WASHINGTON – After a search focused on interviewing potential first-time NBA head coaches, the Washington Wizards have hired internal candidate Brian Keefe, who served as the team’s interim coach for the final 39 games of the 2023-24 regular season. the team announced Wednesday afternoon.
Official: Brian Keefe has been named the 26th head coach in franchise history.
– Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) May 29, 2024
This is the result that opposing teams’ executives and coaches expected all along, and also the result that many Wizards players expected.
Throughout Keefe’s tenure as interim coach, Wizards players and officials praised him for holding players accountable, his player development skills and his good communication with people throughout Washington’s basketball operations department. .
Wizards executives identified those skills as crucial traits for their coach during this phase of their rebuild, a phase in which the team will almost certainly lose a lot of games, build through the NBA Draft and try to create a culture in where young players not only thrive, but also learn to play unselfishly on offense and tough on defense.
Keefe, 48, showed he could accomplish those goals during his half-season as interim coach. In that sense, Washington executives saw it as a known product and, perhaps, less risky than hiring someone from outside the organization.
He’s also deeply familiar with the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s way of doing things, which is essential for the Wizards because their front office is led by a pair of former Thunder executives, Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and general manager of Washington, Will Dawkins.
Keefe had spent 13 seasons as an NBA assistant coach, six of those seasons in Oklahoma City, before the Wizards hired him as Wes Unseld Jr.’s lead assistant coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.
Washington’s decision to hire Keefe came after team executives met Wednesday, a team source said.
The Wizards had a 7-36 record last season when Winger and Dawkins fired Unseld as coach in late January. At the time, Washington ranked 29th in the league in defensive efficiency, last in defensive rebounding percentage, and had suffered an inordinate number of blowout losses.
No player struggled more than offseason addition Jordan Poole, who routinely took low-percentage shots and whose effort on defense wasn’t good enough.
The Wizards compiled an 8-31 record under Keefe, and while that may not seem like a major improvement, the team played with more discipline and more resilience under his direction. From January 25 onward, Washington ranked 25th in defensive efficiency, 27th in defensive rebounding percentage and showed more toughness.
Those may seem like small gains (and they were small gains), but it’s also important to note that Washington traded starting center Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline and was without starting point guard Tyus Jones for the final month of the regular season. due to injury.
The Wizards would almost certainly have done better with Keefe if they had retained Gafford and Jones hadn’t gotten hurt.
Keefe made his boldest move immediately after the All-Star break. He moved Poole out of the starting lineup to put the ball in Poole’s hands more often and open a starting spot for rookie Bilal Coulibaly. But those reasons were only part of Keefe’s reasoning.
Keefe blamed Poole for his poor defense and shot selection. Poole responded well.
In his last 26 games, Poole averaged 20.9 points and 5.8 assists per game and raised his 3-point percentage to 35.9 percent. After he finished the season, a reporter asked Poole what he thought the team needed in his next coach. His response was a telling vote of confidence in Keefe.
“I can only really speak to the things that BK has brought to the table since he’s been here, and I think he’s been really good for our young team: the attention to detail he brings, the structure he brings,” Poole said.
“He loves the game and that is something that helps a lot, especially at the highest level. And he’s willing and very genuine and authentic about putting our team (and) putting guys in positions to be successful and leverage their strengths and really unlock them because he cares about them as individuals. He has done a really good job.”
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