{"id":714035,"date":"2026-04-19T16:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714035\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T16:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:33:59","slug":"will-dawkins-update-isnt-what-wizards-fans-wanted-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714035\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Dawkins\u2019 update isn\u2019t what Wizards fans wanted to"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5k\">Will Dawkins spoke to the media on Thursday, addressing the state of the Washington Wizards ahead of next season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">The general manager discussed several offseason topics with the regular season officially here, but arguably the most noteworthy update from the Wizards&#8217; decision-maker was the expectation that head coach Brian Keefe is expected to remain in the DMV.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">Obviously, Keefe likely has plenty of supporters among the fanbase, but after <a href=\"https:\/\/wizofawes.com\/wizards-brian-keefe-replacement-may-have-already-been-revealed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington was linked <\/a>to Taylor Jenkins in recent weeks, it felt like the team could be big fish hunting this offseason, especially with their plans to compete next season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">And while Dawkins&#8217; initial expectation is that Keefe will remain at the head of the ship for now, it doesn&#8217;t mean things won&#8217;t change in the near future depending on how the coaching carousel shakes out in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Part of Wizards&#8217; fanbase hoped for a change of direction at head coach<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">Keefe has proven to be exactly what the Wizards have needed throughout the early portion of the team&#8217;s rebuild, showcasing that he&#8217;s a great developmental coach who connects well with young players.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">The second-year head coach has formed a reputation for getting the best out of his players, including the likes of Jordan Poole during his tenure in the DMV.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Still, Washington is entering the stage where competing in the Eastern Conference is the goal, and up to this point, Keefe hasn&#8217;t exactly proven to be the X &#8216;s-and O&#8217;s type of coach who could help get the team over the hump; granted, he hasn&#8217;t exactly been asked to with Washington tanking.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">Looking across the league, though, head coaches of fellow tanking teams like Will Hardy of the Utah Jazz seem to be in a separate tier than Keefe.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">With reporters expecting this offseason to have plenty of movement in the head coach market, many fans hoped that Washington would be among the teams to make a push for a new head coach to pair alongside the duo of Trae Young and Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n<p>Wizards have several candidates that could force them to reconsider<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Jenkins has already been a name tied to the Wizards if they opted to move on from Keefe, and though Dawkins said he expected Keefe to remain, things in the league move quickly.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">If another top candidate becomes an option, it wouldn&#8217;t be a total shock to see Washington make a change in plans.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">So who&#8217;s out there?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">Well, North Carolina already stole the <a href=\"https:\/\/wizofawes.com\/wizards-dream-offseason-target-just-slipped-away-after-shocking-news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Malone dream<\/a> from the Wizards, and Doc Rivers is out because all signs point to retirement (though nobody wanted him in D.C.)<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">However, several top candidates remain outside of Jenkins, with the likes of Boston&#8217;s Sam Cassell, San Antonio&#8217;s Sean Sweeney, or perhaps a proven head coach like Mike Budenholzer.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">And that&#8217;s not even considering candidates like Tom Thibodeau, Becky Hammon, Terry Stotts, Jeff Van Gundy, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow wizofawes.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=wizofawes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Dawkins spoke to the media on Thursday, addressing the state of the Washington Wizards ahead of next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-714035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-washington","11":"tag-washington-wizards","12":"tag-washingtonwizards","13":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116432344883047182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}