A nice surprise for Grant & Danny Tuesday: hours after he was introduced as the official head coach of the Wizards, Brian Keefe called in to say hello!
And, of course, talk about the state of the Wizards’ rebuild, which is now officially under his watch after he was the interim head coach for the final 39 games of last season.
“The middle of last week, Will Dawkins and Michael Winger reached out and offered me the job,” Keefe said. “When I took over, my sole focus was to help our players play better and show some growth the last part of the year. So, we were just solely focused on the process of doing that, and trying to put our players in the best position to be successful and build habits that we thought were gonna be sustainable. That was my focus to the end of the year and it still is my focus, and I got very lucky in getting the job. I have tremendous gratitude and I’m humbled for getting this opportunity, but the focus was on improvement.”
Quite a few Wizards picked up statistically as the year went on and Keefe’s tenure got going, but in the end, he thinks that came from the approach he took from GM Will Dawkins’ playbook as the then-temporary leader of the rebuild.
“For me, the statistical stuff was important, but where I could see the growth was in our everyday approach and habit building. Our guys really bought into that and really focused on being in the present and controlling what we can control, and what we could control every day was focusing on how we're gonna get better individually and collectively,” Keefe said. “I think that led to some of the stats improving and some of the guys playing better as the season went along, and even some of the guys who were with the Go-Go and got opportunities with us late in the year, those guys played well. So, I think all those things were really important, but it was the day-to-day habits that I was really the most pleased with.”
So now, Year 1 of the rebuild is over and the Wizards have the No. 2 pick on the 26th, but how does the team take the next step in 2024-25?
“We’re trying to build something that's sustainable, where they can win in the playoffs and go deep, and to do that, we're gonna have to continue to build habits, but also explore the capabilities of each guy on our roster and put them in positions to be successful,” Keefe said. “So there’s gonna be some growth with that, and I think that's a really positive thing, because at the end of the day, we're trying to build something that lasts. So we're gonna continue to focus on player development, putting our players in positions to expand and improve their game, but still be still working on our core principles at the same time.”
And for those who think it might be tough to get the veterans to buy in?
“Kyle (Kuzma) was great, tremendous at the end of last year, and really bought into what we were talking about, and the team play, the focus on defense more the daily improvement,” Keefe said. “I coached Kyle before with the Lakers, and that’s how he got here and has been successful in his career, so he understood that part already and it wasn’t a hard adjustment for him This was someone that already was doing what he is now; he's been in a leadership role to help transmit that to others, and I thought he did a really nice job with that in the second part of the year.”
Take a listen above to Keefe’s entire segment with G&D, which includes some pointed thoughts on a few other specific players and more!
Most Popular
Comments / 0