Chase Hughes Thinks Brian Keefe Gives the Wizards Stability | BMitch & Finlay
they also like his ability to hold players accountable like once he got promoted to the interim role we asked players like what Brian what does Brian ke like and they said he’s like very direct to the point and like very honest like he’ll just come into the locker room and tell you like straight to your face in front of everyone that you’re not doing something right and the players like that and I think that’s part of the the type of culture the Wizards want to build and I think him moving Jordan P to the bench was a great example of that because Jordan p is a tough adjustment he admitted that in retrospect but It ultimately brought the best out of it out of him and so I think those types of moves the players appreciate is that something that young players like because you get more veteran established players how many of them gonna take that yeah I mean I I think I would say most of the young players really appreciated it and it’s funny because you know maybe the average person isn’t used to that type of leadership style but you find when you ask young NBA players well like you know how do you with someone just kind of calling you out they say oh it reminds me of my dad or it reminds me of my high school coach or my AA coach like athletes are kind of like professional athletes they’re kind of used to that so I could see what you’re saying like a veteran player who’s more established who you know might have a big contract or something might not want to take that that type of communication but um for the most part the the players are used to that type of style um you know B and I talked about this I I I’m cool with them promoting Brian Keef are keeping him I thought just from a visual perspective as somebody that watches a lot of Wiz games and for me A lot of times by the time I get the kids to bed and everything I’m usually watching second half to fourth quarter I think the first half of the Season you saw him dog it and I feel like when Keith came in you know it’s not like they won that many more games but they seemed like they were fighting till the absolute end and maybe that goes hand inand with your account ility stuff um I I I kind of buy a lot of whiz moves I haven’t really bought I I feel like it was a status quo move but since the Winger Dawkins takeover I this one kind of adds up to me yeah and I think you make an important point because when Winger and Dawkins made the move they said the reason why was because they wanted to see more competitive basketball like under West unel Jr they thought the young players were making strides and they were happy about that but they were getting blown out in too many games they weren’t competitive enough on a regular basis and they said that’s what they wanted to see from the team under Brian Keefe and it took a little while for him to get there but I think by the end of the season they did reach that point they got some of their best wins of the year and they did so in some cases while missing a lot of their regulars so um I I think it’s in some ways a credit to Dawkins and Winger for sort of keeping their word on that because they set some guidelines Brian ke met them so they rewarded him by removing the interim tag this uh guess redoing or remaking this team is going to take about another even Ted called it a rebuild we can call it a rebuild this rebuild okay this rebuild is going to take a little more time how do they basically judge him moving forward well in the short term I I think it’s um consistently competitive basketball and of course the development of young players like whoever they draft second overall that guy they’re going to want to see some success from early on and Brian Keefe will be tasked with that in addition to you know the continued development of balal Kali Denny AIA guys like that I think you’re going to continue to see certainly next season probably you know maybe even the year after that just wins and losses not really being the criteria that they judge success by so it’ll be the development of young players but if sort but certainly at some point wins and losses are going to be part of the equation so I think the hope would be as you see often times with rebuilds is that you hire a coach that can develop the young players and also um you know develop on their own and grow as a coach so that by the time the team is ready to compete for bigger things so are they um you know with this team hold on I gotta ask you to confirm something for me Chase this is breaking news here on the fan um Brian and I just had a guest on that runs uh a high school basketball tournament um and he told us that people are still wearing Pumas playing basketball and a dude in the what’s that Kyle kma a dude in the chat says Kyle kosma wears Pumas is that accurate Chase Kyle kosma is a a a puma guy yeah he’s uh I don’t know how many NBA players they have but they definitely have Kyle kozma and I he’s um I would say some of the shoes he’s worn are pretty nice I will give him that I mean it it’s wild the amount of I think basketball I don’t think pummer no you know what I have more breaking news on the fan um apparently RJ Barrett Michael Porter Jr Marcus Smart and Scoot Henderson are also wearing Pumas who knew there are there are a lot of companies in that I mean there’s like several Chinese companies that have players with h signature shoes like it is all over the place it’s not just Nike and Reebok anymore Puma also makes a signature shoe for 2023 WNBA MVP Brian Stewart that’s cool let me know let me find out that b basketball and and the shoe game is turning out to nil’s yeah dude everybody’s got a shoe deal um dude can I ask you something totally off topic Chase sure people want us to cover the mystics well they’re 0 and seven like what the hell is going on with the mystics oh man um you know I think they player in the draft in Aaliyah Edwards yeah um but clearly the Elena delodon situation I think has taken its toll I mean they had an alltime great player um I don’t know I don’t think anyone knows that answer but they had an all-time great player um and they had an aging roster in general and I think you’re seeing them uh as we’re seeing other teams in town just kind of go through the cycle um but they’ve got smart people in charge Mike TBO of course constructed a title is Winger kind of in charge of that too didn’t he take the mantle for like all of monumental hoop or whatever I thought he was over all this he did he he oversees the mystics technically but he said on a couple occasions that he feels like they’re in good hands because they’ve got Mike TBO okay who of course you know has already won a championship and then moved into the front office so they they’ve got draft picks in the future so I think just like with the Wizards it’s G to take some time but you know maybe they get Paige Beckers uh in the in the draft next year and things can speed up yeah at least they got a title too you know what I mean like right um and delodon I understand if was a lot of their cap and a lot of their resource use because she was awesome when before damn whatever the injuries started um all right we’re talking with our friend Chase Hughes here on the betql guest line you can follow him at Chase DC sports check out his content at uh on the Monumental website um let’s go to the draft because we’re getting closer now it’s about a month out um picking Chas what’s the plan at number two as of now I think it’ll be either Alex SAR or Zachary Reet uh two French players that um are just continuing a wave of talent from the country of France that is pretty incredible I mean it was not just Victor wanyama and Rudy goar and balow kabali like they might have three top 10 picks this year and the two guys that most people expect to go at the top of the draft are both French Alex SAR is like a 7-1 center uh known for his defense who’s also pretty athletic and skilled on the offensive end and Zachary Reese is about 68 he’s a very fast Wing from Baseline to Baseline might be the best shooter in the draft and he’s also a really good Defender so you know one thing about the top 10 of this draft is the Wizards are evaluating prospects that is standing out to me more and more the more I study it is that a lot of them are good at defense and I think that’s kind of contributed to the narrative about this draft class not being as good as other years is that there’s not like the obvious offensive Talent you usually see so I think it’s tough for teams to project that when you’ve got a guy who’s really good at defense you don’t know how skilled he’s going to be offensively some guys never figure it out but the good news is there there are good players available and I think if the Wizards are trying to build a good defense they’re GNA have some good options this but that’s the thing though the NBA he better be able to play offense right you know what I mean so I think you go get a guy he’s a defensive guy he do he never pans out offensively you don’t draft him super high do you I mean that’s one of the hardest things to predict in the NBA draft these guys are 18 19 years old sometimes you feel good about their defense poent defensive potential be you just have no idea if they’re going to end up scoring Five Points a game in their career like Michael kid gilchris or turn into Jimmy Butler you know Jimmy Butler was all defense when he was in the draft didn’t score all that much in college and he’s turned out to be a great twoa player um so we had David Aldridge on a couple weeks ago about the number two pick and he thinks kinging makes the most sense there um kingan uh topic was the other dude he discussed the real point guard out of Serbia I want to say and then the uh the kind of combo guard that was at Yukon the last two years you do you think any of those guys has a chance at number two or is it going to be whichever French dude doesn’t go one I think they do have a chance um I mean castle and kingan are two of the more raw offensive players in the top 10 like they’re really really good defensively but um you know it that that like you know shooting is an issue for Stefan C and Donovan kingan you know I don’t know if he’s ever going to be a great offensive player so that that will have to be weighed if you’re thinking about the second overall pick because his b Mitch said like in order to justify that selection they’re gonna have to do more than defend um topic is a a really good passer he’s like a 66 67 point guard um who does have some injury concerns now you know he was playing overseas and it was during the NBA draft combine that he hurt his knee it wasn’t a serious injury but that’s something that’s going to have to be factored in but I I think SAR and Reay when you add it all up in terms of size athleticism and skill set they’ve got more of the stuff that you can’t teach than the other guys that are in that conversation I’m cool with these French young men because I mean I thought I really like balal over the course of his development wem’s obviously a complete freak Show yeah um what what is the length of a NBA rookie contract like how long do you get these guys well it’s four years but you have the basically the option to sign them to an exclusive extension after that so um you can pretty much get these guys for like I think it’s like eight years uh to begin their careers um you you’re not often going to see a guy who’s good on their rookie deal if they’re a first round pick um not reach a second contract with their first team because they can pay them so much more money and they’ve got uh you know it’s set up to like basically encourage players to stay with their teams and and you think SAR and or rash would come right away I remember back in the day these guys used to stay in Europe for like three more years but it seems like more more now they’re just playing yeah no I mean if you’re drafted that high you’re coming over right away and I I think given where the Wizards are in their rebuild whoever they pick is going to be playing a lot of minutes um and have a very large role on their team so um you know I think with those guys the question will be are they are they going to play in the Olympics that I I don’t believe they’re on or they’re in the player pool for Team France but you know France has a gold medal aspirations so you know maybe they’d be in that mix as bow kabali is but if not you’d see them in summer league and then from day one you know basically be handed the keys yeah you draft somebody that hadde if wmy came they better come right I mean that’s a great Point yeah if he can do it you can do it um all right Chase we got a game tonight Mavs t-wolves 8:30 um this Series has been really good um t-wolves are now up three to one um I’m sorry Dallas is up three to one what do you think happens tonight what do you think happens in the series I think the Timberwolves win the game tonight and I’m saying that for one reason in particular it’s because Anthony Edwards guaranteed a game six and to the point where he asked Micah Parson to a sitting Courtside what his shoe size is because he’s going to bring him some of his signature shoes to game six which would require a winning game five uh it’s kind of tough to to act super hard about guaranteeing a game six like you know you’re down pretty low when you got to act tough about a game if you guarantee a game six and you get there and you mess around and win that one then the pressure is all on Dall pressure goes there I agree and you go back I’m still taking Dallas in this series and Luca and Kyrie uh they got something special going right now who you got for the whole thing we all know it’s Boston on the other side but they have they have not had the the the road it would take to get out of the West I’ll go with Dallas and it’s I surprised myself by saying that because they did not even look like title contenders at the trade deadline and then they brought in PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford and became a juggernaut and I thought the Timberwolves were going to win this series I thought they were going to go to the finals and the Mavs going up three 0 on them uh said a lot to me about what they’re capable of because they’ve got Peak Luca and Peak Kyrie right now and it’s completely stoppable at the end of gamees they’re so athletic they can defend they’re deep um they they are they look like a very very good team and I think they’re going to be um too athletic at the big man position for Boston and I think Luca is going to be the best player on the court well dude the other thing B and I were saying about Brian Keefe that we liked was you know he took over basically after they traded away Gafford and and you see how important Gafford is gafford’s good right Daniel Gafford I mean we knew he was good here but he found the absolute perfect fit for himself playing with Luka and Kyrie totally um and it was you they traded Gafford and then the guy they the guys they brought in to replace him all got hurt and yet they still improved their defense at least a little bit and knocked off some really good teams down the stretch so I think if you consider all the context of what Brian Keith did it was a very impressive job and you know there were a lot of players that sang his Praises at our at the end of season press conference tyus Jones I think had the best quote he was like you know I think you saw it on the court that we were more competitive but in the locker room you could feel it like it just felt different uh once Brian Keefe sort of U you know caught his rhythm as a coach down the stretch uh Chase we’re about to play this interview uh yesterday from with Jason Wright Commander team president but you are so locked into the basketball world nowadays um people probably maybe they are aware but because we’ve all worked together for so long I know what a big skins commanders fan you are um just as a as somebody that I know watches all the moves they make how you feeling right now I’m feeling optimistic I mean I really really like uh just the idea of Adam Peters and I I know we’ve been down this road before where like they hire somebody who takes over and like there’s reason to believe it’s going to work and odds are you know most of these guys don’t work out they never leave on their own terms right Bill even Bill bich did not leave his job on his own terms but I like the idea of hiring a guy with a scouting background like Adam Peters uh having been around a lot of GMS and Executives I love the way he goes about his business um you know in press conferences that he just seems like all all football like he doesn’t really seem to to put too much stock and like controlling the narrative or focusing on things that a lot of Executives do he’s just gonna have an eye for or eye for talent and and pick the right players and um you know obviously like most people I wish they did more to the offensive line but I don’t think could fix everything in one single off season um so I I believe in him and you know all the decisions he’s made I’m I’m kind of giving him the benefit of the doubt
Monumental Sports Wizards reporter Chase Hughes joins BMitch & Finlay to talk about why Washington decided to remove the interim head coaching title from Brian Keefe and make him the full time head coach.
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1 Comment
What's a rebuild when nothings been built for 40 yrs !!