Mark Daigneault | Atlanta Hawks | Mar. 30, 2022
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00:00 Nick, L. O. K. C. Thunder dot com. Mark, we talked pregame just about how
00:03 potent their offenses. Um, would you kind of notice about the first half
00:08 that they were able to get into that was a little bit hard for you all to
00:12 maintain? Uh, common. I mean, they shot it really, really well early, but
00:17 um, combination of that and just a little loose on our part. You know, a
00:22 couple like early plays made basket transition. They like get it out of the
00:26 net and they're laying it in down the other end. Veep made a great plan on
00:30 one of those. But, um, just like the focus to start the game and get back
00:34 and, you know, have a high sense of urgency against that team that we
00:38 didn't have. I thought we let him get comfortable early in the game, and it
00:40 took us a long time to get some traction after that.
00:42 Poku has another high assist night tonight. He's got 19 over the last two
00:48 games. Um, just your thoughts on his continued growth, growth and
00:52 progression. He's talked so much about simple but aggressive, and you've
00:57 mentioned sort of players trying to strike that balance. Yeah, actually, I
01:01 didn't think it was his best offensive night being totally honest. But, um, you
01:05 know, he's played some five in this stretch, and now with Trey out and with
01:09 Robinson Earl back, we've played him at the one a little bit, um, which has
01:13 been interesting him and V when Maladon's off the court. And so, um,
01:17 he's getting more opportunities to kind of create with the ball. Um, mixed
01:21 results tonight. I thought, you know, he's kind of to the point where it's
01:24 not surprising to me that he gets good numbers in a game where he's just okay.
01:27 You know, I think that's almost sign of progress for him. Um, but, you know, he
01:31 certainly can play better than he did tonight.
01:33 Paris Lawson. Okay, see Thunder dot com. Wanted to ask you about Olivier
01:38 offensively, obviously a career night for him, but he had several of those
01:41 just face up, just shoot it over his opponent. Um, what have you thought
01:45 about his growth and offensively and just kind of like what he what he can
01:48 do on that end of the floor. Um, I mean, the thing I give him credit for, you
01:53 know, I throw most of our guys in this category is plays the right way, you
01:56 know, so like he had a nice night tonight, offensively finished some
01:59 plays, made a couple shots, but it doesn't deter his style of play. And I
02:03 think that's a sign of a mature player. And it's impressive that he's a young
02:07 player that can kind of keep his head on straight when he's having a good
02:10 night like that or when he's having a bad night, you know, he just kind of
02:13 plays and I give him a lot of credit for that. It's certainly the type of
02:16 team, you know, that type of like stoicism is, you know, sign of
02:20 competitive maturity. It's the kind of team we want to be, and he's doing a
02:23 nice job of embodying that. And then back to back games for you guys with
02:26 over 30 assists. Just as a coach who's looking to implement a style of playing
02:30 an identity. How encouraging is that to see? It's good. I mean, we're sharing
02:33 it. We had 18 in the first half, I think 17 or 18. Um, you know, I thought
02:38 move the ball pretty well. We had some possessions where we got a little stuck.
02:41 Uh, some of that was their defense. I thought, you know, we had a hard time
02:44 cracking initial advantages, especially in the first half. But, um, you know,
02:48 this group of guys continues to move the ball and try to find the open man.
02:51 And when we, you know, get a little sticky here, it doesn't look, you know,
02:56 we do a good job of kind of course correcting in the game. I thought we
02:58 did that tonight. Joe Masada, the Oklahoman mark career high 25 for
03:03 Lindy. Just your thoughts on how he shot the ball and how he was able to
03:06 find the shots. Yeah, I mean, at this point in the season, we're looking for
03:10 like relevance and I thought, um, his the shots he got tonight were relevant.
03:15 I think obviously he had a loud night because he made seven. It's been
03:18 impressive that he's he's been taking up his attempts without sacrificing
03:22 quality. It means he's moving and finding those shots. So the fact that
03:26 he got 13 off and 10 in the first half, uh, is as encouraging as the ones he
03:30 made because I'm pretty sure he's gonna make them, you know, with how he
03:33 shoots the ball. Um, it's more like process driven goals right now and him
03:37 being able to find them when he's out there is important. Um, I thought he
03:40 played with a really good motor on offense, I think moving forward for him
03:43 and as he heads into the summer, that's gonna be really important is he's got
03:46 to be able to run all day, be like a nutritional maniac and he's got to turn
03:50 into one of those like, you know, just monster, um, developmental guys that's
03:56 just squeezing every last bit of potential out of himself. And I think
04:00 he's kind of wired like that. So I'm excited to see what he looks like after
04:03 a summer. But, um, yeah, impressive. And then put him back in at the end of
04:07 the game had 25 points and kind of like to Paris's question about Olivier,
04:12 like he just plays the game. You know, he's not trying to squeeze shots off.
04:14 He's not trying to get to 28 or 30. You know, if he's got an open one, he
04:18 shoots it. If not, he moves it. And that's another really good sign in
04:21 terms of his maturity. We've talked about, like, I guess, figuring out, you
04:26 know, what's what's real, what's solid, maybe from some of these games, the
04:30 tail end of the season. But it's three point shooting something that, you
04:33 know, has that relevance no matter when it really comes. Um, it's tricky
04:38 because of, um, it's tricky because of sample size, you know, even in a single
04:44 season, like I said, the nick before the game, um, you know, it's hard to
04:48 like judge a shooter based on their percentage. Even in just one year, you
04:52 could see that from some of our percentages last year to this year,
04:55 even, um, or from the first half to the second half. Um, for us, it's like
05:00 watching them shoot the ball, like in practice reps, you know, usually that's
05:04 pretty, pretty good signal. And then for a guy like Lindy, um, who you know,
05:08 can shoot the ball, and he clearly can shoot the ball. Um, it's more about
05:12 like, can he find good ones? You know, if you've got a guy like him out there,
05:15 clearly he's out there because he's a shooting threat. But if he can only
05:18 find three of them and, you know, 25 minutes, you're not as incentivized to
05:22 play him. But if he's finding, you know, however many shot 13 tonight, I
05:26 think in 20 whatever minutes, like against the team that like knew he was
05:31 a shooter and was trying to take his shots away. You know, in fact, he's
05:34 finding those, like I said, the process driven nature of that is more, uh, you
05:38 know, signal to me than like how many he made. He's gonna make him because
05:41 he's a really good shooter. And last one for me, Trey Young had 30 in the
05:46 first half. Just I know it might be an obvious question, but the challenges he
05:50 presents to a defense and the way he's able to get his shots. Um, yeah, I mean,
05:55 he's just got such gravity shooting the ball. Um, I thought he actually he
05:59 really hurt us, um, deeper in the paint early in the game. You know, the
06:03 threes are one thing, you know, he finds those makes a lot of them. But, um, I
06:07 thought he got some easy stuff at the basket. You know that probably, um, good
06:12 adjustments by our players at halftime, just in terms of getting a little more
06:15 aggressive with him when he's coming downhill. But obviously, like a really
06:18 good offensive player.
06:20 And just like the athletic, uh, thoughts on how Jeremiah's look so far
06:25 through these last two games. Yeah, good player. You know, first of all, he
06:28 looks good physically. I think, um, to credit to the work that he's done on
06:32 his return to play that the fact that he can kind of jump in and look like
06:35 that physically. Obviously, we're not extending his minutes quite yet. Um,
06:38 just out of precaution. But, um, he looks good. Body looks good. He's
06:42 moving like he always moved. Um, I think, you know, he had to travel tonight.
06:46 He said, like some off rhythm plays that I think are natural when you miss
06:49 that much time. But, um, he remains a really good player that's got winning
06:54 qualities that needs to learn the league and kind of learn the nuances of
06:58 the game and allows intelligence to flourish. But a guy that's smart and
07:01 tough. And when you look at the best role players in the NBA, those the
07:05 qualities they have, and he's got those two things. You talked about Lindy
07:09 finding shots. I'm just curious what your thoughts on Aaron Wiggins night
07:11 tonight. He only got nine shots off tonight, and he's kind of one of the
07:15 more versatile scores on the team right now. What can he do differently moving
07:19 forward? Um, it's a good question. I mean, I like that he only took nine
07:24 because it means he only found nine. And, um, you know, if you plug him into
07:30 our team when it's whole, he's not a high volume shooter. He's a guy that
07:35 has to play the driving kick game, and he's got to find transitions. He's got
07:38 to find cuts. He's got to find open shots going catches, um, in offensive
07:44 rebounds. He's got a kind of I said before the game, he's gonna have like a
07:47 Cambridge Williams diet, so to speak. Um, and part of that diet is
07:51 functioning inside the game if you're not getting shots. And so I would rather
07:55 him shoot nine than squeeze 15. Um, and that's one thing that we've tried to
07:59 talk to him about during this stretch is like going back to Joe's thing is
08:03 like relevance matters. And so we're really trying to help him develop a
08:07 relevant game for when we're back, you know, next year, team's whole and he
08:12 has to compete for his role, you know, and I thought he's done it. I think
08:15 he's done a nice job of that when he has the loud nights doing that great.
08:19 And if it's not a loud night, I'd rather him show that type of restraint
08:22 than then get thirsty. And what do you think of his progress as a point of
08:26 attack? Defender? Pretty good. I mean, up there when it comes to our team,
08:31 you know him, Dort, Baisley, Cambridge Williams. You know, that's kind of
08:35 that's the crew right now in terms of that, you know, he's there's a physical
08:39 element to him. I actually think he can get a little stronger. Um, but there's
08:42 like a physicality to him. He's strong, he's rugged, um, and he's tough, you
08:46 know, and so, um, it's different, different from the guys that are like
08:51 speedsters at the point of attack. And so is Dort. Um, so he's just got to
08:56 keep like Robinson early, learning the league, learning the nuances. He's a
08:59 smart player. I just said, you know, role players, best qualities they can
09:03 have are smart and tough. Aaron Wiggins is smart. He's tough.
09:08 Three questions.
09:09 Hello, coach. Hope you're doing well. Speaking about poke when his game in
09:15 over the last five games, he had 6.2 assists, 6.2 assists. And the way that
09:22 he read the game, what kind of progress you saw about the way that he reads,
09:25 he reads the game and as a facilitator on the floor.
09:29 Yeah, he's I mean, I remember him in training camp and he made like a couple
09:35 plays training camp his first year. He made a couple plays that, um, clearly
09:40 he had like court vision and he's got the size. I mean, that's the thing
09:43 that's underrated about him and giddy is they're big, you know, so they see
09:46 over the defense and they can deliver passes that smaller guys can't deliver.
09:50 And he's always kind of had that. I think that's, you know, one of the
09:53 things that Sam and his guys evaluated and we're so intrigued by. It's been
09:58 more about, you know, restraining that a little bit and tightening that and
10:02 putting some guardrails around that, uh, and making his game a simple,
10:06 reliable game. And in totality, he's made progress with that. I thought
10:10 there were a couple plays tonight where he relapsed a little bit. Um, but
10:14 overall, if you look at his body of work, really, since he got back from
10:17 the blue, um, you know, earlier in, I think it was January, maybe even
10:22 February. Um, his style of play is has been really good and he just needs to
10:26 continue to invest in that. And it's not going to restrict his talent from
10:30 coming to the surface. He's just got to stay on it and trust a simple, um,
10:35 you know, reliable style play that scales.