Last month, Thunder general manager Sam Presti announced the promotion of assistant coach Mark Daigneault to become the Oklahoma City Thunder’s next head coach. After a long span of two months, Presti finally made his decision. The Thunder are going the same route as every head coach Presti has hired for the team: someone without any previous head coaching experience in the NBA.
Daigneault didn’t come from nowhere, however. He’s been around for more than six years and the players know him. The most important thing, though, is that he has Presti’s trust. The GM believes in him and he has the reasons to do so.
FROM BILLY’S SIDEKICK TO FILLING HIS SEAT
Born in Massachusetts, Daigneault attended Leominster High School. After that, he spent four years in UConn as a student manager under Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun. The UConn legend convinced him of going the coaching route, and strongly recommended him at Holy Cross. Mark eventually went there and spent three years as an assistant coach.
Daigneault has been on Presti’s radar since 2014. That year, after coaching the Florida Gators for four season, Billy Donovan was hired to be the Thunder’s new head coach. Daigneault, who was Donovan’s assistant in FL, was named the OKC Blue’s head coach. With OKC’s G League affiliate, he went to the playoffs four times and won three division titles in five years.
After his long tenure in the G League, Presti sent him to the NBA bench as an assistant coach in 2019. The Donovan-Daigneault reunion lasted one season, as Donovan decided to part ways from OKC and sign with the Chicago Bulls. Billy had a very good relationship with the players and the locker room as a whole. For Daigneault, it will be a challenge to replace him and be the leader this roster needs.
After a week of interviews with many candidates, Presti finally decided to hire Daigneault. He has been around the city for a while, knows the franchise and has many years coaching for a 35-year-old. As Presti himself said, “the amount of head-coaching experience and diverse experiences through his tenure with the Blue is rare for someone his age”.
NOTHING NEW FOR THE SQUAD
Since he has been an assistant last season, he already knows who he’s working with. Furthermore, many young players approved his hiring in social media. Lu Dort and Darius Bazley went to Twitter to show their approvals.
https://twitter.com/bazleydarius/status/1326574906184671233?s=21
Even Chris Paul, who might not be in a Thunder jersey next season, phoned Daigneault to congratulate him. It seems that he has a good relationship with the players. As a young player, having a familiar face in the locker room is very productive. And, as a young head coach, you don’t have to adapt to the team since you already know your players. In that sense, Daigneault was one step ahead from the rest of the candidates.
THE TEACHER COACH
Daigneault has an education degree from UConn. His mother and sister are both teachers as well. His teaching skills can come in handy for a young squad who has many things to learn. If you throw his basketball knowledge in the mix, you get a seamless fit for OKC’s locker room.
“He’s been intricately involved with our draft processes. Our player development systems have come significantly further and further each year under his purview. He has had a hand in so many different things that happen behind the scenes including staff development of a lot of different coaches that he’s had with the Blue … so I think that’s a tremendous sign of his leadership,” Presti said in his introduction.
Daigneault is a developer. He’s someone that can guide the Shais, Bazleys and Dorts to the next level. He is exactly the type of coach a rebuilding team needs. For the Thunder, developing their young players is at the very top of their priorities, and Daigneault can certainly help with that.
For a 35-year-old, his curriculum is solid. Players respect him and management trusts him. But as a rookie coach, he must prove himself in this league. He has come a long way from washing UConn gear and filling water bottles. Now he has the main seat on an NBA bench.
As his favorite singer Bruce Springsteen would say, he will try to take the Thunder to the “Land of Hopes and Dreams”.
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