Brian Keefe, the interim head coach of the Washington Wizards final season, has been employed because the group’s full-time head coach, the group introduced Wednesday. Keefe was initially an assistant in Washington below head coach Wes Unseld Jr. Nonetheless, Unseld was relieved of his duties as head coach and moved right into a front-office position in January. He has since moved on to take an assistant position with the Chicago Bulls. Keefe took over for him and went 8-31 down the stretch. That will not look like a fantastic report, but it surely was an enchancment upon Unseld’s 7-36 mark to start the season.
Previous to turning into Washington’s interim coach, Keefe was a longtime NBA assistant for a variety of groups. After enjoying faculty ball at UC Irving and UCLA, Keefe started his teaching profession as a university assistant, first at South Florida after which at Bryant. He made the soar to the NBA in 2007, becoming a member of the Seattle Supersonics and transferring with them to Oklahoma Metropolis.
When Thunder level guard Derek Fisher was employed as head coach of the New York Knicks in 2015, he introduced Keefe with him to the Large Apple. From there, he went on to work as an assistant for the Los Angeles Lakers, Thunder once more, Brooklyn Nets, after which, lastly, the Wizards. He has been lauded up to now for his work as a developmental coach, a necessity for a younger Wizards roster on the very starting of a rebuild.
Wizards president Michael Winger started that rebuild final offseason when he traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis, and Washington continues to be far-off from having a contending roster. Rookie lottery choose Bilal Coulibaly confirmed promise final season, and the Wizards are set to select No. 2 in June’s NBA Draft, however in any other case, there aren’t any different gamers on the roster that venture as long-term cornerstones.
Nonetheless, the mere proven fact that Washington is participating in a rebuild on this method after so a few years of floundering in the course of the standings is notable. Keefe’s hiring as a head coach with expertise growing youthful gamers matches properly inside that plan. The Wizards are years away from significant profitable, however they’re laying the groundwork for eventual enchancment now with each transfer they make.
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