Thunder Practice Report | Nov. 11, 2021
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00:00The Thunder are back from their victory in New Orleans and are looking to extend their three
00:04game winning streak here in Oklahoma City. Coach Jack Nault revealed why it is so valuable for
00:09them to be back. It's good to sleep in your own bed for you know eight days or whatever it is.
00:16It's also good from a routine standpoint like all the other things that go into being a
00:21professional from lifting to nutrition, having our own food in the back, massage, all of our
00:28recovery methodologies in the back there. Everything that we need is here whereas on
00:32the road we're kind of like piecing that together and so it's good for a routine and it's good to
00:36get guys like on a you know normalized and familiar schedule as well as you know playing
00:42in front of your own fans so it's good. To continue a win streak you need to remain poised in the
00:46clutch. Mike Piscola voiced the importance of late game consistency. You know I think towards
00:51ending the game last night you know defensively you know the Pelicans were running almost the
00:58same play all the whole time down the stretch and we addressed that in the film. You know me
01:03personally being able to disrupt that a little bit more and just be a little more aware I think in
01:08our late game situations because that's how so many games come down to you know you may be at a
01:14eight point game or something like that up or down with you know six minutes to go or something
01:19like that and you know you might be in the lead and think okay like you know we're feeling pretty
01:24good but six minutes is a long time and with the three-point shot and all that things can change
01:28so quickly so being able to continue to keep playing even when the game might slow down a
01:33bit and be kind of more of you know possession game and and being being Shae's hands more
01:39just you know defensively being able to lock in offensively be able to
01:44keep a good rhythm and pace those are the things that help us out this season.
01:47One major player from the Thunder's triumph over the Pelicans was Lou Dort who finished with 27
01:53points yet only six of those came from threes. The majority of his buckets came from attacking
01:58the paint and quite a few statement dunks which apparently coach Dugnott has been hammering him to
02:04take. I know I have individually made fun of him for the lack of dunking for a long time yeah the
02:11the uh the lack of dunking last season was alarming um and he's you know he's such like a
02:16ground athlete you know that you know you just expect him to pop a little bit more last season he
02:21was really struggling at the rim I know that's something he really tried to work on in the
02:24summertime um it's hard you know it's it's there's a good room production down there there's a
02:31decision making element to that where you have kickouts at times you know like if you're trying
02:36to finish in traffic it's going to be harder to finish those plays and so it's not just like the
02:40the actual skill of finishing um but he's put a lot of time into it something that he's really
02:45emphasized in his player development and like I said on his own summer I know that was a huge
02:49thing for him um and was good last night you know he got down there and he was really really
02:54efficient around the basket. The Thunder have returned they announced that V Karechi, Isaiah Robey
02:59and Teo Maladon will be assigned to the Oklahoma City Blue. In his last three games with the Thunder
03:04Maladon has shot 20 percent from the floor 10 percent from behind the arc and only recorded
03:09two assists. Coach Dugnott said what he expects to see out of Maladon during his time with the Blue.
03:15Well I think confidence you know first of all if I'm being honest you know he he's not shooting
03:22the ball really well to start the season his role is a lot different than it was last year he's
03:28having to play in shorter stints he's having to play in less consistent roles you know whereas
03:34last year I think was very predictable for him a lot of those guys I don't think that's necessarily
03:39a bad thing all these things are opportunities for these guys to grow because the reality is for a
03:43player like him if he's going to play in the NBA for a long time he's going to be in a lot of
03:47different situations a lot of different roles he's going to be called a lot called upon for a lot of
03:51different things and he's got to get used to that you know he's got to learn how to be able to thrive
03:55in that situation and so you know going there getting back into rhythm getting a more steady
04:02dose of minutes you know kind of building that back up I think will be helpful for him. Coach
04:06Dugnott ended practice today by giving an insight to what goes behind his personal coaching philosophy.
04:12From a coaching standpoint I don't know if this is right but it's certainly the way I try to
04:16approach it if if you start by like boxing them in you know what you can do is really take away
04:23a lot of their exploration creativity aggressiveness confidence and you basically like
04:31resigning them to being a very limited role player then you know time goes on
04:37Che starts emerging Giddy starts emerging and then you've got that guy out there
04:42defenses are designed to take them away and then the ball finds Darius Baisley or the ball finds
04:46Lou Dort and those guys aren't and then you're like they can't make a play they can't they're
04:51not confident you know you can't play with this guy and then you know you've created that you
04:56know and so I think maintaining a level of allowing them to you certainly have to guide
05:04them and you certainly have to push them and all that but allowing them to have a level of
05:10self-discovery there and and coming to that conclusion on their own has a more sustainable
05:15power than if you just right off the bat are like look if you do this you're sitting if you do that
05:20you're out because you can really like it take a lot of their edge off if you do that
05:25that concludes this thunder practice report for SI Thunder I'm Christine Butterfield