“He really galvanized a tight group,” forward Kyle Kuzma said last month. “… That first half of the season, there were a lot of games where the game was over at halftime, the game was over the first six minutes into the second half. We started to compete.”

Keefe, 48, was hired as an assistant last summer after working for several franchises, mostly as an assistant coach, over a 16-year NBA career. He will help lead a significant undertaking as the Wizards remain in the early stages of a rebuild. His first major moment arrives June 26, when the two-day NBA draft tips off. The Wizards hold the second, 26th and 51st picks.

Keefe also will need to assemble a staff after the contracts of several assistant coaches hired under Unseld — including Zach Guthrie, Joseph Blair, Mike Miller and James Posey — were not renewed, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.

“I am grateful to Michael [Winger] and Will [Dawkins] for the opportunity to lead the Washington Wizards,” Keefe said in a statement released by the team, naming the president of Monumental Basketball and the Wizards’ general manager. “I look forward to continuing to work with our players and helping them grow and develop. As a team, we are committed to a collaborative approach to build an environment of accountability and hard work that allows us to improve every day.”

Keefe began his NBA career as a video coordinator with the San Antonio Spurs in 2005. As an assistant, he has been a part of teams that have earned eight playoff berths, including five consecutive postseason appearances by the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2010 to 2014. With the Thunder, he helped mold a young Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. He also worked closely with Oklahoma City’s current star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, during a second stint in Oklahoma City (2019-20). He also coached with the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets.

As interim coach in Washington, he helped retool a defense that rated 29th in efficiency and last in rebounding to 26th in defensive efficiency and 26th in defensive rebounding — inarguably small gains that nonetheless felt like a big win in the locker room as Wizards players put forth noticeably stronger efforts on a nightly basis.

Keefe also was part of the decision, alongside Winger and Dawkins, to send struggling Jordan Poole to the bench to help the guard regain confidence. It helped, even though Poole was initially unhappy about the decision. He moved back into the starting lineup about a month later as he averaged 20.9 points and 5.8 assists while boosting his three-point shooting to 35.9 percent over his final 26 games.

“I think he’s been really good for our young team [with] the detail-orientedness that he brings, the structure that he brings. He loves the game,” Poole said after the season. “That’s something that goes a really long way, especially at the highest level, and he’s willing and very genuine and authentic about putting … guys in positions to be successful and play to their strength, really unlocking them — because he cares about them as individuals. He’s done a really good job.”