WASHINGTON — One cloud enveloped the nation’s capital Thursday.

But even though haze and smoke inundated the city, another cloud seemed to lift.

The despair and gloom that have hovered in recent years over Capital One Arena evaporated, at least for one day. In a made-for-TV event that resembled an infomercial, the Washington Wizards introduced two of their new executives, Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins. With their arrivals, the franchise’s long-suffering fans can anticipate a new approach and perhaps better long-term results.

“I think the market is starving for some basketball hope, and there’s a lot of excitement in being part of a team that can deliver that hope,” Winger said.

Winger, Dawkins and Monumental Sports & Entertainment principal owner Ted Leonsis hit all the right notes during their 40-minute question-and-answer session as well as the media scrums and one-on-one interviews that followed. Winger and Dawkins inherit a team that missed the playoffs in four of the last five years and — far more corrosive to the fans’ confidence — lacked an easy-to-articulate plan. Against that backdrop, it would’ve been difficult for either of them to stumble.

“Obviously,” Leonsis said, “I was very, very interested in a fresh start and moving forward, starting with a leader who can be able to attract a great group of executives to help us to build a team that can legitimately, honestly, authentically say that it has upside, that it’s competitive, that the fans fall in love with and that we could have championship aspirations.”

What, exactly, the new approach will be toward roster construction remains unclear. Indeed, Winger and Dawkins didn’t offer many specifics on what they plan to do. That is not unusual, and not just for an introductory news conference. How often do basketball operations executives across the league telegraph their upcoming moves for public consumption ahead of time? Not often.

A new day in The District. pic.twitter.com/7LFfVyQYri

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) June 8, 2023

Many rival executives expect Winger and Dawkins to rebuild the Wizards’ roster, if not immediately, then within the next year. Kyle Kuzma intends to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. If Kristaps Porziņģis does not exercise his player option for the upcoming season, he also would become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Bradley Beal holds a no-trade clause in his five-year, $251 million contract, but it seems unlikely that, with his 30th birthday later this month, he would be interested in seeing through a complete roster teardown around him.

In response to a question from the press, Winger confirmed what The Athletic reported May 25: He has full authority to rebuild if that’s what he and his basketball operations staff decide to do.

Leonsis has altered the Wizards’ organizational structure to resemble the structure of the Washington Capitals. The hockey team has a president (Dick Patrick) who oversees the franchise broadly and a senior vice president/general manager (Brian MacLellan) who handles the day-to-day and personnel decisions. In the Wizards’ new structure, Winger’s role approximates Patrick’s role, and Dawkins’ responsibilities resemble MacLellan’s responsibilities.

Leonsis has scrapped the clunky model for the Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics and G League’s Capital City Go-Go that he introduced to significant fanfare in 2019. On that organizational chart, Monumental Basketball chief planning and operations officer Sashi Brown oversaw the management of facilities, communications, technology, finance, security, research and player engagement. Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard ran strategy, analytics, player personnel, scouting and coaching for the Wizards and Go-Go. And chief of athlete care and performance Daniel Medina was responsible for medical but didn’t report to Sheppard.

Brown left the organization in early 2022 to become president of the Baltimore Ravens. Leonsis fired Sheppard nearly two months ago. Only Medina remains.

This time, Leonsis has consolidated broad oversight of all the departments under one person, Winger.

Dawkins will run the Wizards day to day. Still, it’s fair in general terms to describe Winger as the Wizards’ No. 1 executive and Dawkins as the No. 2 executive even if their job titles don’t quite reflect it.

Winger said: “I’ll be first accountable. Whatever decisions we make, I’m first accountable.”

Major personnel decisions will be collaborative efforts, involving not just Dawkins but also Winger, senior vice president of player personnel Travis Schlenk and others. Winger’s skill set revolves less around player evaluation and more around setting a broad roster-construction strategy, understanding the collective bargaining agreement and negotiating. Winger will have final say over personnel decisions, but he’s unlikely to veto a move that Dawkins wants to make; a rare veto might occur if a potential move would have a harmful impact on the team’s cap sheet or if Winger is aware of something about a player off the court the rest of the staff isn’t.

When Winger was asked about the Wizards’ decision-making process, he answered: “I think it’s probably unorthodox insofar as Will and I are going to collaborate on every meaningful roster decision, every meaningful top-level executive decision. But there shouldn’t be a mistake: Will is running basketball operations for the Wizards, and whatever that day-to-day management requires, whatever decisions that requires, those are Will’s decisions to make.

“Corporate decisions, higher-level player personnel decisions — I’m certainly going to be involved (in those). There’s going to be a team of us involved: (John) Thompson III is involved, Travis is involved, Wes (Unseld Jr.) will be involved, Will, myself, others. We’re going to be just as Will and I were in Oklahoma City together, a very collaborative group … (with) close-to-zero siloed decision-making.”

Dawkins held many roles during his 15 years with the Thunder, ranging from assistant video coordinator to director of college player personnel to, most recently, vice president of basketball operations. His strengths should complement Winger’s weaknesses, and vice versa.

“At the end of the day,” Dawkins said, “it’s got to be a collaborative approach. It’s not going to be a one-person-making-decisions thing. Nor do I think it should be.”

Hope wasn’t the only theme Thursday.

So was patience. Winger set an aspirational tone, but he and Leonsis took pains to emphasize that the Wizards’ fortunes won’t change overnight.

“The eventual expectation is that we’re going to build a generational contender,” Winger said. “We’re going to eventually have a team that is competing for championships. I can’t promise when that will be. But 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.

“So, that’s the goal. The goal is to pursue championships by any means necessary. It’ll take time.”

(Photo of Will Dawkins, Michael Winger and Ted Leonsis: Andrew Temperly / Courtesy of the Washington Wizards)