Mark Daigneault proved to be an elite coach against the Bulls

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of a rebuild under General Manager Sam Presti. The Thunder look to get back to being a top-tier, championship-level, organization. Oklahoma City fans, rightfully so, stress about what players will be in Bricktown long term, who is part of the championship core? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort, what other blue-chip prospects can the Thunder swoop up? What will become of Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Tre Mann, and all these fun flyer players? Lost in the shuffle, is the bench boss Mark Daigneault.

This rebuild will take patience as Sam Presti expressed during his preseason media availability. It will also take luck, as we saw last offseason as the Thunder saw their ping pong balls bounce the wrong way and Lottery luck run out. A lot of this rebuild is out of the organization’s hands when you rely on such a fluke lottery system to filter top-tier players to teams through the NBA Draft.

That means the Oklahoma City Thunder have to control what they can control, and so far, they have done a great job of that. Josh Giddey at pick-six, despite the poor lottery luck, looks like a fantastic selection as he wins the first two Western Conference Rookie of the month awards. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is inked to a max contract extension with no opt-outs. The first draft cycle as a true rebuilding, tanking team, OKC added Tre Mann, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Aaron Wiggins to Giddey all of whom seem like rotational players at a minimum.

The OKC Thunder have found an elite coach in Mark Daigneault as they continue their rebuild process

Going deeper than just the players on the roster, the Oklahoma City Thunder already have a lot in place to inch toward a championship-level team. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey appear to be players that can lead a franchise to the peak of the mountain top, Luguentz Dort is a defensive star that has shown upside flashes offensively, and the Thunder have one of the best General Managers in the NBA leading the way with historic draft assets at his disposal.

When attempting to fill out the future roster, fans often forget about the bench boss. A head coach can win or lose playoff series, preventing or helping you hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Mark Daigneault is the current Thunder head man, taking over for Billy Donovan last season after Donovan darted for Chicago.

Mark Daigneault is not just a stop-gap coach, through two years filled with adversity, and a tanking roster, he has proven to be an elite NBA coach. That sounds strange, given his overall record and the fact most do not understand how to evaluate coaches much less evaluate them in a non-playoff setting. So how can anyone be so confident of Daigneault’s staying power?

Sam Presti does not operate the way typical front office members do, I struggle to believe he hired a young up-and-coming G-League head coach with whom he had a relationship within the organization with the idea of firing him in mind.

During in-game scenarios, Mark Daigneault has been nothing short of elite patchworking each of the last two rosters to more wins than many expected they’d reach. Daigneault’s ability to adjust on the fly and think outside the box was fully on display against the Chicago Bulls this week.

Facing off with his mentor Billy Donovan, the Bulls were able to dominate down low with their All-Star Nikola Vucevic the entire game. Without a true big-man on the current roster, and Derrick Favors out with a back injury, Mark Daigneault decided to get wacky placing Kenrich Williams a 6’7 wing on Vucevic…and it worked. Mix that with his brilliant out-of-timeout play calls, half-court offense upside, and you have the makings of one of the top coaches in the league.

Going out on that limb is not something most coaches feel comfortable with, they would rather die by a thousand paper cuts the traditional way, than risk being radical and it fails within the first five possessions. That lack of outside-the-box thinking has lost the Thunder plenty of playoff series over the years.

Sure, Mark Daigneault does not have Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, Paul George, and the shiny rewards from just rolling the ball out there for some future Hall of Famers. He does not have the record, or start to the career as Scott Brooks and Billy Donovan, he looks more like PJ Carlesimo record-wise, but that is not entirely in his control. Daigneault is elite and will be pacing NBA sidelines for a long time. Though, it might take until one of his Thunder teams reach the postseason for the rest of the basketball world to realize it.