After a disappointing first-round exit in this year’s postseason, there has been some speculation that the Thunder might consider a head coaching change. However, speaking today to reporters – including Brett Dawson of the Athletic (Twitter link) – general manager Sam Presti said that he anticipates bringing back Billy Donovan to coach the club in 2019/20.
Presti’s wording isn’t quite as definitive as if he’d said that Donovan absolutely will be back. However, it sounds like that’s less about any lingering uncertainty, and more about the fact that the two men have yet to sit down for a full-blown post-mortem on the 2019/20 season.
According to Dawson (via Twitter), Presti said today that he plans to take a little time before meeting with Donovan to talk about the season and the future. The head coach’s perspective is important, but Presti doesn’t anticipate any changes regarding his job status, he added today (Twitter link via Dawson).
Donovan, who took over as Oklahoma City’s head coach before the 2015/16 season, has led the team to four straight years of 47+ wins, including a 49-33 mark this season. The Thunder won two playoff series in Donovan’s first year, but haven’t made it out of the first round since Kevin Durant‘s departure in 2016.
HR purposely posted about commenting policies before giving this update on Donovan, as they knew how Thunder fans would want to respond.
How was a disappointment to be out in round 1 when you are the 6 seed, to me seems the expected, going through would have been a real surprise, a huge achievement, right?
No. They underachieved being the 6th seed and then the Blazers lost arguably their second best player coming into the playoffs. Losing in 5 games is bad. I think a tough 7 game series would’ve been understandable but they couldn’t even do that. PG13 being hurt is the only valid excuse
There are probably internal machinations going on with Westbrook & George