OKC Thunder: Mark Daigneault on playoff pain, feeling young and SGA's super power
More from the Thunder coach's exit interview, including his offseason plan.
Time for the second half of our exploration of Mark Daigneault's exit interview.
I shared the first half of the Thunder head coach's end-of-season briefing earlier this week, and while there were all sorts of interesting things to excavate, basically everything Daigneault says is interesting.
My two cents: he's the best head coach in the state in terms of being forthcoming and insightful with reporters.
(I might have to do a head-coach ranking for that this summer.)
So, without further ado, let's dig back into the transcript, complete with the questions asked of Daigneault, what he had to say and my take on things.
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Chet had a great rookie year, but it doesn't even look like he's scratched the surface as to what he could be. What do you want to see from him this summer in terms of growth and preparation?
DAIGNEAULT: Right now this is, in my opinion, the lowest level of Chet Holmgren we're going to see, which is pretty exciting. And the reason I'm so confident saying that is because of his appetite for improvement. He's a guy that is incredibly focused. Basketball is his No. 1 priority. He sleeps in his sneakers. He will have a great summer physically and skill-wise. He's done a great job of working with us as an organization on a plan and sticking to that plan. He did that last summer through the season. He'll do that again this summer.
When you've got a guy with that kind of drive ... that plan is that focused and he's willing to execute it the way he is, improvement is very predictable. So I would say that for him, and I'd also extend that to all of our players. This is a young team that is evolving, and we have runway because of the age of the team and the experience level of the team. A lot of people talked about our experience in a negative fashion this year, like you guys don't have experience. But part of that is it gives you an incredible runway moving forward, and it gives us a lot of optimism as we continue to go.
My take: In our dive into the first half of Daigneault's exit interview, I wrote that Holmgren is the player who I'm most excited to see how he develops this offseason. He was spectacular in his rookie season, but think about how much he improved DURING the season. It's obvious he can take information, process it and learn from it in a short amount of time. Imagine what he'll do with a year's worth of intel during the offseason.
Talking about roster continuity, were you impressed this season at all by the team given this was their first go at it?
DAIGNEAULT: Yes, I was impressed by these guys every single day. I keep saying uncommon. I keep saying it was a special team. They impressed the hell out of me. I was in awe of our team many times this season, both in how we handled our setbacks and our adversities, but also on how we handle success. Handling success when you're a young team is very difficult. That can break you down as much as failure can, especially in the current environment of the NBA. The maturity that we handled our successes with gives me a lot of encouragement as well. But, yeah, I'm incredibly impressed by our team.
My take: Anyone who was paying attention should be impressed, too. Second youngest team in the NBA. No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. A first-round sweep. I know the end wasn't what people hoped for, but step back and look at the entire body of work, and it is reason to marvel.
When did you sense that this group was uncommon? Was there a moment? Was there anything last season that you kind of started to sense that? When did that start to seep in?
DAIGNEAULT: My first year.
Your first year?
DAIGNEAULT: Yeah. I just think it was ... that year, the second year, right from the jump. There was just a way about these guys, even the guys that aren't here, some of them. It was kind of like the snowball just started rolling in the right direction. I feel comfortable saying this now, but in my first year — I referenced this with our team recently — we were going through a rough skid. We had a home game. We had an arena walk-through, and I was talking about ... we were in the empty arena before a game. This was my first year, and I was talking to them about putting T-shirts in the seats. We're going through a tough time, but the habits, the standards, whatever I was talking about back then, is eventually going to put T-shirts in the seats if we just stay on it and stay with it.
Lu Dort, Shai, Kenrich Williams, (Mike) Muscala were there, and the snowball was rolling at that time slowly, and it didn't feel like it was picking up a ton of steam, but over time it's just rolled faster and faster and faster, and it's been an incremental thing that has now put T-shirts in the seats. So the uncommon nature of the team, the special nature of the team, I've always seen that in the corps of players, and as the corps has grown outwards, it's only gained momentum. As the team has gotten better, it's only gained more momentum. What's special about this team is not only what we accomplished, but how we did it. We've been on that track for four years.
My take: These are the types of anecdotes I love from Daigneault. He was an assistant with the Thunder during the final seasons of the first iteration of excellence. Kevin Durant. Russell Westbrook. Paul George. Daigneault had experienced playoff games in Oklahoma City. He knew what they sounded like, smelled like, felt like. And he knew that before each game, every seat had a T-shirt on it for every fan. He used that as a signpost, a goal for the second iteration to aspire to. Darned if it didn't happen this season.
You can bet in the draft process on how high can somebody jump. How much of where you are today is based on the betting of people? Who they are as people in addition to their skills?
DAIGNEAULT: Yeah, I think Sam and his group's evaluation of that and then prioritization of that, you've got to identify that, No. 1, but then you have to be willing to prioritize it over something shinier. The combination of their ability to identify it and then prioritize it in the decision-making process is high level, and that's everything. Obviously, you need a baseline of talent. Obviously, you need balance on the roster and different skills and people that can do different things, and you need good players, which we have.
But when you're going through an 82-game season, a multi-year run, summertime where you're cutting these guys loose and now they're on their own turf and making their own decisions, all those things really come down to a guy's professionalism, a guy's commitment level, a guy's team orientation, their individual character. And like I said, handling success, handling failure. All that stuff boils down to a person, and so it's massive. It's a secret sauce for different teams. We're not the only team who has that, but we have it. We have it because Sam and his guys ... and gals have done a great job of identifying that and, like I said, prioritizing it.
My take: This is an extremely likable team. Sure, folks around here like the Thunder, but listen to the conversation around the basketball world, and you can get a sense of how much people like this team. Presti and Co. didn't gather this collection of talent to be likable, but the things Daigneault mentioned (commitment, professionalism, character, team orientation, etc.) create an outward persona that is easy to appreciate. Now, if this bunch continues getting better and really starts whomping up on opponents, the likability will surely go down. But the things that internally are helpful to Daigneault and to the Thunder's success are outwardly a breath of fresh air to many basketball watchers.
We talked about Chet. With him and Cason both going through this for the first time — they played all 82 games, they come into the playoffs with confidence — what does that say about their motor and what you saw from them this season?
DAIGNEAULT: Really impressive capacity, first of all. Talent. They're really good players with a high capacity. They're quick studies. They made plenty of mistakes, but they learned from them very quickly. They don't make the same mistake twice. Then it says a lot about, like I said, their toughness, motivation, commitment level. Those guys are the real deal.
My take: We had a sense that Holmgren could be great. He was great coming out of Gonzaga, so the pedigree was there. But Wallace is yet another draft win for Presti and the Thunder. A relative unknown coming out of Kentucky who was drafted 10th overall. Now you look at several of the players picked before Wallace, and it figures he'd go way higher if last summer's draft was re-done. He has the makings of a foundational piece.
Your exact words (after Game 6) were that you wanted the team to use the pain as an investment. Do you hope that they weaponize that feeling?
DAIGNEAULT: Like I said, we had a special enough season to be disappointed in the second round of the playoffs. I have no problem walking in here today saying that we're disappointed with the end of the season. We should be. But at the end of the day, if you look at great players, if you look at great teams and you look back at the breadcrumbs of what led to their greatness, there's a lot of struggle, and there's a lot of hurdles that they have to overcome. There's a lot of adversities that they have to endure. There's a lot of success they have to endure. You've got to use every experience for forward momentum.
Our team should use being the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, a tough Western Conference, and winning however many games we won as motivation to understand what we're capable of. And we should also use a playoff series loss to Dallas as motivation. All of those experiences matter, and we've got to learn the lessons from the experiences regardless of how they felt, good or bad, and churn that into work this summer and come back in the fall and be better individually and get ready to be better as a team.
My take: Embrace the suck. Sometimes, that's what you have to do. You have to be disappointed. You have to be sad and angry and heartbroken. You don't have to wallow in it, but rather, you have to figure out how to use it to your advantage. Frankly, experiencing that is as invaluable as anything the Thunder went through in the playoffs. Yes, it needed to experience the environments and the emotions and the successes and the difficulties. But it also needed to experience the ultimate failure — losing a series — and then figure out how to turn it into good. Only time will tell how well the Thunder did that.
You've said a couple of times just how much you enjoy coaching this team. Just where does this team rank in terms of maybe your favorite team you've ever coached?
DAIGNEAULT: I don't rank them. It's a pleasure to coach any team any year, but yeah, there was no day that I walked into work and it felt like work this year. This was an absolute pleasure to coach this team. Even when you're down by, whatever, 30 points in a game, there's no team I'd rather be coaching down 30. We were in the opposite situation quite a bit this year, and that was a pleasure as well. You can't take for granted that coaching good teams is always enjoyable and fulfilling. I think there's a lot of situations where the team is good for reasons of talent and things like that, but it doesn't feel the way this felt. This felt right, success and failure.
My take: Now, that is insightful — Daigneault admitting that great teams can be no fun to coach. I wonder if he was thinking at all about the 2016 Thunder. He was on the bench for those playoffs, working under Billy Donovan, and obviously, that was a great team. Prime KD. Prime Russ. Prime Serge. Plus a great supporting cast, headlined by Steven Adams, Andre Roberson and Dion Waiters. But there were outward signs of inward dissent. KD and Russ at odds. Durant's free agency looming. Westbrook's hard-charging personality grating. As great a team as it was, that season had to be tough on Donovan and Co. Lots of walking on eggshells. Sure doesn't seem like Daigneault had to worry about any of that this season.
You might have mentioned some of that in that last answer, but (Saturday), you mentioned how you really wanted to be at practice, and I got the sense that it wasn't mostly based on wanting to continue the series. I mean, I know you wanted to continue the series, but more based on you wanted to be around the team. What is it about this team that you want to be around them so much?
DAIGNEAULT: They're awesome. You guys see them. They're a great group of guys. They're professional. They have a great time, but not when it's time to work. Their heads (are) down. They attack it. They compete together. They have a growth mindset through the ups and downs of a season. They're willing to play individually in ways that are helpful to the team. That's what you want to coach. It's a privilege to coach them.
Do they make you feel youthful?
DAIGNEAULT: Youthful? I'm 39 years old. I should feel youthful.
My take: OK, this made me laugh out loud. Daigneault is one of the smartest coaches I've ever been around, but he might also be one of the funniest.
What was it like just to watch Shai go from a star into superstardom?
DAIGNEAULT: I don't look at it like that, no disrespect to your question. What's been most impressive to me about Shai is just the incremental improvement that he's made over time, which I think has gotten more and more invisible as he's gotten better and better. I think it's easy to get awestruck by his talent and what he's accomplishing and how efficiently he does it and the place that he's carved out in the league. But the secret behind that is very consistent work, very targeted work, and incremental improvement. If you look back at his first year, or four years ago, his defense from then to now, his style on offense from then to now, he's now playing a style. He's on a track or playing a style that allows his teammates to rise with him. He was always kind of there from a personality standpoint, but his style has evolved incredibly, in a way that's really helped our team. He's improved his shooting. He's become more efficient. He's made his leadership. He's made incredible improvements in so many different areas. That's what's most impressive to me. I don't see him as star to superstar. I see him as a guy who puts his head down and improves day by day. The cumulative effect of that, where he's gotten to, it shows the power of it.
My take: No disrespect to Daigneault, but Shai has gone from star to superstar. But I believe he's gotten there because of what Daigneault mentioned. His style of play. His leadership. His improvements. All of those things elevated everyone around him, and when you have a team as young as the Thunder, if you don't have someone who makes everyone around him better, you aren't going to win as much as this team did. SGA rubbed off on everyone else, and the Thunder was the (much, much, much) better for it.
How do you attack this off-season? Do you rest for a couple of weeks? How do you go about this to get you guys ready for next year?
DAIGNEAULT: Me personally? I've got to spend a lot of time with my kids. It's maybe 100 days on the road or something like that. So a lot of that. I usually work pretty good. I have a hard time stopping my workflow, like hard stop right after the season. So I kind of like just let it fade. I'll work pretty good here in the next couple weeks, reflecting on the stuff that's fresh, and then letting that sit for a couple months. Then I crank it back up in August.
My take: I'm going to guess when Daigneault says he's going to let that sit for a couple months, he doesn't mean that HE'S going to sit for a couple months. Now, he may not travel as much during the summer as during the season — his kiddos are young, and I know from talking to him how much he relishes being a dad — but Daigneault won't be taking long periods off. He's a worker. A grinder. It's helped him get where he is, and it's helped the Thunder get where it is. I doubt very seriously that changes this offseason.
That's it for our dive into Mark Daigneault's exit interview, but good news, every Thunder player did one. Over the coming weeks, I'll dig into a few more. Not every player. But some for sure.
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