05-11-2026, 10:34 AM
Not sure where to put this...
Listening to NBA Radio while driving in this morning and they were talking with Will Dawkins, GM for Washington. He's been there for since 2023 and was originally on with OKC working under Presti where he ended up as VP-BBO. Obviously, he was pretty upbeat about the lottery results from yesterday.
One of the things he talked about was their offseason program where the players are involved as much as possible with team staff for focused skills improvement, training staff access and health management including dietary guidance for at least breakfast and lunch. Said they took a 3 week break after the season, then started their program, which they call "jump season" because they want their players to make a jump to the next level. There were 7-8 attending last week and expect 14-15 this week. Skills training is designed with the player and position in mind rather that something generic. They try to respect players who have country commitments this summer and try to get work done around their away time. Said he was happy to have the last 3 years behind them because they felt it was time to start winning again. This season was focused on not giving up their FRP by finishing in the bottom 8 to get one more high pick in a deep draft.
So it got me to wondering, is there anything like that in the current DAL organization? I know Luka used to disappear of the radar for months while back in Slovenia and I never heard much about the rest of the team. I have been hopeful that there could be more going on this summer than just having the team disperse until camp opened up, but maybe that's too much to ask. Other than Coop and Kyrie, I'm not sure anyone else has high enough recognition to have a summer full of commitments.
Listening to NBA Radio while driving in this morning and they were talking with Will Dawkins, GM for Washington. He's been there for since 2023 and was originally on with OKC working under Presti where he ended up as VP-BBO. Obviously, he was pretty upbeat about the lottery results from yesterday.
One of the things he talked about was their offseason program where the players are involved as much as possible with team staff for focused skills improvement, training staff access and health management including dietary guidance for at least breakfast and lunch. Said they took a 3 week break after the season, then started their program, which they call "jump season" because they want their players to make a jump to the next level. There were 7-8 attending last week and expect 14-15 this week. Skills training is designed with the player and position in mind rather that something generic. They try to respect players who have country commitments this summer and try to get work done around their away time. Said he was happy to have the last 3 years behind them because they felt it was time to start winning again. This season was focused on not giving up their FRP by finishing in the bottom 8 to get one more high pick in a deep draft.
So it got me to wondering, is there anything like that in the current DAL organization? I know Luka used to disappear of the radar for months while back in Slovenia and I never heard much about the rest of the team. I have been hopeful that there could be more going on this summer than just having the team disperse until camp opened up, but maybe that's too much to ask. Other than Coop and Kyrie, I'm not sure anyone else has high enough recognition to have a summer full of commitments.