In a Cleveland hospital, with his star player resting after surgery on both knees, new Washington Wizards coach Scott Brooks commenced with team building in a strangely appropriate place. If Brooks had any doubt the Wizards needed fixing after they regressed last season, there was the sight of John Wall, sore and in bed, reminding the coach of both the task at hand and the potential reward of promoting healing.

“Quite frankly, it’s not the ideal situation to see my starting point guard, for the first time I meet him, after he’s had surgery,” Brooks said before laughing.

But it was during this vulnerable time for Wall that Brooks began altering the culture of the franchise, one core team member at a time. Since taking the job in May, Brooks has spent the past two months traveling to bond with his team. Before the Wizards started filling out their roster in free agency, Brooks visited with the six holdovers — the six players most crucial to his success — to build rapport and set the agenda for a team that will be expected to win on effort, camaraderie, character and professionalism.

After spending two days with Wall in Cleveland, Brooks went through the rest of what was then a short roster. He went to Los Angeles to see Bradley Beal. He went to Orlando and stuffed himself during a dinner with Marcin Gortat that lasted more than three hours. He helped define Kelly Oubre Jr.’s role as a wing defender and energy player during another visit to California. He met with Markieff Morris at Verizon Center. Finally, in late June, he had lunch in D.C. with Otto Porter Jr.

It’s not novel for a new coach to meet with his players during the offseason. But it’s important to know that, since these meetings, Brooks is communicating more frequently with his players than most coaches and players do during the summer — phone calls, constant texting and more in-person visits. And it’s important to recognize that for Brooks, who developed as a first-time head coach in Oklahoma City’s extraordinary culture of hard work, competitiveness and collegiality, a deep team bond is vital to what he hopes to build with the Wizards.

“What we want to focus on is, you have to have a lot of respect for one another,” Brooks said. “The players have to have a lot of respect for one another. The staff and the players have to have a lot of respect for one another. We want our fans to see that, and we want our fans to appreciate that, and when they come out here to cheer for us, they will understand that our players respect the game and respect each other, and that word is big with me. Our players will understand that it’s important to me.”

Now that the roster construction is almost complete, it’s even more obvious that the Wizards’ greatest offseason acquisition was the hiring of Brooks to replace Randy Wittman. They couldn’t make a big splash in free agency, so they split their cap room on several role players who figure to come off the bench. They are still expected to use their $2.9 million room mid-level exception, likely on a wing player who can defend and make three-pointers, but that won’t net them some eye-popping talent.

Investing $35 million over five years for Brooks was the most important thing the Wizards did. His specialty has been getting young players to compete at a high level. If he does that here, the Wizards will make a lot more sense this winter.

“I’ve always had a philosophy as a player and as a coach, once you sign up for the NBA, youth is not an excuse,” Brooks said. “If you signed up to be an NBA player, if you’re good enough to make it to the NBA, you have to do the things that veterans do. What I did [in Oklahoma City] was, I was able to mold a young group of men to be great professionals. And my job as the coach of the team is to continue to build habits to be great professionals. And that’s a very encompassing word because it means so many things. But to me, being a professional is not just what you do on the court, it’s also what you do in the locker room. It’s what you do off the court.

“I really believe that you have to instill all the things that the great pros do. I’ve been around a lot of players, and they all have a lot of things in common, and the biggest thing in common was all respected the game, and with our players, youth — we have Kelly, we have Otto, we have Bradley — those guys are young men, but I’m never going to look at them as young. I’m going to look at them as they are Washington Wizards, and we want to be held at a high level. My job is to implement a system that demands professionalism.”

During the summer league, Oubre and the young players hoping to make the roster have noted how particular Brooks can be. His message figures to be even stronger when the veterans report in October. Brooks talks often about being an “effort-based team,” which is to say that the Wizards’ standard will be to play with an unrivaled level of energy and hustle. He doesn’t want to talk about slow starts during home games and lax moments after streaks of success. Those have been problems for the Wizards during their maturation. The new coach’s past teams have been too competitive and too accountable to each other to play so uninspired.

It starts with relationships. It starts with respect. And then comes revision. Wall, a three-time all-star, has had a favorable first impression of Brooks. It meant a lot to him that his new coach came to the hospital. Since then, they’ve talked often on the phone, which surprises Brooks because he’s so used to players preferring to communicate through text messaging. Brooks is talking to Wall about being a better leader and playing both ends of the floor consistently.

“We’ve had great conversations,” Brooks said. “I’m going to push him. I’m going to demand more out of him.”

Brooks will demand the same of Beal. When talking to Beal, Brooks often thinks, “Is this kid really only 23?” He sees the maturity and desire in his shooting guard, who is now a $128 million man. Now, it must translate into consistency and better health.

The coach goes player by player with impressions and expectations. He loves Gortat’s free spirit and considers his production to be underrated by the public, and he thinks the center can thrive in his system. He likes Porter’s quiet, steady manner and thinks he can make the most of his versatility. He sees Oubre and Porter developing into defensive factors on the wing, similar to what he had with Thabo Sefolosha and Andre Roberson in Oklahoma City. In spending time with Morris, Brooks likes that there’s a seriousness about the 6-10 forward that many haven’t appreciated. And Brooks has defended the team’s free agency moves as acquisitions that add to the character, depth and defensive potential of the roster.

Of course, life is just a menu of dessert options right now. Brooks hasn’t lost a game yet. He hasn’t noticed any holes. But there’s nothing wrong with a little positive July thinking and reinforcement of the fact that the Wizards do have good front-end talent.

How good? We’ll learn more about Brooks’s strategic acumen later, but his general approach should give the Wizards a better chance of reaching their potential.

The first step to fixing the Wizards is to understand them. So the bonding has begun. A fresh culture is beginning to take form.

For more by Jerry Brewer, visit washingtonpost.com/brewer.