Throughout his five-year tenure serving as head coach of the OKC Thunder, Mark Daigneault has established himself as one of the top headmen the game currently has to offer.
With every passing season, he's managed to lead Oklahoma City to an improved record compared to the year before and, following their 68-14 finish in 2024-25, has guided them toward becoming the youngest team in league history to win back-to-back number-one seeds.
As a result of his tremendous efforts, Daigneault has gone on to receive a slew of top-notch accolades, a list that includes being named the All-Star Game head coach and, in 2024, being crowned NBA Coach of the Year.
This latter accomplishment was already considered the most notable of his career due to the sheer prestige of the honor coupled with the fact that, at 39 years old, he's one of the youngest in league history to receive such a moniker.
However, following Monday's news report out of Phoenix, his link to the award has only become more exclusive.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault one of two COY winners left out West
As first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania, after wrapping up their campaign with a sub-.500 record of 36-46 and on the outside looking in on a postseason berth, the Suns have officially parted ways with coach Mike Budenholzer just one year into his five-year, $50 million contract.
Though such a move may not come as all that big of a surprise, considering reports of internal turmoil had been circulating for several months now, what's noteworthy about Budenholzer's ouster is the fact that he is now the second former Coach of the Year winner to be canned in just four months and the third to be let loose in less than a year.
His successors in this uninspiring category are ex-Kings coach Mike Brown, who was fired back in late December, and ex-Pistons coach Monty Williams, who was fired last June after just one year in Detroit.
With these recent shakeups, coupled with Spurs legend, Gregg Popovich's health-related absence for the majority of the campaign and his unfortunately questionable future as a result, the Thunder and Warriors are now being led by the only two remaining headmen out West who have received COY honors in the past with the likes of Mark Daigneault and Steve Kerr, respectively.
If the club wasn't already exclusive enough, these recent firings have only made the honor all the more unique, especially out in this particular conference.