Former Brian Keefe Player Reacts to Him Being Named Wizards Head Coach
[Music] young players they got a chance to play Big Time games towards the end of the season you saw the growth of the young players like balal kulali he did a great job of proving to not only the front office and the coaches but also the fan base of what kind of player he is and getting out of the shadow of Victor W banama becoming a great defender a knockdown three-point shooter but also a player who’s going to play hard on the on the defensive end and attacking the basket on the offensive end towards the later into the season he got hurt however but you got to see that glimpse of what he can be for the future if he continues to work now Jason as I look at your pro basketball reference page and I do the mental uh math here was Keith an assistant with you in the Knicks in in 2014 he was we definitely did cross paths and he was actually one of the assistant coaches that worked with me pre-practice post-practice pregame stuff so I know firsthand what kind of Coach he is and the fact that he is now in a coaching role it’s a testament to his work ethic not only in one organization with the Knicks but he kind of bounced around from he went to the Knicks he went to Brooklyn he was out in Phoenix for a little bit I mean there’s that’s a coach’s lifestyle but once you get an opportunity as a head coach you kind of want to make your mark on the NBA if you have success with it you can kind of stay around for years he’s in a tough predicament in a rebuilding situation he wants to go out there and prove hey I can build quality players with people who are not necessarily well known but if we get a good Core group of young guys and we build up the franchise hopefully he’ll have success with that yeah no doubt and obviously had the many years in Oklahoma City where he crossed with Dawkins and Winger and you got the history there but for you when you worked with Brian in New York like what was he like to work with day in day out up close well it was consistency it was all about consistency and being a professional because with New York it it’s a tough place to play with the media with the fan base but also you take this and transfer to DC it’s tough to go out there and have a good showing night in and night out when you don’t necessarily know the players that you’re going to have so that’s something that’s really going to kind of be pending on going into the draft and going into free agency but once he get this solidarity of what the lineup and what the roster is going to be looking like he’s going to have a a a right to go out there and put the best performers on the floor not necessarily to go out there and win games per se obviously you want to go out there and win games you’re an NBA team you want to compete every night but for a young team who’s trying to build the right way I want to see what kind of style offense he plays I want to see what kind of style defense he plays because he didn’t necessarily get to have his mark on the team halfway through the season going into the head coaching role from the assistant coach anytime you do that you’re just trying to keep the ship afloat trying to have individual success with players now that he’s going to be heading into a new season as the head guy really even before the draft so he’s going to have input on who they draft he’s going to have input on on free agency picks that he wants to build the team with but granted Will Dawkins that I mean they’re going to have control of the team of all right this is the way we want to shape it we’re going to go with young guys or we’re going to get a couple veterans here and there to kind of Point them in the right direction so that’s where I kind of want to see where the team’s Direction goes Jason Smith analyst for Monumental Sports Network with us here on the Hoffman show of course long great NBA career that ended here in Washington and then then he decided to stay and and be on television uh so J you mentioned the Will Dawkins impact on the basketball and I think it’s really interesting listening to Will and Michael talk and they talk about certain metrics they want to hit play style Pace things and it’s very clear that there is going to be a front office directive on certain things that maybe in other organizations are driven by coaching I’m curious in your career if you worked with or you know you played in any organization that had a heavy front office impact and and how obviously these guys are familiar with each other Brian Keef knows what he’s signing up for I’m not I’m not trying to predispose some kind of conf that doesn’t exist here but when when an organization has this very clear directive and and you could even go as far as to calling it Vision uh from the front office and how that then translates down into the coaching staff and down into the players did you have experiences like that and how did you think or how do you think that tends to go well I think it’s going to be interesting so for me my personal experience I had that in New Orleans to where the the front office was really trying to get young core group of guys because they pressed the reset button after they traded Chris PA to the Clippers so you had Anthony Davis come in as the first pick you had Austin Rivers come in as the 10th pick and it’s it’s really getting the coaching staff to realize hey we may we may not win a lot of games but we want to go out there and be competitive but also developing these young guys to learn how to play a long NBA season and really every game matters that’s that’s the biggest thing for players nowadays the young players they come in and they can kind of get overwhelmed by an 82 Game season if you have that mentality of it’s a marathon it’s not a Sprint by any means and if you can go out there and consistently depending on if it’s the best team in the league or the worst team in the league if you go out there and do the same showing now granted it’s just a part of sports you play up to your competition but you can also play down to your competition going out there in the tricky manners of hey maybe this team’s going to overlook us go out there and play with no worries go out there and play freely that’s what I think that the coaching staff has to translate to the team of saying hey the pressure is not on us the pressure is on the other team to beat us we just want to go out there and do the right things on the offensive end execute our defensive Concepts and if we lose we lose if we win we gather the information of what we did right apply it to the next team apply it to the next game so that’s the biggest thing for me I think that’s great and I think we see that a lot of times for the transition of college to Pro I think we’re seeing it right now frankly in the W uh with like Caitlyn Clark has lost more games this season than uh she did in probably her last three years at Iowa um you see this all the time with uh God I’m trying to think of who it was a couple years ago there was an NBA rookie that came in and um they hit a you know a veteran hit a gamewinner and like the opening night and the rookie goes nuts and is celebrating and the vet was like dude chill out like this was fun but we got 81 more and so I I’m curious how a coach like Brian’s uh consistency can help shape a young team to get into that Groove that you just talked about where your focus is on doing the right things and and to use the Buzz the process over the results of wins and losses well I think the the most important thing is to really not get too high in wins and not do get too low in losses and I think that it doesn’t necessarily come from just the coaching staff if you have your veteran players out there who have one at the highest level Alla Kyle kozma I mean he has a Championship under his belt with the LA Lakers so if you have a mentality like that and he can bring that and kind of guide the younger players like man we just had a 15-point comeback at home home man this was a great win okay celebrate the win that night get a good night’s sleep have a good meal but the next day you got to prepare for the next team that’s coming in two days in in the next day it could be a back toback so the more you can kind of be like all right that was nice that was good let’s do it again let’s do it again and don’t get bored with that process because winning is a grind because as soon as you start winning and you start getting more media and more press to follow you then you have the Target on your back then you have to learn how to win in a different way everybody’s going to be giving you your best shot so there’s a transition of all right we’re building for success and then once you have success how do you keep that success so I’ll wrap up with you Jason with the same question that I asked your colleague Chase Hughes a little bit earlier which is for Brian Keefe in 2024 just this season 2425 like what success do you think uh for him as a coach in year one I want to see him have success individually with players and see what his offensive schemes and defensive schemes are now I can’t really predict what the season is going to be like I can probably say that they’re not going to win too many games but I want to see them head in the right direction I want to see Denny take another step I want to see Kyle kosma take another step in his leadership role but also balal kulali and whoever they draft in this draft and then possibly going into free agency who comes in with free agency do they go for the veteran style or do they go more towards younger players so that’s what I really want to see and as far as the coaching staff go out there and put your imprints on this organization what kind of style of basketball are you going to play are you going to go with that run and Gun style that you had last year and are you going to throw up a bunch of Threes like you did last year and are we going to get a set defense concept out there everybody on a string moving side to side and once you do get a turnover or they make the basket don’t don’t sulk about it but get the ball out quick and run it right back at them because I cannot see that this organization is going to go for an old style sty basketball half court style basketball if you have young players utilize that youth run run run that’s what I want to see yeah uh that would be very fun hopefully it will lead to some more wins and we will be watching it no matter what on Monumental Sports network uh and if nothing else is entertaining at least we have you and Wes uh you know before uh halftime and after the games absolutely that’s what I’m talking about I mean you want entertainment come on right there I mean just follow you guys on Instagram Clowning Around nevertheless what you guys do on television they actually have some rules there I mean good God put you two on the internet Lord knows what you guys wouldn’t have jobs by the end of the week yeah we might uh we might hurt our own reputations if you uh put us on the internet with no uh no rules fa yeah yeah uh it’s dangerous but that’s okay that’s why we put you on television uh Jason always appreciate it man we don’t talk to you for the rest of the summer uh have a great summer although I’m sure around free agency in the draft we’ll be in touch oh absolutely hit me up anytime appreciate you guys for having me absolutely that’s Jason Smith everybody with us here on the Hoffman show hey this is Da and you’re listening to the Hoffman show on the team980 and the AUD
Jason Smith played for the Knicks in 2014-15 where Brian Keefe was an assistant coach. Smith is now an analyst covering the Wizards for Monumental Sports Network and he joined the show to react to the breaking news that Brian Keefe was Michael Winger and Will Dawkins new man in charge.
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