OKC Thunder: Will Weaver leaps to top of head coach candidate list

Will Weaver leaps to the top of the list for OKC Thunder head coach candidates as he quarantines awaiting an interview.

With numerous options available to fill the OKC Thunder vacancy for head coach, one candidate has leaped to the top of the heap. It’s not necessarily that Will Weaver was head and shoulders above the other candidates. He’s very skilled in the one main area a rebuilding team would covet – player development.

Rather, the main reason for the belief in Weaver being the next Thunder head coach has to do with quarantining. As per Olgun Uluc of ESPN, Weaver is being quarantined in OKC in order to partake in an interview.

With so many interviews occurring over Zoom in this pandemic, it seems illogical the OKC Thunder would bring him in and force him to quarantine unless he was either the leading candidate or Presti was preparing to make the announcement he’ll be the new head coach of the OKC Thunder.

Will Weaver tops OKC Thunder head coach candidate list

Weaver has been in Australia this past year as he took over the reins of an NBL team — the Sydney Kings. He’s also an assistant coach on the Australian National team.

Weaver has a wide and varied career in coaching at all different levels and leagues. He got his first taste for coaching while at the University of Texas as he helped run basketball camps eventually joining the Longhorn program as a graduate assistant. He stuck with college becoming the assistant coach of Sam Houston State of the Southland Conference. This was a critical time in Weaver’s life as he networked with Rockets’ assistant GM, Sam Hinkie.

That led to Hinkie offering Weaver an assistant coaching job with the 76ers although he began as a video coordinator and progressed to become Brett Brown’s special assistant.

Weaver is noted as gifted at developing talent. He followed up his time with the 76ers moving onto the Nets working as Kenny Atkinson’s special assistant with the core responsibility of player development. When the head coaching job opened up on their G-League affiliate Long Island Nets, Weaver took over. In his first season at the helm, he took the team to the finals, and while they lost to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers he was anointed as G-League Coach of the Year.

In 2014 Weaver became the assistant coach of the Australian national team under Andrej Lemanis. He expanded his time in Australia this past season when he took over as the head coach of the Sydney Kings of the NBL.

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Weaver made a big impression in his first season as bench boss for the Kings. He led his squad to become minor champions (20-8) and took them to the Grande Finals. Putting that in perspective Minor Champions is the best team in the NBL or the equivalent of what the Bucks did in the NBA. And, Grande Final is the NBL version of the NBA Finals.

The Kings elected to stop playing after three games due to the coronavirus and forfeited the title to the Wildcats.

The key takeaway here is Weaver has shown great skill and success with every position he’s held and shown true promise at developing talent. Presti has always had a proclivity for cerebral coaches and those who can share his affinity for breaking down video.

With the OKC Thunder heading into a phase of rebuilding, development becomes a critical asset. Not just for the youthful trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Darius Bazley, and Luguentz Dort but also the myriad of draft picks that will be incoming over the next several seasons.

Factoring in how successful Weaver has been both in regard to developing talent while also being competitive makes him a logical choice. If nothing else his commitment to undergo quarantining just for the interview certainly shows he’s committed to the process!