Ted Leonsis says 'first priority' is to keep Wizards together

I was away this weekend and been swamped with Finals stuff, so I missed this extended interview Ted Leonsis did with Monumental Network, the in-house media company he owns. In it, he repeated many of the same key points about why Randy Wittman is sticking around, noting the players' feedback during exit interviews, the changing of the team's culture and how he "delivered everything that he told us to do" in the team's first healthy season together.

The more interesting excerpt came later, when he was asked about the team's offseason strategy:

"The first priority, I think, is for the most part try to bring the team back that finished the year so strong," he said. "There was really great chemistry in the team. We were hard to play against, we have good big men, we have good wing shooters, we have a really good backcourt. So that's the first goal, is keep as much of that together as we can. And then as we go further into the offseason, it's how can we improve the team. Are there trades to make, are there free agent signings that we should be looking at?

Leonsis later said the Wizards have to simultaneously look ahead for multiple years, an obvious nod to the "brand-name free agent" language he used last summer. But it's another piece of evidence that suggests the Wizards will prioritize keeping Marcin Gortat and Trevor Ariza over other possible free-agent avenues.

DC Sports Bog has a larger transcript of the conversation.