OKC Thunder: Mark Daigneault's Unconventionality Paying Dividends

The Thunder head coach held heaps of faith in his reserve unit throughout the regular season, and that's now seeping into the playoffs.

Two games into Round 1, and Mark Daigneault is sticking to his guns, and betting on his depth. What's helped him and the Oklahoma City Thunder see so much success throughout this inspiring season-long run stems from the impactful reserves who anchor the starting five, and Daigneault has hinged on that.

Throughout the regular season, anywhere from 11 to 15 players would be deployed onto the floor for the Thunder, and Daigneault would analyze and assess each one to gauge their flow on both ends of the floor to eventually shore things up into the postseason. And while he's beginning to refine things more compared to the regular season, he's still implemented 11- and 10-deep rotations throughout the team's first two playoff outings versus the Pelicans.

It's certainly worked to his advantage thus far. On Sunday in an anxiously tight game behind the Paycom Center crowd, rookie and reserve Cason Wallace came up immensely on the defensive end of the floor throughout the contest, and in the most important play of the game. Locking down CJ McCollum on the final play of the night sealed a Game 1 victory for Oklahoma City, and Daigneault leaving his freshman defensive stalwart out on the floor was a move that only seemed to be right to make.

That's the kind of trust and confidence Daigneault has instilled within his young and so-called inexperienced group. It's paying its dividends.

Following his 11-man rotation in Game 1, Daigneault had this to say, "There’s advantages to having depth… There’s probably like a subtle pressure to cut it down arbitrarily but they all played well last night.

"You never know what a series is gonna deal you in terms of the hand you have to play. If we (played) 8 guys last night, and we had to pivot to 1 of the other 3/4 that didn't play. Now you're like dusting them off. They haven't gotten in a game yet. They haven't touched the floor yet. They haven't gotten a taste yet. And now you're going to them and it's somewhat reactive."

Into Game 2, there was only one player to be brushed off in terms of the amount of play time given in the first bout, and that was Kenrich Williams. He'd eventually get time in clean up duty as the Thunder led by over 25, but Daigneualt still stuck to his philosophy and deployed 10 men out within the thick of the contest, and it proved to be fruitful.

Between the bench unit consisting of Isaiah Joe, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Gordon Hayward and Jaylin Williams, they went a combined 6-of-10 from the floor and 2-of-4 from three, being led by Joe's eight points. That efficiency, as well as the reliability and impact on the defensive end of the floor, still props up the Thunder's stars and starting unit, taking the weight off their shoulders and providing that depth that Daigneault has harped on all season.

Though pivoting from 11 to 10 players rotationally between those two games, it's difficult to see him trimming down as much as eight considering the production each one of those reserves bring. All in all, it will be interesting to see how Daigneault handles the rest of the series as they head into New Orleans for Game 3.

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