Will Dawkins gives the Junkies the lowdown on Wizards' prep for training camp

The Wizards still have two weeks before camp opens on Oct. 1, but with the Junkies visiting the Monumental Sports Network studios for a special road trip broadcast of their show on Wednesday, Wiz GM Will Dawkins had to stop by and say hello ahead of the new season!

This time, there was no awkward exchange between Dawkins and Cakes like they had at a game last season, just a lot of optimism about the upcoming season.

“We’re about two weeks away, and we have a lot of our guys in town, which is great; they’re volunteering on their own coming in, so you get to watch a little bit of that as they get used to the gym and build some camaraderie,” Dawkins said. “It’s HBCU Week that we're putting on for Monumental, so I get to go to Howard and speak to them and join the panel there, and then we're trying to finish up hiring some staffing, so a lot of stuff still to do before we get there.”

So how excited can we be about the Wiz right now?

“It’s gonna take a while, but what we wanted to do this summer was make a lot of cultural deposits into the organization, and I think we did that, starting with the hiring of Brian Keefe and him meticulously taking time and building his staff,” Dawkins said. “All those guys have been lead player development guys in other places and now they're kind of assistant coaching, so we're building a culture of development. Last year was Year 1 of the rebuild; you gotta pull it down, build the foundational habits, and then build it back up, and I think we're still in the foundational building part.”

A lot of players hit the three goals Dawkins had set for them last season, but as a team, they didn’t quite get there, so Dawkins is going to evolve the goals after spending the summer working on them.

Oh, and working on Alex Sarr’s shooting, too, which wasn’t exactly great this summer.

“He’s 7-foot-1 and a defensive player first; I think we saw that. Would he like to have some of those games back in summer league? Yeah, but it was five months since he played five on five last in February, so we're not gonna be too wrapped up into four games, especially when you actually break down the tape and the good things he did,” Dawkins said. “How he got to his spot, how he moved the ball, I thought they were good. The offense is gonna come, and I'm excited for what he's going to be a few years down the line. We’re going to improve on the professional habits that he has, but someone that wants to take the chance to leave home at 14, play in Spain, try something different in America playing for OTE then go all the way to Australia – he’s got a lot of different experiences and a lot of confidence.”

Dawkins won’t put limitations on how good Sarr could be this year, only saying that ‘he’ll have his moments, negative and positive, but by the end of the season you'll be like, okay, that was different.’

Take a listen to Dawkins’ entire visit, which also includes some thoughts on Bilal Coulibaly, team goals for this season, and more!