Q. Brian, welcome. Obviously not an easy on ramp for you. How do you feel? What's your first priority when you took over?
BRIAN KEEFE: First of all, tough day emotionally for all of us here. I know a lot of people in this room have known Wes Unseld, Jr., for a long time. He chose me to be on his staff. That's a privilege to do that, and I took that very seriously.
He's a great man, a good coach, but an even better person. I know you guys have all experienced your time with him. It doesn't really get any better than him. My heart goes out to him. These are emotional days. Unfortunately it's part of our business.
I am humbled by the opportunity before me that Michael Winger and Will Dawkins have bestowed upon me. We have to be better. We have to own that we're part of what happened, so we have to look inward. I have to look inward myself and challenge the group to be more competitive, better defensively, and we're going to be looking for growth.
But that has to start first with me. Those are the things that are running through my head right now.
But obviously a tough day for sure.
Q. Another first question would be what changes? Do you plan to alter the scheme? The trade deadline is coming up. There could be changes on the roster. Michael and Will were talking about just a change in voice. From your perspective, what do you want to do differently?
BRIAN KEEFE: I've been really just focused on today. Like it's been a lot just to get through today, and what I want our group to be for tonight is I want us to be competitive, to fight a little harder, to share the ball.
We're going to get into schemes and coverages as we go along because that's what we do as basketball coaches. But we're part of something that didn't work, so we have to look internally, and that starts with me, and I've told our players that. Like I have to be better.
I'm challenging them to look inward, too, because we have to do this as a group. I know you can't do this alone. I'm going to have a lot of support by a lot of people, but I think that's what we're looking for this last 39 games is growth.
There will be some experimentation -- I wouldn't say experimentation -- discovery would be the better word of how we can dig out better things with our lineup, have our guys grow as a team.
I think those are the things that I've been thinking about for sure.
Q. You know better than anybody how different those 12 inches are --
BRIAN KEEFE: Yes, I do.
Q. But I know you've also, I'm sure, given thought to if I ever get a chance, this is what I'm going to do. I know this is what I want my team to look like. I wonder if regardless of the situation, are there some kind of non-negotiables that you know I'm going to demand this if I ever get a chance to be a head coach?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, obviously we all have those thoughts along the ways. You said it, that 12 inches is a big move. I am not running from that. I'm going to embrace that and look at this as an opportunity to grow the team and to grow myself.
I think I already mentioned that defense has to be our calling card. We have to see improvement on that. That's going to be my first thought, and I've always thought that. Basic tenets of the NBA, I like unselfish basketball. I like spacing. I like making the simple play.
But our focus right now for us is we've got to see growth defensively. That's an area that I have background in for sure over the years, but I'm going to challenge our group to be better, and we have to be.
Q. You mentioned improving the defense is one of the tenets of what you want to bring to the remainder of the season. I know you're focusing on today and it's been a whirlwind, but in terms of tinkering with the lineup late in games, will that look different going forward in order to improve the defense on the floor?
BRIAN KEEFE: The X's and O's and the scheme stuff we're going to get into, and that's going to be very important. But that's going to be a work in progress. Like I said, I found out about this probably about the time you guys did.
We're wrapping our head around what happened today. Tough day emotionally for a lot of people. But we're looking now for growth.
And you've mentioned there will be -- you will see things done differently because we're all different people. Doesn't mean anything else other than that. So yes, we will see my influence on the team as it grows. That will be discovery in different lineups, different schemes for sure.
But with the bent of growth and competitiveness. We want to see our group competing at a high level, and we're going to try to put our guys in situations to do that and learn about our group and learn how we can improve as a team.
I think we've seen individually a lot of guys have improved this year. I think that's been a great part of what's happened. But now I think we've got to see the collective come together more. I think that's a big thing for me.
Q. You've had your hands in the development of Bilal all season long. What does the rest of the season look like for him with you now being his head coach?
BRIAN KEEFE: It does not change. I'm still going to be right there with him, just like I would be with all of our players. I'll probably take on more of a role with all our players in terms of their overall development.
I'm a believer that people can get better, and how you do that is you love them, but you challenge them. I'm going to do that with our guys, and I spoke to them about that today. We're going to show that we care for each other, and how we do that is by holding ourselves to a shared standard.
It's not my standard, it's the standard that we hold together. For a guy like Bilal, I'm going to keep pushing him, and he knows that, and that's not going to change. But now maybe I'll have that more with each member of the team a little more.
Q. Competitiveness seems to be a key goal. You've mentioned it, as did Winger and Dawkins. How can you guys draw that out of the team?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think we've got to look in the mirror. We were part of a problem. So I think that's what I addressed at the beginning is that we have to own that first. We have to look inward and say what can I do better. I'm not going to ask anybody to do anything without asking those questions first, so that's what I'm going to do. Then I think that leads to us doing that as a group. We're going to look where we can get better. We're going to have hard conversations, and I think that's very healthy.
But I think that's how you improve in this league. We're not going to run from that.
Q. Coach, obviously winning and losing sometimes affects culture. Is there anything that you may have learned throughout the process, not just on the negative side but good things as far as keeping the culture where you need it?
BRIAN KEEFE: For sure, yeah. I've been part of some situations like this before, and I think you can learn something in every situation. I think the one thing is can we dig our feet in and become more resilient, can we draw closer instead of anything else happening.
It's easy to pull apart when things aren't going well, but I'm excited to tackle that and go after that to see our guys become tougher minded, become stronger, not run from this. We have to be honest where we're at. This is why I'm sitting here today, let's be honest. We can't run from that, and we've got to look at ourselves like all right, let's dig into this, let's get better today.
That's what this organization is about, and I know that. I know Michael Winger and Will Dawkins; we're not going to skip any steps. It's going to be about the process and how we do things and how we look at things. Those things will lead to momentum changing things and wins will come because of that, but we're not -- some of you guys probably know me in this room. We're not going to skip steps. We're going to stick to the process, and we're going to really dig in on that.
Q. With this being such a collaborative effort since Will and Michael have gotten here and this being maybe hour eight for you, how much are you going to utilize the experience that you also have in front of the bench with DV, JB and (indiscernible)?
BRIAN KEEFE: I am absolutely going to use our staff to their -- we have a very accomplished staff, guys with lots of unique experiences and different backgrounds. I told them all today, I want them to challenge me. I'm a very direct right-to-the-point person. I would expect them to be that way with me.
I think that's how you grow. I think you've heard me say that; it's about how do we grow this team. We've just got to have honest conversations with each other, and it starts with our staff. We've got good people here who really care about our guys, who want to pour into our guys. I think that's our focus going forward. I will definitely rely on each one of our guys and specifically the guys you mentioned, too.
Q. You said you found out this morning or earlier today. Just in terms of the game specifically tonight, how do you get your guys focused with all this craziness and changing going on today, and how do you know what kind of message to give to them to use tonight as the start of this moving forward for you guys?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think you have to identify that we're all human and that something happened to a person we care about, and that's hard. But this business is -- you have to move forward. That's the great thing about the amount of games we have in this league is that you have to constantly be moving forward.
I'm looking forward for our guys to accepting that challenge tonight and going forward. It's not just to night, but tonight, yeah, let's lace them up, let's go, and how do we improve going forward.
But players are really resilient I've learned. I've learned a lot from players over the years. They teach you more than probably you teach them, and a lot of these guys, there's a reason they're here. They're resilient guys, and I have great faith in their ability to be that here for us for sure.
Q. As you look at this Jazz team who hit their stride recently, have you had time to really --
BRIAN KEEFE: I follow them from afar. I'm a San Antonio guy, so I know Will Hardy a little bit, so I kind of keep track of him from afar. I know how well they're playing. I have great respect for the Jazz organization and how they operate. They have obviously progressed since the beginning of the season.
But I've got to really dive into my guys tonight. This is about us tonight.
Q. For a guy that was a video coordinator to start, there's been a few of you guys roaming the sidelines. What's the one thing you took away from that part of the game that you still apply today?
BRIAN KEEFE: Very lucky to start where I started. I just mentioned it. I started in San Antonio a long time ago. I got to see the best in the world do it. Gregg Popovich, Tim, Tony, Manu, a lot of the guys who were ultra professional guys.
You learned that -- I think you heard me say skipping the steps, you don't. The habit building, those are the things that carry you through the tough times because this game is hard to play. I've always believed it's a hard game to play for these guys. Playing is really hard. A lot of pressure on these guys.
But if you can continue to stack good habits, build every day in how you handle yourself, those things are going to carry you through.
I never forgot that being from those guys, and I was a little bit younger (laughter), so those things -- you don't forget that for sure.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports