Five things to know about the Wizards' new front office

The Washington Wizards went headhunting in an effort to revamp their leadership team following the 2022-23 NBA season. And boy, did they bring back some industry leaders.

Michael Winger will oversee the Wizards, Mystics, and Capital City Go-Go as President of Monumental Basketball. Under him, Will Dawkins will serve as Wizards general manager, with Travis Schlenk as Senior Vice President of Player Personnel. John Thompson III, who was already with the Wizards' front office, was promoted to Senior Vice President of Monumental Basketball as well. It's certainly a flurry of big moves.

Fully grasping how the new front office of the Wizards will operate can be a tough task, so let's go over some essentials for what you need to know entering the 2023-24 NBA season and beyond:

New-look Wizards leadership group

Let's start with Winger, who will be at the top of the basketball hierarchy and was the first hire made by Monumental Sports CEO and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis this offseason. Winger started his basketball career in Cleveland's front office, where he helped the Cavaliers reach two Eastern Conference Finals and one NBA Finals appearance in 2007. From there, he became the assistant GM of the Oklahoma City Thunder under Sam Presti (you'll see that name become a theme here) for eight years, developing three future MVPs and reaching the 2012 NBA Finals. Finally, he departed to become the general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017, where he achieved a winning record in each of his six seasons, brought in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and led the Clippers to their first-ever conference finals appearance in 2021.

Will Dawkins, like Winger, has an accomplished resume. He spent 15 years within the Oklahoma City Thunder organization ever since he graduated college in 2008. He worked his way up from scouting coordinator (2010-12) to Director of College Player Personnel (2012-17) to VP of Identification and Intelligence (2017-20) and finally to VP of Basketball Operations (2020-23). He was instrumental in building, then rebuilding, the Thunder under GM Sam Presti and turning them into one of the most intriguing teams in the Western Conference. Their mantra was to amass draft picks (they have 33 picks over the next eight drafts) to build up a contender, which has ended up being a much quicker process than anticipated.

Travis Schlenk is also a huge name in this operation. His calling card is talent evaluation, and as SVP of Player Personnel, he'll head up all of the Wizards' scouting operations. He made his name in San Francisco, working from 2004-17 in which he spent six seasons as assistant GM of the Golden State Warriors. He was critical in identifying Draymond Green, who has since become an instrumental piece in GSW's four NBA titles since his arrival. More recently, he's worked as the GM of the Atlanta Hawks from 2017-22, bringing Trae Young, John Collins and others to the squad.

Thompson III had already been in the Wizards' front office for four seasons prior to the rearrangements made this summer. In his new role as Senior VP of Monumental Basketball, Thompson "will be focused on exploring and implementing best practices for the Wizards, Mystics and Go-Go while ensuring accountability for excellence across the organization," per a Wizards press release.

The chain of command

Winger, Dawkins and Schlenk will work side-by-side to make the Wizards (and the larger D.C. basketball landscape, including the Mystics and Go-Go) a force to be reckoned with. Their approach centers around collaboration.

"It'll probably look a little bit unorthodox," Winger said on The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan on Friday. "Will is brilliant, Travis is brilliant, and those two guys are gonna have the loudest voice on player personnel as it relates to who we ought to select in the draft, who we ought to target in free agency, whether or not whatever trade we have on the table is a balanced trade, if it's an imbalanced trade. If it's imbalanced, what ought we to do to make it more balanced?

"They're gonna have the loudest voice on players, but we're going to work extremely collaboratively as a group. I worked with Will for seven years, he's as collaborative as they come. I've done a lot of business with Travis, he's always been extremely open-minded and honest with me on the phone."

Winger finished his explanation of the front office dynamic with this summary: "If there's a really big, hard decision to make, that's my decision. But Will's gonna run the day-to-day of basketball operations. Travis is gonna spend if not all of his time, certainly most of his time just studying players around the league and around the world."

They have championship aspirations

During Thursday's introductory press conference for the new leadership team, one thing was made apparent from the very beginning: they know they're going to make D.C. a contender and a basketball destination.

Winger did not mince words when he made his goals for the Wizards known within the first five minutes of taking the stage.

"The eventual expectation is that we're gonna build a generational contender, we're gonna eventually have a team that is competing for championships," Winger said. "There's no excuse for the lone NBA team in Washington D.C. not to be a perennial contender or at least be pursuing championships...eventually, we're going to hoist a trophy here in D.C., I just can't promise you when."

Owner Ted Leonsis also emphasized that point by emphasizing the fact that the Wizards want to develop a clear identity as they build what will hopefully become a championship contender.

"What we're missing most is an identity," Leonsis said. "We need to be an organization, a team that you don't want to play against. We don't have that anymore. I don't want to look in the rear-view mirror, I just want to look going forward."

They're familiar with each other

As Winger alluded to above, he has worked closely with both Dawkins and Schlenk for several years. Winger and Dawkins especially have had an active working relationship: they both had offices in Oklahoma City working in the Thunder front office, overlapping from 2010-2017. During that time, they hit on draft picks like Reggie Jackson, Steven Adams, and Cameron Payne. They also helped develop Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, enabling each of them to blossom into MVPs.

Schlenk, though he's never overlapped in a front office with either Dawkins nor Winger, has been in NBA circles since the 20th century. As Chase Hughes noted this week, Winger and Schlenk met years ago when the latter was scouting a Thunder game while working for the Warriors. They maintained contact over the ensuing years, often negotiating trades with each other. In fact, Winger had hopes to have Schlenk join him in the Clippers front office before he took the Wizards role. The duo ultimately ended up together in Washington.

Their first test: the next two weeks

As Wizards analyst Glenn Consor pointed out following Thursday's press conference, the next two weeks leading up to the NBA Draft on June 23 are crucial for Washington. First, they have a jam-packed schedule of draft workouts in which they'll invite college prospects to their practice facility to get an up-close look at who they're considering with the No. 8 pick.

Two days prior to the draft, though, is a huge date for the Wizards. June 21st is the deadline for Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis to either opt into or out of their player option for the 2023-24 season. Two of Washington's best players and part of what they hope to build around, Kuzma and Porzingis' decision looms heavily over the front office. If they both choose to opt-out, the organization would have to either let them find a new home in free agency (which is not a desirable position for Washington to be in) or work out new long-term deals with the pair. If they opt-in, Kuzma is owed $13 million and Porzingis is owed $36 million for the upcoming season, in addition to Bradley Beal's contract which he's owed $46 million in 2023-24.

Then, the draft. Washington "needs to hit on that draft pick" as Consor said, as the deep draft class of 2023 could make for a potentially critical role player landing in D.C. By July, much of the Wizards' future will have been made clearer.