Entering Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder sit in first place in the Western Conference standings. This means there’s a decent chance Mark Daigneault becomes the All-Star head coach.
Usually, the head coaches of the first-place teams in each conference two weeks before the All-Star game receive the nod to be the All-Star head coach. The Milwaukee Bucks already clinched the role for new head coach Doc Rivers. The Boston Celtics coaching staff is not eligible this year because it coached last season’s game, leaving the honor fall to the second-place team in the Eastern Conference.
Considering the Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves have the same records, tiebreakers might need to get involved.
In that case, the head-to-head matchup is the first tiebreaker: OKC and Minnesota split their season series. The next tiebreaker is conference record, which the Timberwolves own.
This means the only hope for the Thunder to send Daigneault to All-Star weekend is a win over the Toronto Raptors and a loss by the Timberwolves to the Houston Rockets on Sunday. Both need to happen for OKC to send its head coach to All-Star weekend. If the Timberwolves beat the Rockets, Chris Finch will be the All-Star head coach.
Another wild-card scenario is the LA Clippers, who are one game out of first place, sending Ty Lue to All-Star weekend. For that to happen, the Clippers need to win against the Miami Heat and both the Thunder and Timberwolves need to lose on Sunday.
If Daigneault becomes the All-Star head coach, he’ll get a chance to coach All-Star starter Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along with joining Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Keyontae Johnson for the weekend festivities.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]