OKC Thunder: Donovan expects full availability for Celtics scrimmage

Billy Donovan’s told media he expects full OKC Thunder roster availability for Friday’s scrimmage.

Following Wednesday’s practice session the OKC Thunder bench boss met with media virtually as did Mike Muscala.

This was their 12th practice in 13 days for the team having only taken one day off. Thursday will be another rest day as the team will allow their bodies to heal prior to the scrimmage against the Boston Celtics on Friday.

That scrimmage will be the first of three scheduled and lead into the season restart that begins on July 30th. The OKC Thunder will face the Utah Jazz in their first of eight seeding games on August 1st.

The following are the key takeaways from the post-practice presser.

July 22nd post-practice presser:

Billy Donovan:

Coach Donovan shared the team will take today (July 23rd) off and only have a walkthrough as they prepare for their first scrimmage session on Friday. They’ve employed six days on, one day off routine through these 14 days post-quarantine.

Although Donovan noted he’d prefer to practice the day prior to what is, in essence, a preseason game he recognizes how important it is to allow the players to rest and recovery while they build up endurance over the timeframe they have until the season restart.

Perhaps, the biggest news shared was he anticipated everyone will be available for the scrimmage. Donovan did not tip his hand on who would get minutes so Thunder Nation will have to be patient for one more day until we learn if Andre Roberson will be on the hardwood Friday.

The coach said they’ll approach each scrimmage with the same view of building toward the restart, review the film after and make the necessary tweaks.  Finally playing an opponent will allow the coaching staff to determine how close the team is to when the season stopped.

‘We’ll learn a little bit more about ourselves after Friday.’ – Donovan

Told Sam Presti said he should get strong consideration for Coach of the Year he was asked what challenges he’s faced in comparison to previous seasons.

Aside from the obvious of the pandemic, Donovan spoke about the chemistry of the team and how quickly this iteration of the Thunder bonded despite adding nine new players.

‘When you’re dealing with a group of people, a group of individuals,  how well you mesh and gel and work together is certainly a big part of how successful you can be as a team. But this team coming in not knowing what to expect because there was nine new players and guys having to get comfortable playing one another It’s been a group that’s bonded very well the chemistry in the group has been very well (good).’ – Donovan

The bench boss raved about the vets and how they’ve invested in the younger group who’ve similarly bought into their roles.

When asked about Danilo Gallinari the coach offered high praise about Gallo’s skillset but enthused on how much he’s enjoyed getting to know him as a person. Donovan referred to the Italian as a leader and said several times how he plays the game the right way and is unselfish. He noted how Gallo was ‘an extremely important component to the success we’ve had” stating he is a mismatch offensively, calling him ‘a really special offensive player’.

Mike Muscala:

The only OKC Thunder player who spoke was Mike Muscala who was asked what specifically the team would be looking to accomplish in the first scrimmage game on Friday.

Muscala didn’t offer any secrets stating the obvious of needing to focus on the details. The sniper said the defensive end will be the priority in that regard although they’ll also look at pace and spacing offensively.

One question referenced how easy going the Thunder has been regarding the bubble without complaints of food or the situation. Muscala said the weekly zoom calls helped especially with  Chris Paul as the NBPA president. CP3 kept in the loop on how things were being organized with weekly progress reports. The big man noted those details gave everyone on the team a better appreciation of everything that went into making the Disney bubble restart a reality.

In his first year playing for Donovan, he noted that while Billy holds everyone accountable he allows everyone to express themselves. Muscala said it’s really fun to play for him and looks forward to continuing to do that.

Asked about the playmaking of the bigs, Muscala had high praise for the three point guards stating with the game focused so much on pick and roll and pick and pop the OKC bigs are the benefactors. Muscala highlighted how the Thunder plays a four out and one in style and that lets Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Dennis Shroder make the initial reads, and then the bigs are able to are able to follow their lead.

‘As a big it’s just fun to play with guards like Chris, Shai & Dennis with pick and rolls they make the game easy and make it fun.‘ – Muscala

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Told that Sam Presti called the team special he was asked how he feels. Muscala agreed and got a little choked up in his response noting how he moved around last year so he was very appreciative of the support of the city, the state, the Thunder fans (a player walking by yelled out at him) ‘and teammates — as you can hear like that.’

Muscala noted the support and knowing how people are suffering makes him (and the team) want to play hard, show what the team can do. He said they will leave it all on the floor to hopefully give the fans something great to watch.

The funniest part of his interview came when he was asked about Danilo Gallinari and after he offered ample praise of Gallo he shared a nice little tidbit. After every practice, he joins, Gallo, Schroder and Dooley (I’m assuming that’s his nickname for Hamidou Diallo) in a shooting drill. The number of times he’s beat Gallo in that drill this season — ZERO!

Not sure many would’ve been as quick to admit to that fact, but good on Mike for giving us a little behind the scenes secret.

Tomorrow we’ll offer some tips to watch for in the scrimmage versus the Celtics.