be one of the last pure point guards left in the game. He can demonstrate how to do it to our core of oversized ball handlers. There’s a non-zero chance he earns every penny of that sub-max deal, in terms of both short term value and teaching legacy. Ticket sales will jump. Media interest. Player regard. Desired destination status. Chemistry and perception. We are relying on a short term jump start but expecting the youth to take over by the end of his contract. We are not asking him to be the sole savior. Just to mentor the next generation and keep things fun until they’re ready.

Building from the ground up:

In the Relegation era teams pick swaps can be more valuable than picks. 2nd round picks are even more volatile, with the lotto order reversed at the top of the 2nd round. This team constantly adds picks in every deal. Suddenly those picks afford even more choice. Better chances at the top talent.

The best deal in the league is a star on a rookie contract. The team has set itself up to constantly renew itself with young starpower. They’ve taken full advantage of the Apron era by cycling late career stars with high value expiring contracts, sweetened with future picks. Teams desperate to escape cap penalties have traded us the better players in a deal along with future assets. In contrast to the article, the structure of a team that only has had 2 high dollar contracts at a time has enabled them to exploit other teams that overpaid to build contenders.

Media who understood the cap in prior iterations are the ones who struggle to grasp the new era. We have had to pay to meet the cap floor. So we spend on a couple highly paid stars. And a team philosophy of growth and constant improvement. That energy rejuvenated the careers of reclamation projects like CJ. Poole. Bey. Bagley. But more than anything the team chemistry that had the whole squad together over the summer — here, Vegas, PLYRS UNTD— is intended to have carryover not just to the regular season but to future seasons. Incoming talent. New acquisitions. Mindset. Attitude.

By mid season I fully expect the tone of these sort of articles to swap to breathless surprise and bla bla bla. No. It’s not a surprise. It’s a plan. They’ve been clear about it since they got here. It’s just at the next step, post tear down. Onto the foundational part.

[doclinkin]

https://youtu.be/snz3by5ioe8

Solid analysis of the roster.

[closg00]

https://youtu.be/snz3by5ioe8

Solid analysis of the roster.

This is AI generated content.

[doclinkin]

Yes. It’s also a fair distillation of the offseason. Puts the I in AI.

Mostly I’m just totally bored waiting for the season. It’s maddening.