Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joked at first when asked what makes Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault good at his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s annoying. Always nagging,\u201d the All-Star guard said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
He continued with a more serious tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing about him is no matter who you are, he has a standard,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve been here five years, if you\u2019re the best player on the team, if you\u2019re the worst player on the team, if you just got here last week \u2014 there\u2019s a standard, and you\u2019ve got to play to it and live up to it on and off the court. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s allowed our culture to be what it is as a group. And it starts with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those qualities have been rewarded.\u00a0Daigneault, 39, was\u00a0named NBA Coach of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0on Sunday after leading one of the league\u2019s youngest teams to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. He joins Scott Brooks (2010) as the only Thunder coaches to win the award.<\/p>\n The other finalists were Minnesota\u2019s Chris Finch and Orlando\u2019s Jamahl Mosley. Finch led the Timberwolves to a 56-26 record and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs after they had to go through the play-in tournament to make the playoffs the previous year. Mosley led the Magic to a 47-35 record this season after the team went 34-48 last season.<\/p>\n Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers, who was Coach of the Year with Orlando in 2001, said Daigneault was clearly ahead of the pack this season.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with a bunch of young guys and getting all these young guys to buy in on a championship level \u2014 I don\u2019t think people understand how hard that is to do,\u201d Rivers said before the\u00a0Thunder beat the Bucks\u00a0late in the regular season. \u201cAnd the proof is you don\u2019t see a lot of young teams in their position. \u2026 It\u2019s easy for me on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n Daigneault spent five years as head coach of the Thunder\u2019s G-League affiliate. He had a .572 winning percentage with four playoff appearances and three division titles. He\u00a0took over as Thunder coach\u00a0in 2020 after Billy Donovan left to become the Chicago Bulls coach.<\/p>\n Oklahoma City went 22-50 in Daigneault\u2019s first year as Thunder head coach, and then 24-58 in his second before signs of a turnaround surfaced. Last season, Oklahoma City went 40-42 and reached the play-in tournament, and Daigneault\u00a0finished second\u00a0in the Coach of the Year voting.<\/p>\n The Thunder went 57-25 this season and clinched\u00a0a tie for the best record\u00a0in the West<\/strong>\u00a0on the dramatic final day of the regular season.<\/p>\n Daigneault has benefited from having exceptional young talent to develop. Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, finished third in the league with 30.1 points per game this season and is a finalist for Most Valuable Player. Jalen Williams, a first-round pick in 2022, averaged 19.1 points this season after being runner-up for Rookie of the Year last season. Josh Giddey, the sixth overall pick in 2021, averaged 12.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists this season.<\/p>\n But the key addition has been Chet Holmgren. The No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft missed all of last season with a foot injury. This season, the 7-foot-1 center averaged 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks while creating mismatches on both ends with his versatility. He is a finalist for Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n Sacramento\u2019s Mike Brown, the unanimous Coach of the Year last season and the winner with Cleveland in 2009, was impressed with how Daigneault created a strong team so quickly with the talent general manager Sam Presti stockpiled.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have the type of patience to go through the process, not panic and all be on the same page knowing that it\u2019s a process \u2014 it\u2019s just a beautiful sight to see from the outside looking in,\u201d Brown said. \u201cNot many NBA organizations, starting from ownership on down, are like this.\u201d<\/p>\n But it goes beyond having talent to work with. Williams is one of several players who has raved about Daigneault\u2019s communication skills.<\/p>\n \u201cI think any time you can relate to the people you\u2019re teaching, you\u2019re able to get a lot further. \u2026 It makes us willing to listen,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe also loves the game, and we can sense that just on how he\u2019s \u2014 kind of his approach and how much film and statistics and analytics that he goes through on a daily basis to give us prep for each game. I think when you can see that as a player, I think that makes us want to play hard for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Daigneault said he listens because he knows he can\u2019t do it all alone.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, we\u2019re in it together,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all working together to try to get to the best thing and we don\u2019t care where that idea comes from. If it comes from a player, comes from a video assistant, it doesn\u2019t matter. We\u2019re just trying to get to the best thing and move in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under Mark Daigneault’s leadership, Oklahoma City became the youngest team to finish 1st in either conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":385350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[15725],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-385349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorizzato","typology-comunicato"],"yoast_head":"\n