Tag: Mark Daigneault

The first Oklahoma City Thunder game with Mark Daigneault at the helm was very nearly a decisive victory. Then, the Charlotte Hornets stormed back to overcome a 13-point deficit with two minutes remaining. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit the game-winner to give the Thunder a 109-107 win.

There were times in which the Thunder looked frantic in those closing minutes — they committed several turnovers, fouled too much and struggled against full-court press.

Daigneault, to his credit, didn’t seem any different to his players when he was drawing up the final play compared to his usual composure.

“The way that coach operates, I see that in practice. I seen it last year, and all the guys see it in practice every day,” forward Darius Bazley said. “Nothing tonight surprised me.”

The Thunder made excellent halftime adjustments and broke out in the third quarter, a time in which they limited the Hornets to 16 points While Daigneault had a long leash with his rookies — in part out of necessity on a bench without much depth — he pulled Aleksej Pokusevski with about 9:30 to go in the fourth quarter after the 19-year-old missed three straight 3s, ending his nine with six missed shots, all of which were behind the arc.

The Hornets came blazing back over the final two minutes. With about 10 seconds left, Daigneault called a timeout following a Charlotte 3-pointer that evened the score at 107.

“He was very calm even when they tied it up,” center Mike Muscala said.

The final play was simple: Let Gilgeous-Alexander bring the ball upcourt, space the floor to get out of his way, and let him go to work against Charlotte’s Cody Martin.

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“Super composed, kept our heads high, kept us confident, and he was our leader down the stretch even though things weren’t going the right way,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was cool, calm and collected.”

In the locker room after the game, the team celebrated around him and showered the coach with water for the successful debut.

“We know that he has the best interest for us and we have best for him, and we know that he’s going to go down fighting, swinging just like we are,” said guard George Hill, who had 21 points in 24 minutes.

They might’ve had more excitement than the head coach, who, when asked for a grade of his performance in the postgame press conference, gave himself a middling rating and turned the attention back to his players.

“I don’t know, a C-plus,” Daigneault said with a little laugh. “But I’m happy I have these guys, they played great.”

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Of all the areas of improvement in Oklahoma City Thunder training camp, one area stood out the most to head coach Mark Daigneault.

“The chemistry,” he said. “Starting where it was, with some guys out and then obviously a lot of new people, is pretty far along for what I would have expected back from the beginning of this.”

The locker room was full of new faces on Dec. 1, and then even more joined later as trades were formally executed.

After losing most of its core from last year, the Thunder organization wondered how their new players would mesh. Would they take to each other on a personal level quickly? Would basketball styles blend? Would there be enough leaders? Would there be too many people trying to take that role?

Daigneault is pleased with what he saw over these past three weeks.

“It’s just a credit to the environment that exists here to begin with and also the quality of the people that our players are,” he said.

“They’ve all come here in a great, great spot. Invested in the environment, invested in each other.”

George Hill and Al Horford have quickly jumped into leadership roles and earned praise from the coach and teammates in press conferences.

On the court, it’s difficult to say how the Thunder will look, but we may have seen the opening day starting lineup in the final preseason game when Hill, Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley and Horford were on the court together.

While the team plays well, it also sounds like they have similar attitudes entering the regular season.

“When we’ve had things we’ve fallen short in, they want to improve. When we have things that we’ve done well, they stay humble,” Daigneault said. “That’s probably been the most encouraging thing. That’s the stuff that sustains you over the course of a long season.”

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New Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault repeated a phrase at least three times in a press conference after the first day of practices in the 2020-21 season.

It was some variation of:

“We can’t allow the external circumstances to dictate our process,” Daigneault said, “and we can’t allow the external circumstances to speed us up.”

There’s less than a month between Tuesday, which was the opening day of training camp, and Dec. 22, the first game of the NBA season.

The Thunder return very few players from last year after trading the bulk of their corps. They have multiple rookies, many young players from around the league, and are incorporating veterans George Hill, Trevor Ariza and Al Horford.

All this, and the head coach is in his first-year of leading an NBA team.

Daigneault said the Thunder want to ensure players understand the tradition and standards of the organization.

“We try to really make sure that every player is educated on that and understands that,” Daigneault said. “If you establish that foundation now, you can really evolve and layer from there.”

Next, he needs to connect with them.

“Once we kind of show them who we are, we want to learn who they are. We want to learn how they can uniquely impact our environment, uniquely impact our organization,” Daigneault said. “The only way to do that is step-by-step.”

In the introductory press conference for Daigneault last month, general manager Sam Presti spoke highly of the coach’s relationship-building abilities.

That will be put to the test with a nearly entirely new group of players.

“When it comes to learning people and learning players and building trust, a huge ingredient of trust is consistency. It’s hard to prove your consistency in a relationship … in a week. It takes time. So we’re going to take that time,” Daigneault said. “We’re not going to be influenced by external variables that may try to speed us up.”

While the players are learning the Oklahoma City style and the organization is learning about them as athletes and people, there’s still the game.

Rookies in particular need to adapt to the game in a way no NBA draft class has been thrown into the league before.

“It’s not going to be a normal year,” Presti said.

Over the first six days of training camp, only individual play is allowed. Group workouts can begin on Dec. 6. The Thunder’s first preseason game is Dec. 12.

Draftees like Aleskej Pokusevski and Theo Maledon will be thrust into action immediately and not have the buffer time of a normal summer.

“Guys in draft haven’t played five-on-five, since, like, March,” Presti said.

“When you get drafted you generally have Summer League. You have a whole summer of development, one-on-one work, you learn terminology, you’re in your NBA environment. In case of Pokusevski and Theo, they are also going through a massive transition culturally. You cannot underestimate that either.”

So, as Presti said, it will not be a normal season, and the offseason is, as we’ve seen, completely abnormal.

The Thunder will do their best to prevent the sped-up pace from disrupting the disciplined approach of the program.

“You can’t press fast-forward on some of this stuff so we’re just going to be diligent, and do the best we can, and follow our process and not allow anything external or that’s outside of our control impact how we approach this,” Daigneault said.

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It may have taken longer than many have expected, but the Thunder finally got their man. Believe it or not, they’ve actually had him for six years.

On Wednesday, the franchise introduced Mark Daigneault as its new head coach, bringing to a close a two-month process that began shortly after former head coach Billy Donovan was learned to be parting ways with the organization after five years.

At 35 years old, Daigneault becomes one of the youngest coaches in the league, but, as general manager Sam Presti pointed out in his press conference with reporters on Wednesday, Daigneault has a rare combination of youth and experience that should be assets as he attempts to grow with the team. It was impossible to not recognize his positive attitude and upbeat perspective — attributes that will probably resonate positively with his players.

Being introduced to reporters about a week before the draft with free agency following shortly thereafter, Daigneault doesn’t even have a full month to get his affairs in order before the team convenes for training camp on Dec. 1.

Nonetheless, the coach is ready.

“The first thing I’ll say is that every single coaching job is tough and difficult, especially in a league like the NBA that is this competitive… Any circumstance you look at with any coach in the NBA, it’s a hard job for that reason. It’s challenging.”

Many expect that the new coach’s job this coming season will be challenging, as well, as the Thunder seem to be in divestment mode with respect to some of its veteran pieces — most notably Chris Paul.

Still, the coach is comforted by the fact that Presti and his staff have spent more time talking about organizational growth than any mandate to win a certain number of games this coming season.

“I would say that the reason I feel confident — everyone’s talking about the quick turnaround time — I just interviewed with Sam and his group for a long period of time and not once did they talk about the quick turnaround time, the whole conversation was centered around the vision for the organization…

“When you’re in a place where that’s the dialogue, it gives you a lot of confidence to be able to handle tough situations, which are inevitable in the NBA.”

Now, Daigenault will need his youthful energy to help him complete the sprint to the season opener. Although Oklahoma City doesn’t tip-off its 2020-21 season until Dec. 22 at the earliest, over the next 20 days, the team will have to tackle the draft, free agency and prepare for training camps.

Despite it all, the newly installed head coach is looking forward to getting to work.

“The quick turnaround or shortened season or whatever, it’s just the world we live in right now,” he said.

“That’s why I’m so grateful to be in an organization with such a strong foundation like the Thunder.”

It has taken a while, but the Thunder finally got their man.