Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder head coach Marc Daigneault isn’t altering his traditional strategy to the upcoming common season regardless of his excessive expectations for the league’s reigning Coach of the 12 months, and his workforce is increased than ever for the fifth-year head coach. The Thunder considerably upgraded their roster by buying and selling Josh Giddy to the Chicago Bulls for a two-time All-Defensive Workforce guard. Alex Caruso. Then, poach the New York Knicks defensive heart Isaiah Hartenstein signed to a three-year, $87 million contract in the course of the offseason. These strikes propelled the Thunder into the second-best probability to win the 2025 NBA Finals behind the defending champion Boston Celtics.
Monday, throughout Thunder Media Day, Daigneault mentioned what veterans like Caruso and Hartenstein deliver to his workforce and its 26-and-under core, the youngest workforce within the NBA to complete among the many high seeds in both convention.
“They’re each aggressive gamers, and we need to be a aggressive workforce collectively, and so they’ve confirmed all through their careers that that is what they’re for the groups they play on,” he mentioned. declared Daigneault. “In coaching camp, we begin with essentially the most fundamental fundamentals to construct a basis that we are able to take into the season, and all iterations and evolutions occur from there. And in case your basis is not sturdy, you possibly can’t actually do anything; these are two guys who’ve a stable basis of their recreation. And the issues that we emphasize, which are boring and fundamental, are issues that can resonate with them.
With the additions of veterans Hartenstein and Caruso, Daigneault thought of an ideal match On the coronary heart of the workforce, the Thunder protection initiatives to be the perfect within the league this upcoming season.
“These are issues that they’ve confirmed they’ll do, and that’s what’s most enjoyable,” Daigneault added. “It is not nearly projecting the place that is going, however understanding that what we’re proposing will resonate with them, and they’re going to resonate with the group due to who they’re.”
After successful 57 video games final season, the perfect report within the Western Convention, some are predicting that the Thunder can attain 60+ wins in 2024-25. After Oklahoma Metropolis gained its division for the primary time in 12 years, accelerating its development from its 40-win season in 2022-23 and its 24 wins the earlier season, its daunting enhancements on protection coupled with the expansion of its 26 years and over. below the core, the Thunder arrived, that is what we all know. However is that this the yr they change into Western Convention champions, or is it nonetheless too quickly?
Mark Daigneault thanks Thunder basic supervisor Sam Presti for roster additions
Led by their 2024 MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his younger weapons, ahead Jalen Williams, rookie of the yr candidate Chet Holmgren and veteran Luguentz Dort, head coach Mark Daigneault and the Thunder reached the semis -Western Convention finals in final yr’s playoffs. Nonetheless, Thunder basic supervisor Sam Presti and the entrance workplace aren’t finished enhancing his roster of championship contenders. They added two defensive stalwarts, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, who some imagine will present the muse of a traditionally elite protection.
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At Thunder Media Day, Daigneault, utilizing Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein as examples, credited Thunder basic supervisor Sam Presti for recruiting gamers who match the workforce’s total character and values.
“It begins with the type of folks we usher in, by way of gamers – the blokes we draft or the blokes we usher in. One of many issues that I feel Sam has finished an amazing job of is setting the bar very excessive by way of the kind of folks we would like in this system and ensuring that these are individuals who will naturally gravitate in direction of the values that we are going to preach day-after-day,” mentioned Daigneault. “So we discovered an amazing alignment with the blokes we introduced in. Then the opposite half is we have to put collectively a program that’s worthy of their dedication. It’s not solely their accountability to have interaction, but it surely’s our accountability to supply them one thing that’s straightforward to have interaction in.
OKC rapidly swept the New Orleans Pelicans within the first spherical, however misplaced 4-2 to the Dallas Mavericks, who would ultimately change into Western Convention champions. Nevertheless, Williams, 23, and Holmgren, 22, who averaged 18.7 factors and 6.8 rebounds and 16.5 factors and seven.9 rebounds respectively in 2023-24, proceed to enhance as They enter the upcoming season as respectable All-Star candidates, including to what needs to be a really thrilling season for the 2024-25 Thunder.
