The OKC Thunder embark on year three of Mark Daigneault’s tenure in Bricktown. You could call Mark Daigneault the perfect head coach for Sam Presti, a mystery man as far as NBA coaches go with a grasp on how the team has to operate to get back to being perennial title contenders. How mysterious is Daigneault? Well, his Birthday is wrong on Wikipedia, no one knows exactly how old he is, no one knows his salary or contract length, and there is even still dispute on how to say his name.
When Billy Donovan and Sam Presti shared a few cold beverages following the NBA Bubble and elected to part ways as Donovan was off to the windy city, the coaching search drug on and took many twists and turns before landing a head ball coach just seven days before the 2020 NBA Draft due to the condensed offseason schedule following the NBA Bubble. That head coach was of course Mark Daigneault who spent time coaching the Thunder’s G-League team, the OKC Blue, before joining Donovan’s staff at the NBA level. Both with the strong University of Florida ties the duo had a good relationship, and having spent years within the Thunder franchise, the transition was nearly seamless…outside of that whole pandemic season thing featuring no fans in the Paycom Center for the first year of his career.
Grading Mark Daigneault’s first two season’s with the OKC Thunder
Mark Daigneault not only had ties to Donovan but being from Massachusetts gave him some reliability to Sam Presti. After just one year as an NBA assistant, Mark Daigneault began his coaching career with a 22-50 record in 2020-21 and followed it up with a two-win improvement in ten more games in 2021-22 for a 24-58 record.
Sadly for Mark Daigneault, he will not have the fast start record-wise as the former OKC Thunder coaches like Scott Brooks and Billy Donovan, that is due to the nature of the organization tanking or better draft selections trying to build a championship contender.
Though, if you can look past his record, Mark Daigneault has shown elite coaching chops that Brooks and Donovan did not. Even without the luxury of coaching Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and other future Hall of Famers.
Mark Daigneault has shown elite potential as a head coach of the OKC Thunder
Look, it is extremely difficult to grade an NBA head coach in general. That task is even more difficult two years in. Then, the fact, that the team’s roster is more optimized to lose rather than win, and the fact we have not seen Mark Daigneault coach in the playoffs yet, it continues to be a ton of guesswork. Though, having watched all 154-games of his career (most games multiple times), and being involved in the vast majority of every pre-game, post-game, and post-practice press conference I feel confident in this snap judgment with the data points we do have.
One of the most interesting aspects of Mark Daigneault’s career is how flexible he is, forward-thinking, or modern however you would like to put it. Being comfortable enough to start Josh Giddey right out of the gate, going small enough to start Jeremiah Robinson-Earl over Derrick Favors, and understanding you need multiple playmakers, the importance of three-point shooting, versatile team defensive concepts, and building relationships with the players on the roster.
Perhaps his best trait is his patience. Not only with Sam Presti and the organization in building a title contender, but with players on the roster. When dealing with a roster so young that even while including a pair of 31-year-olds in Mike Muscala and Derrick Favors, it still is a younger collection of players than the 2021-22 Texas Longhorns basketball team, you have to have patience. You have to develop them in a way that handles their extreme highs and extreme lows.
Mark Daigneault is also elite at drawing up out-of-bounds plays and running a more structured offense than his predecessors. How will he adjust game-to-game in a seven-game series against the same opponents? We do not know yet, but he is off to a great start.
The Final grade for Mark Daigneault following his second season with the OKC Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder wrapped up their 2021-22 NBA Season with a 24-58 record and conducted their annual exit interviews with the Media. We were allowed to speak with every player on the OKC Thunder roster besides Vit Krejci who was undergoing a knee procedure, and Mike Muscala who was rehabbing a lingering ankle injury that needed mid-season surgery. Every single player on the Oklahoma City Thunder roster gave a glowing review of Mark Daigneault.
As Mark Daigneault continues to grow as a head coach, I think it is safe to say the label “player-coach” will follow him. From his handling of players on and off the court the OKC Thunder have found a head man that can manage relationships with the best of them. That relationship is very important in a small market as you attempt to keep your homegrown stars.
Another area in which Mark Daigneault thrives, although less important than the other points, is how he handles the media. He is fully transparent, as much as you can be as a head coach, and does a great job of explaining situations and decisions to those of us in the Media which in turn gives the fanbase as much information and clarity as possible.
From his ability to build relationships, his X’s and O’s ability, and projected upside, Mark Daigneault seems to be the real deal. When he was first hired, many OKC Thunder fans wondered if he was just a stop-gap until the team was rebuilt. In my opinion, we can put that talk to rest. He is the real deal and deserves a shot to prove it in the postseason where coaches are truly judged, whenever this team is built.
The final grade for the OKC Thunder head ball coach: A+