A day after Mark Daigneault was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year for 2023/24, Thunder center Chet Holmgren lauded his head coach for his “crazy X’s and O’s” and his ability to connect with one of the NBA’s youngest rosters, per Rylan Stiles of SI.com.
“Shoutout to Mark man. Helluva coach,” Holmgren said. “… (He) puts us all in position to be successful. … He’s not that much older than us. He’s one of the bros.”
As John Hollinger of The Athletic, the world of NBA coaching is a “thankless” one, so now that he has shown the sort of success he can have in the regular season, Daigneault will be judged going forward on how and the Thunder perform in the postseason. Daigneault is off to a promising start on that front, notes Hollinger, pointing to an instance in Saturday’s win in which the Thunder extended their lead by using Gordon Hayward as a small-ball center.
As Hollinger writes, it would have been easy for Oklahoma City to take a conservative approach on Saturday with a 2-0 lead in the series, but Daigneault has shown repeatedly that he “doesn’t do safe and predictable.” His unorthodox strategies – which lean heavily on data and analytics, Hollinger points out – have the Thunder one win away from their first second-round series since 2016.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Fourteen-time All-Star Kevin Durant, who was on the receiving end of plenty of trash talk from Anthony Edwards during the Timberwolves‘ four-game sweep of Phoenix, had nothing but praise for the young star after Game 4, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “I’m so impressed with Ant. So impressed with Ant,” Durant said of Edwards, who averaged 31.0 PPG during the series. “My favorite player to watch. Just grown so much since he came into the league.”
- The Timberwolves‘ dominant first-round victory over the Suns serves as a reminder that many NBA analysts were wrong about the Rudy Gobert trade, according to Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune. There was skepticism about the ability of Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns to be effective alongside one another, but they’ve proven over the course of this season that’s not a problem, Souhan adds.
- While both Nuggets point guards are banged up, neither Jamal Murray (left calf strain) nor Reggie Jackson (left ankle sprain) has missed a game yet during the team’s first-round series vs. the Lakers. That streak is up in the air with Murray still considered questionable for Monday’s Game 5, but Jackson seems good to go — he’s listed as probable to play, tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
- In a report for The Salt Lake Tribune, Andy Larsen, Blake Apgar, Kevin Reynolds, and Robert Gehrke take a look at how the Delta Center – the Jazz‘s home arena – might be affected by team owner Ryan Smith‘s plan to bring the NHL to Utah.
Don’t the T-wolves need to do a bit more to prove the trade naysayers wrong? They look good and Edwards is off the charts, but all they did was knock off the 7 seed, can we get them at least to the WCF before making definitive statements?
Twolves look very good.
They’ve already proven the “trade naysayers’ wrong, by finishing 3rd just 1 game behind the 1 seed with KAT missing 20 games, and they swept the 6 seed, not the 7 seed..
To make the WCF they have to beat the champs. They’re certainly capable of doing so but if they’re able to hang with Nuggets and make a good series out of it then the Gobert trade was an excellent trade. What else were going to do, hang out as the 6-8th seed and battle for a play in spot for a years until Towns got too old to be effective?
wow minnesota fans already seem pleased with this years accomplishments. probably a good thing because they’re not going to advance over Nuggets.
KD asking for a trade to Minny??
is Minny gonna spend? aren’t they still determining who’s calling the shots for the org?
Jamal Murray the best to not make an All Star game or get All NBAs.
dude raises his form in the playoffs. he doesn’t play enough reg season games to qualify for awards, there were better players at his positions over the last 2 years.
OKC looking to be ahead of schedule. If/when they advance to WCF and lose to Nuggets no big deal, they gained XP for next year. If they advance to finals, lookout cuz they could win it all and we’re talking about the new dynasty darling for the NBA.