Why Mark Daigneault is the coach the OKC Thunder always needed

When the OKC Thunder announced Mark Daigneault as the fourth head coach of the OKC Thunder (don’t forget P.J. Carlesimo and all one of his victories in The Big Friendly!), he was a complete mystery.

He was such an unknown, in fact, that he famously didn’t have a Wikipedia page before being hired. But after thirty-four games at the helm, Daigneault is making a strong case that he is the pilot this Thunder team needs to reach its bright future.

Daigneault established a reputation for player development as an assistant for the flagship team and as the head man for the Blue, but he is more than just a babysitter for the OKC Thunder’s incubating young talent.

He has turned the Thunder into a modern basketball team, and his style will fit perfectly when the franchise is ready to contend for championships.

OKC Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault understands modern NBA offense

The NBA is a pace-and-space league.

Offense is all about catching the other team off-balance long enough for an open shot, and nothing creates more openings than pure speed. That’s why pace has been climbing since the early 2000s, when teams averaged about 90 possessions per game, to the modern figure of about 100, according to data available at Basketball-Reference.

Over that period, pace is 92% correlated with effective field goal percentage.

Pace is just one half of the equation though. The other half is spacing.

Players who are a threat to shoot occupy their defenders, making it costly to play help defense. That hesitation to leave a shooter leads to open layups when ballhandlers penetrate and encounter no help at the rim.

That’s why, since 2010, 3-pointers attempted per game is 97% correlated with offensive rating.

The math is simple — the faster a team plays and the more threes they shoot, the better they score.

Previous Thunder coaches failed to embrace this pace and space mentality. Scott Brooks’s offense felt pre-Industrial by today’s standards, while Daigneault, whose team is ninth in pace and fifth in attempted 3s, is a product of the Space Age.

The fault in our stars

So, if Daigneault is so smart, why is the OKC Thunder’s offense worst in the entire league?

Frankly, it comes down to personnel.

While the Thunder hoist 38 threes per game, a higher mark than twenty-five of the NBA’s thirty clubs, the Thunder’s shooters are about as accurate as henchmen in a Bond film.

The Thunder’s two most prolific chuckers, Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley, combine for eleven long balls per game while hitting only 32.8% and 29.5% of their attempts, respectively. That takes a toll on efficiency, not just because they’re missing shots, but also because their defenders are free to help off them and clog the paint.

But this pair is young, and it’s fair to assume they will get better. When they do, the offense will track with their improvement.

The other side of the ball

So often, offense dominates in articles, commentary, and the inner thoughts of every member of the Brooklyn Nets.

However, research shows that there are two halves to a basketball court.

Since its inception, the OKC Thunder have built their identity on defense. In fact, the team has never finished in the bottom half of the league since 2009, and it has fielded a top-ten defense in seven of the last nine seasons.

Under Daigneault, things have not changed. The OKC Thunder have been surprisingly competitive this year, despite its clanky offensive attack, due to a tenacious defense that is ranked tenth in the league.

While defense requires talent and athleticism, it also demands effort, awareness, and sound fundamentals, all of which are coachable.

Billy Donovan’s defenses frequently relied on talent and athleticism while coming up short in the other departments. Daigneault has one of the league’s best perimeter defenders in Dort, but beyond the Canadian Shield, the current roster does not feature the sort of defensive talent that populated the Thunder locker room two years ago.

Even so, Daigneault’s defense is playing just as well due to the effort and awareness his team displays every night they take the floor.

OKC lacks talent — this is no secret. That said, when they get it, a coach that marshals that talent into a pace and space offense and a high-effort defense is the kind of coach they’ll need.

The Thunder may not have the next Durant or Westbrook yet, but they do have the man to coach them.