Hours after his first draft as the Wizards GM ended, Will Dawkins was still wide awake and joined The Sports Junkies…and found out that the Junkies’ poll of the day gave Dawkins an 88 percent approval rating for what the Wizards are doing with their rebuild.
“That’s unheard of in this city!” Dawkins joked.
Dawkins couldn’t comment on things that aren’t official (aka any of the recently-announced trades), but he could speak to first-round pick Bilal Coulibaly, whose acquisition from the Pacers at No. 7 overall is officially announced.
“It was a great night with the Wizards, so I’m glad people are excited about it,” Dawkins said. “With Bilal, I’ve been tracking him for a year or so; he came on late and had a good summer with the French National Team and his U21 team, and from there we kept watching him. We’re excited to have him in the pipeline because of the trajectory he is on. He just keeps making strides, and impacts winning on both sides of the ball.”
Dawkins had a lot of tape on Coulibaly but just got to see him live about a month ago, and from then to now, “it’s a pretty impressive rise, because he puts the work in.”
Cakes, who won the Junkies’ draft pool because of the pick, ‘loves what I see so far,’ especially seeing Coulibaly is in the 99th percentile at his position for height and length – a talent you can’t teach, but want to harness.
“You take the whole perspective when you draft a player, and we always look for long term approaches, esp. with someone like him who was the fourth-youngest in draft,” Dawkins said. “You feel like you have a ball of clay when you have those elite measurements – but when you look at his body type, he hasn’t a chance to physically train yet, either, so he’s going to make strides there. When you combine that with his passion and work ethic, you get excited about the three-to-five-year plan. It’s going to take a little patience.”
And it took a little patience and a lot of work to get Coulibaly, whose acquisition was the finalization of one of many conversations had with the Pacers, among others, in recent weeks.
“With any draft, you prepare weeks in advance and start having conversations once that lottery order is formed, and you have an idea of what teams are looking for. You try to gather intelligence, and Michael does a great job of making sure we’re organized and are talking to teams on the regular – and once you get in the draft room, you’re picking up on conversations you had earlier. Sometimes you have last-minute things come up and you make a rush decision, but we had conversations with teams ahead and behind us. You might not do it in the moment, but at least you know what you’re looking for.”
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Dawkins said it is indeed a collaborative approach when it comes to moves like that, but having worked with Winger in the past, that effort is further down the road than some new front offices might be – and Winger trusts his staff based on their strengths, especially in a draft
“This draft had the high-end talent, but the guys on down the lottery are going to be impactful players – and there’s not typically a draft where you have that many projected starters,” Dawkins said. “We were comfortable where we were at, but we knew Bilal was the guy, and once we to close enough to move up, giving up those two second-round picks to make sure we got him, we took advantage of that.”
The Wizards took a second international player in Round 2, selecting Serbian Tristan Vukcevic at No. 42, someone Dawkins has also been scouting for a while and developing a relationship with.
“We were excited to get him. In terms of him playing right away, we’ll work through that, but we’ll get him to DC and make sure he feels a part of the organization, whether he’s here this year or in the future,” Dawkins said. “He’s been on the radar a little longer than Bilal; I’ve been able to watch him for a while, and the thing that struck us was he’s played high level basketball in the Euroleague and ACB, and he just won a title in the Adriatic League. The game is growing globally, and those guys are learning how to play in the NBA faster. He’s 7-feet and can pass and shoot, and it’s hard to find those guys.”
Two new pieces as the Wizards rebuild gets underway in earnest, and Dawkins has a message for those who are watching it happen:
“We’ll be able to talk a little more about what people have seen in the media and the reshaping soon, but the message is that Michael and I were brought in to support a vision and put a plan in place to put us in a better position moving forward,” the GM said. “Mr. Leonsis gave us the resources to do it and has confidence in us, and he’s allowed this team to operate and do our thing. The past is the past, and Michael has a direction we’re going to continue to move forward with. We’re going to find a team that competes every day, enjoys being on the floor together and is out in the community. You’re going to be proud of the product, and that’s the most important thing. We’re supported by ownership and we have a plan in place, and people are going to want to be here in this great basketball city. A lot has been done in the last week, but if there’s an opportunity for us to continue to improve or gain assets, we’ll look at it.”
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