As the Oklahoma City Thunder continue to grow and develop, so has their head coach Mark Daigneault.
The Thunder promoted the assistant to head coach in 2020. In three seasons since, he’s become known as one of the younger head coaches with a bright future.
This was evident last season when he finished second in Coach of the Year voting. The Thunder rewarded Daigneault for his work by signing him to a contract extension this offseason.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti publicly spoke about the extension for the first time during his 2023-24 preseason media conference. In it, he talked about how much synergy the franchise has thanks to a head coach who aligns with their views.
“I think he’s a great fit for the team and organization. The thing he does so well is he takes the vision of the organization and he brings it to the floor every single day. He really believes in our ways of working. He’s a big believer in having a discovery mindset, a beginner’s mindset. He’s willing to try new things.
I think he takes a pretty optimistic view on people in general, which I think — it’s really hard to grow and develop in a very pessimistic environment, negative environment. I think he does that, but he balances that well with a certain level of accountability to certain principles that are critical to success.
They’re just ours. They’re not necessarily everybody’s principles, but they’re certainly things that would be important here, and he stands on those.
But he interacts well with the entire building, and I think that’s a big — like a big thing for us because like the discourse and the communication and the challenging of ideas and the ability to disagree on different things and not take it personal throughout the building I think is a huge aspect of some of the progress we’ve made.
But again, that didn’t just start last year. Like that was him through the process of the Blue head coach and now when he started a few years ago.
He’s going to be challenged just like we all will, but I think he’s got the tools to keep improving and adapting to new environments.
I enjoy working with him. … His heart is in the right spot. He cares about the organization. He really cares about the players, and he’s competitive. He’s super competitive.
It’s a fun combination to come in and try to problem solve with. Him but also the other people we have in the organization are very like-minded, and I feel super lucky to be able to work with people like that.”
While his record might not reflect it, Daigneault has worked his way into being one of the better head coaches throughout the league and it looks like the Thunder realize they found a gem.
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