Wizards promote Brian Keefe to interchange Wes Unseld Jr.

The Washington Wizards have promoted prime assistant Brian Keefe to interim head coach for the remainder of the season, changing Wes Unseld Jr., the workforce introduced Thursday.

The Wizards are planning a full-scale open teaching search within the offseason.

Keefe joined the Wizards’ employees this season after stops with the Brooklyn Nets, Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. Throughout his time beneath two totally different teaching staffs with the Thunder, he labored with Wizards president Michael Winger and GM Will Dawkins in OKC. Keefe was part of the 2012 Thunder teaching employees that superior to the NBA Finals.

The Wizards plan to maintain Unseld Jr. in a entrance workplace position. Winger and Unseld had mentioned the teaching change in latest days, and the group needs to maintain Unseld Jr. — son of Wizards Corridor of Famer Wes Unseld Sr. — in a long-term capability with the franchise.

It’s anticipated that the Wizards will probably be in search of a coach with an in depth participant growth observe document once they conduct a wider offseason search. The Wizards are 7-36 and present process a full rebuild beneath the brand new entrance workplace regime of Winger and Dawkins.

“After a number of considerate conversations with Wes, we decided collectively {that a} change was wanted for the advantage of the workforce,” Winger, the president of Monumental Basketball — which incorporates the Wizards and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics — stated in an announcement saying the choice.

“Wes embodies the traits we worth in our group, and his huge basketball expertise will probably be an asset to the entrance workplace as we progress towards our long-term objectives. We’re grateful that he’ll proceed his contributions to our group and group.”

Unseld was in the course of his third season as head coach of the Wizards, going 77-130 earlier than Thursday’s announcement. The Wizards have notably struggled defensively this season, rating twenty ninth.

Washington employed Unseld previous to the beginning of the 2021-22 season after near 20 years as an NBA assistant with the Wizards, Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets, the place he was Michael Malone’s prime assistant earlier than returning to the franchise his father led to its solely NBA title in 1979 earlier than later serving stints because the workforce’s head coach and common supervisor.

Again in October, Washington picked up Unseld’s choice for subsequent season.

Final summer time, Winger changed longtime govt Tommy Sheppard as the top of the Wizards’ basketball operations, and shortly moved to reshape the franchise. He traded longtime face of the franchise Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns for a bundle of draft picks and Chris Paul, earlier than re-routing Paul to the Golden State Warriors a number of days later in trade for Jordan Poole, signaling the beginning of a protracted rebuild in Washington.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.