Mark Daigneault | Thunder Practice | Nov. 11, 2021
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00:00 All right, we've got questions in the room first, and then we will go to people on the
00:06 Zoom.
00:07 Mark, have you been asked about the ball yet?
00:08 Just like the new basketball, that you're going to play with?
00:11 No, I haven't.
00:12 What are your thoughts on that?
00:13 Have you had complaints from players or anything at all about the basketball?
00:18 No.
00:20 I think the company that did the ball at Wilson, is that right?
00:27 They were very, very careful in the process.
00:29 They sent us a bunch of test basketballs, and Wilson Taylor, our Wilson, was constantly
00:35 having guys try it.
00:36 Like last year, there was a lot.
00:38 They were trying to get feedback in real time, and no good deed goes unpunished.
00:43 So they'll eventually get complaints because it's different, but none of our guys complained.
00:50 Thoughts on the new rules after getting 10 games under your belt, and how they've maybe
00:54 affected the players?
00:57 I think it's been good for game flow.
01:02 I think scoring's down a little bit because of it, to be honest with you.
01:05 It's advantageous to the defense, but I think scoring's a little down, but game flow's a
01:09 little better.
01:10 I've marched in the line every time somebody leaves their feet on a shot fake, which was
01:14 really what it came to.
01:16 We were literally telling our players, "If you leave your feet on a shot fake, and there's
01:19 any sort of contact, it's going to be free throws."
01:22 I think they've done a nice job.
01:25 I'm pretty impressed by how disciplined they've stuck to that.
01:28 I'm interested to see how consistent they can be with it through the year.
01:30 There was a play last night on an under-out-of-bounds play, I think, end of the quarter, where they
01:36 kicked their leg out, and our guy, I think it was Poku, might have been contesting it.
01:42 There was definitely contact, and they could have even called it an offensive foul, but
01:46 they just let it go.
01:47 I think eliminating those types of plays is good for the game.
01:52 We're certainly in favor of it.
01:53 I do think it's had an impact, too.
01:56 I feel it.
01:57 You guys have had a big, long road trip in California.
02:00 You just had one game back, and then you went to New Orleans.
02:03 Are you guys excited to have a nice break where you're just here, going game to game
02:07 in Oklahoma City?
02:09 It's good to sleep in your own bed for eight days, or whatever it is.
02:14 It's also good from a routine standpoint.
02:17 All the other things that go into being a professional, from lifting to nutrition, having
02:22 our own food in the back, massage, all of our recovery methodologies in the back there,
02:28 everything that we need is here.
02:30 Whereas on the road, we're piecing that together.
02:33 It's good for a routine, and it's good to get guys on a normalized and familiar schedule,
02:39 as well as playing in front of your own fans.
02:41 It's good to be home.
02:43 One of the biggest differences in Lou Dort's offensive game is just his ability now to
02:47 finish at the rim.
02:48 Can you just talk about how different he looked as opposed to last season?
02:52 Well, he didn't get off to the best start at the rim.
02:56 Last night he was pretty good.
02:57 Last season he was really struggling at the rim.
02:59 I know that's something he really tried to work on in the summertime.
03:03 It's hard.
03:05 There's good rim protection down there.
03:08 There's a decision-making element to that, where you have kickouts at times.
03:12 If you're trying to finish in traffic, it's going to be harder to finish those plays.
03:16 It's not just the actual skill of finishing.
03:20 He's put a lot of time into it.
03:21 It's something that he's really emphasized in his player development.
03:24 Like I said, on his own, summer, I know that was a huge thing for him.
03:28 It was good last night.
03:29 He got down there and was really, really efficient around the basket.
03:33 Then, Tael Maladon's going to be assigned to the blue for however period of time.
03:39 What are you looking to see out of him?
03:42 I think confidence, first of all.
03:45 If I'm being honest, he's not shooting the ball really well to start the season.
03:51 His role is a lot different than it was last year.
03:54 He's having to play in shorter stints.
03:56 He's having to play in less consistent roles, whereas last year, I think, was very predictable
04:02 for him and a lot of those guys.
04:03 I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
04:05 All these things are opportunities for these guys to grow.
04:08 The reality is, for a player like him, if he's going to play in the NBA for a long time,
04:12 he's going to be in a lot of different situations, a lot of different roles.
04:15 He's going to be called upon for a lot of different things.
04:19 He's got to get used to that.
04:20 He's got to learn how to be able to thrive in that situation.
04:24 Going there, getting back into rhythm, getting a more steady dose of minutes, building that
04:30 back up, I think, will be helpful for him.
04:33 We also like the idea, when we can, of sending guys down there in groups where they're playing
04:38 with people that are regular.
04:41 We've got the two two-ways there, plus three guys.
04:44 So we've got five roster players there that can all play together, develop chemistry together,
04:49 kind of carry our culture there together.
04:52 So there's a benefit to that, too.
04:53 It's not just every single individual in a vacuum.
04:56 I think there's benefit to kind of shuttling some guys down there together and letting
05:01 them kind of enjoy that and collaborate in that platform.
05:06 So I think he's a part of that.
05:08 Was dunking a part of Lou's plan to finish better on the rim?
05:12 He's already had three more dunks than he did all of last season in nine games.
05:19 I don't know.
05:20 You've got to ask him.
05:21 I know I have individually made fun of him for the lack of dunking for a long time.
05:28 The lack of dunking last season was alarming.
05:33 He's such a ground athlete.
05:35 You just expect him to pop a little bit more.
05:37 I don't know what he's done.
05:41 We talk a lot about Shea in the summertime.
05:43 He's an animal in the summer.
05:45 He really works in the summer.
05:47 He's another guy that just loves the work.
05:49 He loves the prep.
05:50 He doesn't complain about sweating and hard work.
05:53 I think, again, he did a good job of his body.
05:55 He did a good job of his game.
05:57 I'd be interested to hear what he'd attribute that to.
06:00 But yeah, he's on the rim a little more.
06:02 And I had one more question just about Darius.
06:06 What's the process like to help him play within himself a little bit more and play within
06:09 the flow of the offense?
06:10 It seems to be, at least the last three games, that he looked like he just fits in with what
06:15 everybody else is doing a little bit better.
06:18 What goes into helping him understand that or helping him get there?
06:22 Yeah, good question and a hard one.
06:26 A couple things.
06:28 The first one is, are they recognizing the opportunities to do that?
06:35 Sometimes that's the case.
06:36 I was just like, not talking about Darius, but Trey Mann last night I thought passed
06:41 up a couple shots.
06:42 And it's like, you're like, "Ugh, pull it, man."
06:46 I think with that little example, he just, in the moment of it, he's just not recognizing
06:53 it yet.
06:54 He just clearly isn't.
06:55 It's not that he doesn't want to.
06:56 It's not that he's not looking for it.
06:57 It's not that he's not confident.
06:58 It's none of that.
06:59 It's just like, he's just not recognizing it when he needs to recognize it.
07:03 I think there's probably an element of that with Bazley, that he's kind of like, you're
07:07 starting to see him finally start to outgrow that to a degree.
07:12 The other thing is, when they're young, I do think if, from a coaching standpoint, I
07:18 don't know if this is right, but it's certainly the way I try to approach it.
07:22 If you start by boxing them in, what you can do is really take away a lot of their exploration,
07:30 creativity, aggressiveness, confidence, and you're basically resigning them to being a
07:37 very limited role player.
07:40 Then time goes on, Shay starts emerging, Giddy starts emerging, and then you've got that
07:46 guy out there.
07:47 Defenses are designed to take them away, and then the ball finds Darius Bazley, or the
07:51 ball finds Lou Dort, and those guys aren't.
07:54 Then you're like, "They can't make a play.
07:56 They're not confident.
07:57 You can't play with this guy."
08:00 You've created that.
08:02 I think maintaining a level of allowing them to ... You certainly have to guide them, and
08:09 you certainly have to push them and all that, but allowing them to have a level of self-discovery
08:16 there, and coming to that conclusion on their own has a more sustainable power than if you
08:21 just write off the batter like, "Look, if you do this, you're sitting.
08:23 If you do that, you're out."
08:27 You can really take a lot of their edge off if you do that.
08:31 It might take a little longer to get them there, but I do think if they get there, it's
08:36 more sustainable because it's been something that they've honed, and I think that's what
08:40 you're seeing with him.
08:42 He knows how we'd like him to play, and how the team needs him to play, and where he's
08:46 most effective, but that's not an adversarial relationship.
08:51 We're trying to help him discover that, and he's now starting to ... You can start to
08:54 see he's starting to figure that out, and where he can do that, and how effective he
08:58 can be in doing that, and we think that that's going to be sustainable with the way we're
09:03 doing it with him specifically.
09:04 Thank you.
09:05 Yeah.
09:06 All right.
09:07 Let's take it to Cristo Saldas for the last question for Coach.
09:08 Hello, Coach.
09:09 How are you?
09:10 I'm well.
09:11 How are you?
09:12 Fine.
09:13 Thank you very much.
09:14 Coach, for the young group like the Thunder have this season, how important role are they
09:15 in the team?
09:16 How important role are Michael Scull and Dave Fairfax into the growth of players like Shade,
09:30 Josh, Basely, and the other young guys in the roster?
09:37 Really valuable.
09:38 The first thing is all of the things that ... This is where we really benefit from those
09:45 guys.
09:46 All of the things that we are trying to tap into, all the foundational stuff that we've
09:52 talked about as a program really, as an organization, from professionalism to attacking a holistic
09:59 program to being ready to compete when your number's called, plugging into the team, playing
10:05 efficiently, knowing your game, similar to the Basely thing, understanding how you individually
10:10 can uniquely be efficient.
10:13 The mindset of growing through every experience, foundationally that's what we're really trying
10:18 to build and to get our players to really commit to and understand the value of.
10:26 Those guys just walk the walk in that stuff.
10:30 As an example, I think Basely's comments to you guys the other night is an example of
10:34 the way he feels about Mike.
10:35 I think that's really what he's capturing there is that Mike's a guy that you can look
10:40 to and chances are 99 times out of 100 he's going to be doing the right thing.
10:46 That gives confidence to a young guy that may not know what the right thing is in a
10:50 moment to be able to look at Mike or Derek or Terrence Williams and see what it should
10:56 look like.
10:57 Then, on court, stylistically, those guys help you function.
11:01 The development of the other players is happening in context.
11:07 Last night we had lineups on the floor where we've got Giddy, Trey Mann, and Poku on the
11:13 court together.
11:14 It's like when you've got them out there, they're trying to figure it out, they're trying
11:18 to learn everything.
11:20 Things aren't slowed down for them yet, especially on the defensive end.
11:25 When you've got them out there with K. Rich and Mike or even just one of those guys out
11:29 there with them, it just kind of helps everything happen in context.
11:34 Stylistically, they help your team develop as a result.
11:38 Those guys, not only the example that they are, but the style that they help us play
11:43 is invaluable.
11:44 Those guys, obviously, Derek, Mike, K. Rich have done a great job for us so far this year.