Head Coach Mark Daigneault | 2023-24 End-of-Season Interview | OKC Thunder

Head Coach Mark Daigneault | 2023-24 End-of-Season Interview | OKC Thunder

how we doing just off the top here some thank yous before we get going uh want to thank our fans um obviously there’s a special bond between the team and the fans uh fans at the airport last night fans in the stands especially during the playoffs uh and then in their living rooms hopefully families get the bond over this team and hopefully we represent um the community well and make them proud I want to thank you guys for your coverage and interest and and being a conduit to the fans uh and for your professionalism and respect during the course of the season um I want to thank uh Mr Bennett Sam uh for the resources and support that we get everybody in the organization players staff coaches um we get to do our best work and have every opportunity to do our best work because of uh the support and resourcing that we get from the top and we don’t take that for granted one day uh want to thank our our staff uh coaches medical performance operations PR everybody that’s moving with the team for uh months of time away from family uh and full commitment to our players and coaches that you know just allow us to put our head down and focus on competition want to thank the front office everybody that does all the invisible work put us in positions to be successful we have first class people here uh that deserve acknowledgement and then finally I just want to I’ll I’ll mention this at some point uh as we go but I want to thank our players uh special group of people um special season uh and I we believe we’re building something special as well and it’s all because of them because of the people they are the way they go about their business uh and I’m just humbled to be able to coach them it’s a privilege like I said to coach them uh and I’m very thankful for uh the experience we all had this year because of them so take whatever you have what do you thought you learned about this team in the playoffs specifically through the two series um I mean I would Zoom it out to the whole seat you know I think this time of year obviously it’s fresh but you know if you look a year ago you know at the trajectory of the team the trajectory of individual players thep growth of the team um I I think we made a ton of progress you know um now at the end of every season you know you’re never like putting the finishing touches on the picture you know under any circumstance and so we have a long way to go and we have a lot of progress um in front of us in a long uh road to do that but I I’m incredibly encouraged by the progress we did make uh and that these are high level games that taught individual players where they need to improve they taught us as a team where we need to improve um and and we’ll learn those lessons you know as we let it sink in but um I think it’s important you know to also take a step back and look at the big picture and uh the big picture is very encouraging I was going to ask specifically about the possible launching pad that this can be you know being in Dallas being in those situations for a group of young guys that look like they’re gonna be together for a while how can you take this and then push forward I wouldn’t limit it to this playoff run I you know and I don’t think it’s it’s not a um it’s not a singular point in time that’s the launching pad this has been a a deliberate build over four years you know that some of these guys have been a part of and and most of them have you know come on board over that time and so uh it’s been incremental um and I would say we’ve had a very consistent environment we’ve had very high standards that our players have met and exceeded and that’s put us in positions to continue to grow and progress and um as we move forward that’s what we need to double down on is um Meeting those standards um being together competing together um professionalism attacking the program all the things that um we’ve been about for four years we just have to double down on moving forward uh that’s what’s yielded the growth and the success that we’ve had and if we want to have growth and success in the future that’s what we have to invest in how would you answer those that always saying that you should have made a move at the trade deadline to get a big and that would have helped you out this time of the year yeah I saw this last I said this last night I going into the playoffs at the point in the regular season I thought we had everything we needed with this team uh to be the best team that we could you know there’s we proved in the regular season with the season that we had um that there’s no one we couldn’t beat literally and um I it’s just never my mentality to look left and right I mean we looking right in front of me we had everything we needed we had a special group of guys part of what made them specialist um how they operated collectively um and I thought from a uh Team standpoint we had what we needed to win this series and we ran into a team that played better than we did um but I don’t think that’s an indictment on the roster I don’t think it’s an indictment on any individual person or where we are uh it’s simply um you know we we could have played better in the series but it wasn’t indictment of anything else it’s easy for a lot of young guys to get a one track mind and only focus on how they get their career started and so guy like Shay to focus on trying to get the awards and everything dub and Chad trying to establish themselves in the NBA but did a really good job managing all those personalities and all and making sure they stayed on track and I know you talked about how that’s mostly all them but what role did you feel like you play in and helping them stay within the team I mean I think what made this team uncom you know I use the word uncommon a lot I think what made this team uncommon is you know NBA players could potentially look at themselves as independent contractors um because of just the nature of the business it it uh can bite into a person’s ability to connect to a team and commit to a team uh and this is a group of guys that even at a young point in their careers with a lot of ambition they were willing to put the team first they were willing to make individual sacrifices for the good of the team and bet on the team uh and these guys did that this year and I think um and last year you know and the year before but I think these last two years specifically have shown the power of that um when you’re willing to prioritize the team you’re willing to prioritize team success um and maybe put a little bit of your individual self aside to do that um these guys put their money where their mouth is on that and um you know the results speak for themselves from a team standpoint so might to answer your question my job in that is just to guide that process but um I can’t you know there’s no individual person that that can make them do that you know they have to want to do that they have to want to commit to that and to the credit of the players they did so um they deserve the credit for what we accomplish this season how much of that is kind of luck that I mean you get a guy like cuz a guy I mean when you bring him in he might not be the same person that he is 5 years ago that he is now but the fact that he stayed on track and stayed within the team no matter what yeah I don’t I mean with Shay all these guys I don’t think any that’s an accident you know like um them prioritizing the team prioritizing team success um is difficult especially in the the envir the NBA environment that we’re in in but it’s also in their Total Control in our total control and um they did that you know like I said you know to an unbelievable extent um you mentioned Shay from Shay you know to every other player on the team and so um again that’s what’s made this group of guys uncommon is the willingness to put team success um and each other the team ahead of um you know individual uh Pursuits you kind of talked about these guys as seeing being sort of intrinsically motivated uh the way that you’re describing them you you’re talking about not looking left or right uh having that in building how much does that make you look forward to this summer and what’s possible for these guys as they work on their games as they get back together at certain times uh to work collectively yeah I mean the first thing now is everybody’s got to get away and and take a little time um it’s obviously important for Rejuvenation I also think it’s important for like reflection you know like the day after the season is not the best time to you know really extract the lessons from a long 82 Game season I think a little bit of distance is healthy um and then when you return to your work um you know you return to it with kind of fresh eyes and that includes our players but um these guys have proven that with time in the summer um they improve their bodies they improve their minds they improve their skills they improve their their games from a stylistic stand Point um and they walk back in the gym uh in September better than they left it in in this case may u and that’s what I’m most excited about is you know just cutting these guys loose and and letting them do their thing because they’ve proven time and again that um with time and a solid plan um they change and evolve in a positive way especially with how young the core of the team is forgive me if you add this already but I’m not sure if you saw it pressure last night but know he he took like this extreme level of ownership over the call just the the the final sequence um foul yeah the foul just he even said something like uh like he felt the season there was a certain feeling behind it because the season kind of ended in his hands per se um just hearing that just what do you feel about that hear hearing just the degree of ownership he took over that sequence and everything else I’m not surprised because it’s him but you know the series comes you know at the end of the day Dallas over the course of the series I thought played better than we did you know and they proved that with the way that the the outcome of the series was and that doesn’t come down to one game it doesn’t come down to one play um and then the other thing I’d say is like you’re catching us right after the game even today you’re catching us right after the game like we’re incredibly disappointed with the outcome of the series um and with the way the season ended but I think it’s important to take a step back and understand that we’ve put ourselves in a position to be disappointed in the second round of the playoffs and so um the reason we’re disappointed is because we had a special group of guys that had a special season uh and nobody wanted that to end speaking for myself it was you know as much as it is advancing in the playoffs I just want to be around these guys every day you know I’m I’m as disappointed as anybody that I don’t get to coach this team um this season anymore cuz I uh took great pleasure in that every single day um and so I think you’re getting a little bit of that emotion um but it it never comes down to one play and the game is is too vast for that to be the case Chad had a great rookie year but it doesn’t even look like he’s scratched the surface as to what he can be what do you want to see from him going forward uh this summer in terms of growth and preparation for the upcoming well you know the first thing I’ll say is you know people I’ve gotten two to straight days of questions about roster and you know that sort of thing and like this is we have the youngest core in the league you know ter minute on a minute per minute basis and you’re asking about Chad like right now this is in my opinion the uh lowest level of Chad homran we’re going to see you know which is pretty exciting um and the reason I’m so confident saying that is because of uh his appetite for improvement you know um he’s a guy that is incredibly focused basketball is his number one 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 um and sticking to that plan he did that last summer through the season he’ll do that again this summer and that makes when you’ve got a guy with that kind of Drive um that is that that’s plan is that focused and he’s willing to execute it the way that he is uh Improvement is very predictable and so I would say that for him and I’d also extend that to all of our players you know like this is uh 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 know are you guys too inexperienced you know part of that is like it gives you incredible Runway moving forward and it gives us a lot of optimism as we continue to grow we talked a lot about roster condot were you impressed thisas season At All by the team given it was really their first go at it yeah I was impressed by these guys every day you know that’s keep saying uncommon I keep saying it was a special team um they impressed the hell out of me it was it was I was in awe of our team many times this season um both in how we handled you know our setbacks and our adversities but also in how we handled success handling success you know when you’re a young team is very difficult you know there’s um that can break you down as as much as failure can you know especially in the current environment uh of the NBA and so um the maturity that we handled our successes with you know gives me a lot of encouragement as well but yeah I’m I’m incredibly impressed by um by our team when did you sense that this group was uncommon like what was there a moment or is there anything from is it last season that you kind of started to sense that like when did that start to seep in my first year your first year yeah I just think it was you know that year the second year you know right from the jump you know there was just a way about these guys even the guys that aren’t here some of them you know and it was kind of like the snowball just started rolling in the right direction and um I feel comfortable saying this now but in my first year I referenced this with our team uh recently I was we were on we were going through a rough skid we had a home game we had an arena walk through um 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 I was like you know we’re going through a tough time right now but you know the habits the standards the blah blah blah you know whatever the hell I was talking about back then you know is good is going to eventually put t-shirts in these seats if we just you know stay on it and stay with it and uh Lou Dort Shay camer Williams mcalla were there um and the snowball was rolling at that time slowly you know and then the next year probably didn’t look like it was picking up a ton of steam and then over time it has just rolled faster and faster and faster uh and it’s been an incremental thing um that has now put t-shirts in the seats and so you know the uncommon nature of the team the special nature of the team I’ve always seen that in the core of players and as the core is growing outwards it’s only gained more momentum as the team’s gotten better it’s only gained more momentum and what’s special about this season is not necessarily what we accomplished but how we did it and we’ve been on that track for you know four years how much of your success at this point is so like you can vet like like in the draft process how high somebody can jump how good the jumper is but how much of where you are today is based on the vetting of people like who they are as people in addition to that you understand what I’m saying yeah I think Sam’s uh Sam and his group’s evaluation of that and then prioritization of that you know there’s there’s you got to identify that you know number one but then you have to be willing to prioritize it over you know something shinier and you know combination of their ability to identify it and then prioritize it in the decision-making process um is is high level and that’s everything you know like it’s obviously you need a baseline of talent obviously you need um balance on the roster and different skills and people that can do different things and you need good players which we have um but when you’re going through an 82 Game season a multi-year run summertime where these guy you’re cutting these guys loose and now they’re you know on their own turf and making their own decisions all those things you know really come down to a guy’s professionalism a guy’s commitment level a guy’s team orientation their individual character um and like I said handling success handling failure you know all that stuff you know boils down to the person um and so it’s massive you know it’s a secret sauce for different teams we’re not the only team that has that but we have it you know and um we have it because you know Sam and his guys have done a great job and GS have done a great job of identifying that and then like I said prioritizing it we talked about Chad with him and Cas both of them going through all of this for the first time but they play all 82 games games they come into the playoffs just with with confidence what does that say just about their motor and just what you saw from them the season yeah really impressive you know really impressive um you know capacity first of all Talent you know like they’re they’re really good players with a high capacity they’re quick studies so um they made plenty of mistakes but they learn from them very quickly they don’t make the same mistake twice um and then you know says a lot about you know their like I said toughness um motivation commitment level I mean those guys are the real deal Mark I think your exact word yesterday where that you wanted the team to use the pain of yesterday as an investment do you hope that they you know weaponize that feeling or or Linger on that feeling I I mean 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 and saying that we’re disappointed with the the end of the season um we should be but at the end of the day if you look at great players if you look at Great teams um and you you you look back at the breadcrumbs of what led to their uh 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 that they have to endure um and you’ve got to you know use every single experience for forward momentum so our team should use um be being the number one seed in the western a tough Western Conference and winning how however many games we won um as motivation you know to um understand what we’re capable of uh and we should also use uh playoff series loss to Dallas as motivation you know all those experiences matter and we’ve got to learn the lessons from the experiences regardless of how they felt good or bad um and turn that into work this summer uh and come back in the fall and be better individually and and get ready to be better as a team or and you just said a couple times just how much you enjoyed coaching this team went out of your way and say that just where does this team Rank and S maybe your favorite team whove ever coach I don’t rank them but you know it’s it’s a pleasure to coach any team any year um but yeah I mean this this was there was no day that I walked into work and it felt like work this year you know this was an absolute pleasure uh to coach this team you know even um when you’re down by you know whatever 30 points in a in a game like there’s no team I’d rather be coaching down 30 than this one and obviously we were in the opposite situation quite a bit this year and that was a pleasure as well there’s you can’t take uh for granted that coaching good teams is always enjoyable and fulfilling you know I think there’s a lot of situations where the team’s good for reasons of talent and things like that but it doesn’t feel the way this felt but this this felt right you know in success and failure right they attack it they compete together um they have a growth mindset through the ups and downs of a season you know they’re willing to play individually in ways that are helpful to the team you know that’s what you want to coach I mean it’s a privilege to coach them they make you feel youthful I’m sorry they make you feel youthful youthful I’m 39 years old I should feel youthful it two more just to watch Shay kind of go from a star into Superstar on this season I don’t look at it like that you know no disrespect to your question what’s been most impressive to me about Shay is just the uh 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 a struck by his talent and what he’s accomplishing and how efficiently he does it and the the place that he’s carved out in the league but you know the secret behind that is very consistent work very targeted work um and incremental Improvement and I mean if you look back at from his first year you know or four years ago you know his defense from then to now his style on offense from then to now he’s now playing a style he’s on the track of playing a style that allows his teammates to rise with him um I he was always kind of there from a um 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 um I mean he’s he’s you know made his leadership you know he’s made incredible improvements in so many different areas um that’s what’s most impressive to me I don’t I don’t see him as like Star to Superstar I see him as a guy that um puts his head down and improves you know day by day and the cumulative effect of that it I think where he’s gotten to is shows the power of that you mention decompressing stuff how do you kind of attack this offseason do you decompress for a couple weeks is it you know how do you go about this as you guys get into next year in the draft all me personally you personally yeah I mean I usually I had to spend a lot of time with my kids you know it’s you know maybe a 100 Days on the Road or something like that so um a lot of that um I usually work pretty good you know like I I have a hard time like stopping my workflow like hard stop right after the season so I kind of like just let it you know fade I’ll I’ll work pretty good here in the next couple weeks uh reflecting on the stuff that’s fresh and then letting that you know sit for a couple months and then I crank it back up in August thank you coach yep thanks guys appreciate it oh

Coach Daigneault speaks with media at end of season interviews.

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