OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Washington Wizards | February 23, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Washington Wizards | February 23, 2024

Ched second night of a back toback and the offense was really precise from the very outset I think he shot 80% in that first quarter uh what stood out to you about just the kind of focus that you guys had early uh yeah we knew the game

Plan and we came out we executed it well and uh you know we really trusted each other that’s how we got those open looks and uh you know credit to everybody who got them and and knocked them down you scored at all three levels you talked at

Allstar about the the post fade being something that you want to um go to a little bit more how did you kind of get everything cooking at the same time tonight just being aggressive staying confident but not uh not trying to do too much just taking what the game was

Giving me and um you know trying to make the most of it Mark was talking about um just dealing with switches and getting caught with smaller Defenders and learning to attack that and just the process that you go through uh as it’s kind of a new thing for you what’s that

Been like for you and and how do you think you took advantage of that tonight I feel like I did I did a good job of attacking it within the action getting out quick for uh plays over the top and then also a few post-ups um you know I

Feel like a lot of it is just getting to the post-ups more but also understanding that we’re you know a drive and kick offense so not plugging up the whole offense and slowing everything down uh you know especially with guys who can uh really play off the dribble um you know

I don’t want to get in their way but I also understand that uh you know I can take advantage uh of of my size balance in you’re trying to figure out you know this is effective but you don’t want um like you said it’s a balance in

Act is going to tilt more one way or the other based on the night the matchup um the trust that I’ve built in that uh with with the team as well um you know so it’s going to consistently change I just got to um you know whatever I end

Up doing uh I just have to make sure it’s kind of in the uh pursuit of of winning obviously along similar lines but just more specific there was a point earlier in the year where we were talking about you know dub was catching more lives

Than you and and Mark has we just here mentioning that um you you know having that connection with some of the guys them throwing you lives them finding you over the top has been an emphasis just what’s going into that in terms of just working on that not just just the

Connections but you know the success behind you know actually getting the ball to you um you know just trust in the process of things uh knowing that not everything’s going to be perfect from day one and uh you know things still aren’t perfect we have a

Lot to work on outside of uh being better at throwing lobs catching lobs uh playing out of actions that lead to lobs um you know we just got to continue to work at everything and and that’s just one aspect that we’ve been working on and uh uh you know I feel like we’ve

Definitely gotten better at it uh as a team um we just got to continue to work on everything hey I want to ask you about tus seems like he was one of the one of the guys like kind of a new wave of talent coming out of Minnesota you’re something one of

The recent ones just what if anything do you remember hearing about him growing up and his brother as well uh I mean he was like the one who kind of started it off uh him and Gary Trent um out of Minnesota they both went to Apple Valley

And I remember going to some of those games and watching watching them play uh you know they were the first ones that I remember going games and and there the place is sold out there’s a huge line to get into the games and then uh you know that kind

Of led up to to us doing the same thing which is huge for Minnesota game of basketball up there uh and you know hopefully it continues um you know it’s great to see uh kind of that uh I guess you would say um what’s I don’t even know the word for

It but like just kind of seeing that come over and over uh you know one guy to the next uh is huge I think we’ve had you know 10 to 12 guys drafted in the last few years so it’s big time um Chad this year you know you

You’ve mentioned quite a few times that the offseason’s really when you get to add to your game but just over the course of the Season 50 plus games in where do you feel like you’ve grown the most over the course of the season um I can’t really narrow it down

To one thing I’ve been working on so much Jaylen uh just the way that this team attacked for 48 minutes of course there’s going to be slippage that happens in the game but how do you feel like you guys continue to just get the car back on the road and and chip away

Yeah I think that’s uh one of our identities is trying to play for the full uh 48 um every guy brings the intensity every minute of the game and I think if we don’t then we got the type of chemistry where we push each other to

Get to that so I think that’s the best way is just pushing each other when you see Chad go Coast to Coast 7 foot one and be able to kind of just pull up with a little leaner or runner in the lane what what goes through your mind um I think it’s

Insane but it just shows how skill skilled he is um just a great player with a ton of confidence and we know he can do those things and when he’s when he does it he does it so often we’re still we’re still amazed by the things he can do out

There you you go to every game Thinking hey I’m bringing this or there different things you’re watching game from the bench I need to break this different things um I think my identity is playing hard uh setting hard screens rebounding talking I always try to bring those things but again I’m also watching

The game and seeing how it is so if the team’s in a certain coverage and I need to turn the ball to get to the second side I’d do that or if their guarding Shay a certain way I know how to set screens or get out early just I watch

The game but I also make sure I bring certain things to the game yo keante and um Adam both had to play in the afternoon game today and then come back can be ready for the night game you were part of some of those last year what’s the mindset like

Whenever you just got done playing a full game and then you got to be ready in case uh your number is called tonight yeah it’s tiring it’s tiring for sure but we have so many guys that are tough and one of the things that we always talk about just mental toughness and

Those guys they’re tough to be able to go out there and do that and uh play at a high level so I’m happy for him did you prepare Gordon hward for the bark yesterday I think that he kind of just got peer pressured into doing it but it

It was a funny thing and we’re trying to get bid next that’s the next go Jaylen um Mark was talking about chat taking advantage of some of the switches and and posting up smaller guys and Chad was just talking about The Balancing Act of that because you guys aren’t really a

Postup offense it’s not really what you do but their advantages to doing it when you’re a big in an offense like that what is the process of just kind of figuring out when it’s time to maybe post and when it’s not yeah I think uh

For Chad uh it’s he gets that look a lot just because he’s so good on the perimeter they have to switch on him and when we throw it to him in the post and he has a mismatch on him and it makes it harder for the defense or for the

Opposing team they don’t know what to do you can’t switch them as often cuz if we’re throwing them to the post like they don’t want to see that and just having guards that we have and chat down there it just changes up the game and it

Makes it hard for the other team Jaylen your positivity has been something a lot of the team has talked about Mark’s talked about it is that a role that you’re trying to fill or is that just who you are shining through um I just

Try to make sure that’s who I am as a person I try to have fun with the game and um my dad’s always told me just have fun regardless of what it is have fun and that’s when you play your best basketball so if I go out there with a

Smile go out there to have fun and joking around my teammates and that’s that’s when I’m having my the best basketball for me Nick Al kissy Thunder uh Mark seemed like you guys didn’t really allow them to to get a lot of headwind or you know Traction in this game what’ you like

Best about the performance overall in the the 48 minutes yeah I mean I thought the first half was a shot making thing uh both ways you know we shot it incredibly well they had I think 10 open shots they were two for 10 on those uh

So some of it was they missed we made I thought in the second half we got a good uh approach in the third quarter especially you know good energy we really tried to drum it up the offense sustained uh and we played all the way through in the fourth with Chad I mean

He’s we’ve seen all of this but tonight he really scores at all three levels and um demonstrated so much of the versatility um what are you seeing from him as he’s working on all of this stuff behind the scenes and then able to actually put it in the game yeah he’s

Just refining uh on the offensive end of the floor um he’s shooting his catch and shoots you know with a lot of confidence right now regardless of make or Miss he’s also getting his size into the game around the basket especially against switches you know that’s been an

Adjustment for him from a coverage standpoint he kind of hit the ground running uh in regular coverage and he’s gotten better and better of attacking smaller Defenders uh with slip outs with rolls uh with us throwing it up to him we threw it up to him multiple times

Tonight and then he gets on the glass A little bit too Mark U with the reference to Chad he also seemed to be a little bit more physical tonight just kind of getting his shoulder into guys and playing through bumps sometimes even initiating this a little bit is is that

Something he’s grown into more over the course of the year uh a little bit I think he’s learned how to apply the physicality one of the things that was always impressive to me uh even early on was how physical he is on offense you know he delivers hits um he’s very

Rarely getting like knocked around on that end of the floor um and so he’s kind of done that from day one and he’s just learned kind of how to apply it and um has done a nice job of doing so then looked in the fourth quarter like maybe

Sort of in real time Gordon was shaking off a little rough did you see little more comfort as he went on there yeah I think so you know he hasn’t played you know it’s it’s one thing to be new to the team it’s quite another he hasn’t

Played in a long time he’s played almost two months so um it takes time to to get going and he’s also adjusting to a lot of other things right now so so like I said um not going to overreact to a small sample right now we’re just trying

To get he and Biz uh integrated and get you know them in shape and and you know in rhythm with the rest of the team and uh both of them have taken a great approach to that and I thought Gordon took another step forward tonight Mark earlier in the season we were talking

About just how last year’s team just wasn’t really a l doing team and this year’s team by the start of that first month had already thrown I think more lobs and lashers and obviously a component of that is chat but it feels like now Beyond you know the chat dub

Connection other guys are starting to throw him lives you think I mean what would you attribute attribute that to is it more you know you’re you’re you know putting sets out there that are welcoming that are guys just being more comfortable as ball handlers like what is that uh I think they’re more

Comfortable throwing it and it’s to be honest with you it’s been an emphasis you know it’s been something that um we’ve definitely tried to highlight um especially against switches you know if they’re going to put a smaller guy on him and switch him uh we have to throw

The ball up to him and force them to to bring extra help to that and and make that be a threat um we just can’t allow teams to just switch us and and take him out of the pick and roll game and um the guys have done a great job of doing that

I thought we’d get that in the game again tonight they switched him most of the night and a lot of those law plays were against the switch anybody else yeah coach I’m sorry good last night you you made 17 threes tonight second game of back to back come

Back with 23s talk a little bit about the shooting tonight for you um I mean there’s obviously shot making variants every night uh so you can’t rely on a certain number but uh you I think we we’ve gotten good ones the last couple nights I thought um last night I

Think 27 of the 35 threes we took uh were really high quality tonight I would expect that number to be high again and that’s what we can control we just want to be a team that generates uh Rhythm shots and open shots I thought we did that tonight we did that last night

We’ve done that for much of the year we’ve gotten more open threes than than most teams in League uh and if we do that we trust that we’re going to make enough of them it gives our guys confidence Mark we’ve seen this before over the last few years but unique

Opportunity Keon Johnson plays 32 minutes this afternoon uh and goes out there and is able to get more minutes Adam Flagler as well uh what did you make of just those guys getting an opportunity and and making the most of this opportunity yeah we had a couple

Open active spots and and wanted to give them the opportunity to dress um in the case that you know the game was uh like that in one direction or the other um and so glad we did that I’m happy for Adam you know he he had an injury uh

That was a long rehab similar to the way we’ve talked about some of those other long rehabs uh and like I’ve said before there’s a lot of dark days with that he’s incredibly professional diligent um and he’s worked himself all the way back to the point where now he’s playing in

An NBA game so I’m really happy for him Mark forgive me if few were asses before I walked in but Shay I I know you like to say that you don’t expect certain things from from anybody or you don’t have expectations for anybody but shade

By now is like a walking 30 piece I mean that’s that’s what he does every game have have you come to expect that do you breach that that kind of Mantra for for your expectations for him um the thing that he’s been most consistent with is his approach his competitiveness his

Temperament um his leadership in his own way uh those are the things that you know because of how how he’s done them so consistently I’ve come to expect you know the scoring is is as consistent as he is at it it’s still an outcome but all those other things are part of a

Process that um he’s really refined over a period of time and that he brings regardless of what’s going on in the season or what’s going on in the game uh and it’s really brought a steady hand uh to our team and so if there’s any expectation that that he’s you know

Formed in me it’s it’s those things it’s the things that you know are controllable that he does such a great job that

Hear from Chet Holmgren, Jaylin Williams, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 147-106 victory over the Wizards.

0:00 Chet Holmgren
4:34 Jaylin Williams
7:43 Head Coach Mark Daigneault

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