{"id":611276,"date":"2026-04-16T18:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611276\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:43:16","slug":"wizards-expect-coach-brian-keefe-to-remain-on-sideline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611276\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards expect coach Brian Keefe to remain on sideline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Wizards<\/a> expect to have Brian Keefe return as their coach in 2026-27, general manager Will Dawkins told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n

“I anticipate Brian to be here,” Dawkins said when asked about Keefe’s status during his end-of-season news conference.<\/p>\n

Keefe has presided over one of the NBA’s youngest rosters in his two-plus seasons as Wizards coach, shepherding Washington through a rebuilding phase and overseeing the development of a roster that featured several first-round picks: center Alex Sarr<\/a>, guards Tre Johnson<\/a> and Bub Carrington<\/a>, and forwards Bilal Coulibaly<\/a>, Will Riley<\/a> and Kyshawn George<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

Since taking over for Wes Unseld in January 2024, Keefe has gone 43-160.<\/p>\n

This season, Washington made a pair of dramatic moves around the trade deadline, landing All-Stars guard Trae Young<\/a> from the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> and Anthony Davis<\/a> from the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Young played in only five games for the Wizards before being shut down with a right quadriceps and back irritation.<\/p>\n

Davis didn’t play in any games for Washington due to a sprained finger on his non-shooting hand. Davis, who is under contract for one more season, said Monday that he is committed to the Wizards for at least the 2026-27 season, joking “I love my money.”<\/p>\n

Washington is also hoping for lottery luck to earn the No. 1 pick in a loaded draft. The Wizards finished with the NBA’s worst record this season at 17-65 and will be one of three teams with a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick. They can’t fall any lower in the draft than No. 5.<\/p>\n

“We put him in a situation this season which was a little difficult when you just think about the amount of youth [and] the amount of change that we had,” Dawkins said of Keefe’s performance.<\/p>\n

Keefe, 50, was a longtime NBA assistant coach, spending more than over a decade in that role with the Seattle SuperSonics, Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> (twice), New York Knicks<\/a>, Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, Brooklyn Nets<\/a> and Wizards before getting his first head coaching opportunity.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards expect to have Brian Keefe return as their coach in 2026-27, general manager Will Dawkins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-611276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}