Whereas Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder head coach Marc Daigneault Whereas ready for first-round decide Nikola Subject to get better from {a partially} torn ACL, he acquired his first have a look at Oklahoma Metropolis’s twenty sixth total decide, Dillon Jones, on the primary day of camp coaching. Many imagine that Thunder drafted Josh Giddy’s substitute in Subject at No. 12, qualifying him as one of many many steals of the 2024 NBA Draft even supposing Subject will miss the 2024-25 marketing campaign whereas rehabbing. Nevertheless, coach Daigneault sees a variety of advantages to Jones, the late first-round decide whose potential as a wing defender confirmed up at some point in Thunder coaching camp.
“He’s a man who performs onerous. It is a actually distinctive physique. He’s robust, with a low middle of gravity. He must study to benefit from that defensively along with his physicality, as a result of he has the prospect to develop into a reasonably efficient defender due to his power and his low-to-the-ground place,” Daigneault stated. “However he actually must discover ways to do this.”
On the opposite facet of the court docket, the Thunder head coach views Jones, getting into his rookie season, as a extra established offensive participant.
“Offensively, he’s a reasonably full participant. He can shoot. He is ball handler, passer. He’s studying the system and the offense,” added Daigneault. “So I feel issues are shifting shortly for him in addition to anybody new. But it surely’s begin on his half.
Earlier than 2024-25, Daigneault has loads of causes to be excited for the approaching season.
Chet Holmgren helps Nikola Subject get better for the Thunder
Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder No. 12 decide Nikola Subject will bear a prolonged rehabilitation course of earlier than making his NBA debut. After averaging 18.4 factors, 7.1 assists and three.4 rebounds in 12 video games within the Serbian league, he has drawn comparisons to Josh Giddy for his expertise for filling up the stat sheets. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old prospect has extra offensive potential than Giddy and, for Mark Daigneault and the Thunder, a redshirt rookie season is price ready for. Subject additionally acquired a serving to hand from Chet Holmgren, who missed his rookie season after struggling a Lisfranc fracture in his foot in 2022.
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Two years after leaving the topic’s present seat, Holmgren has took the younger man underneath his wingin accordance with Athlon Sports activities.
“All of us discuss fairly often about basketball and different issues – about life on the whole. They’re actually helpful. Particularly Chet, who skilled the identical state of affairs [as] me, and we talked very often,” Subject stated in his Media Day interview. “He helped rather a lot.”
Maybe watching his rookie season from the sidelines will yield the outcomes we noticed in Holmgren’s first lively season with the Thunder. Within the meantime, rookie Dillon Jones will proceed his improvement.
