Inside The Thunder

Expect Wizards' Rebuild to be Similar to the Thunder's

The Washington Wizards hired Will Dawkins out of the Oklahoma City Thunder's front office to be their general manager.
Expect Wizards' Rebuild to be Similar to the Thunder's
Expect Wizards' Rebuild to be Similar to the Thunder's

The Washington Wizards are reshaping their squad and it's began with the front office. After years of mediocrity, the Wizards are taking their next steps towards hopefully changing their culture. This begins with the hiring of Will Dawkins out of the Oklahoma City Thunder's front office.

Dawkins spent 15 years with the Thunder, and two years being a co-vice president of the squad. In this time, he's seen the Thunder go through more plenty of changes and has seen three different MVP players go through the system. The Thunder made the Finals with an incredibly young core, restructured the team in the post-Kevin Durant era and had to rebuild after years of competing amongst the best teams in the Western Conference.

Needless to say, Dawkins is bringing a great deal of experience and plenty of baggage to the Wizards front office. This comes at a good time, as the Wizards finally seem committed to make the next step towards becoming a championship-contending team, and that's by way of a rebuild.

For Dawkins to have been a part of Thunder general manager Sam Presti's stockpiling of assets and quick turnaround in a rebuild, Dawkins seems to be a great selection for the Wizard's rebuild.

As for what Dawkins is working with, he's got plenty of players to trade out and begin the stockpiling of assets. A Bradley Beal trade seems like it may actually come to substance, and this means they're likely going to trade a good portion of their roster for young talent and future draft picks.

Assuming Dawkins takes a Presti-esque approach to the rebuild, he may target a young player while stockpiling assets and center the rebuild around that player, even if things don't workout. Also, keep an eye on Dawkins taking on short-term salary dumps for future draft picks, allowing him to create good relationships with teams and re-establish these players' careers to eventually trade them for more assets.

Overall, we're about to see another member of Presti's front office branch out to a team of his own, which is another member to be a part of Presti's "coaching tree."

For the Wizards, it completely makes sense to bring Dawkins in to head the rebuild as they can only hope they can control as many future assets while bringing in as much young talent as the Thunder has in the past few seasons. 


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Kade Kimble
KADE KIMBLE

Kade has been covering a wide variety of teams ranging from the NFL to the NBA and college athletics since joining Sports Illustrated's On SI in 2022.