Mark Daigneault's 'Aggressive and Proactive' Approach to Lineups Could Pay Off in Playoffs
The Thunder's head coach has been tinkering with the lineups all season long in preparation for the postseason.
Oklahoma City has taken off this season. After a play-in appearance a season ago, the Thunder were supposed to be a solid team and the bright future down the road was clear. But 50 wins and within a game of the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference in April seemed unfathomable.
On paper, OKC has it all. An elite defense that loves to hustle and a high scoring offense that has one of the best 3-point percentages in the NBA. They have a bonafide superstar MVP candidate, a rising second star, and a defensive anchor and Rookie of the Year candidate. The pieces are in place for the Thunder to make a run.
Despite all the positive signs, hard to know what to expect in the postseason with no playoff experience. Everyone talks about the grind of the postseason, scouting for a 7-game series, and the bright lights of national television. If Mark Daigneault practices what he preaches, though, it won’t be all that different for the Thunder.
“Some of the approach is because of the playoffs,” Daigneault said last week when talking about his lineups. “It’s always fascinating to me when you get in a series with one team, you’re playing up to seven times. The series, the way it unfolds, forces you to adjust and sometimes it forces teams to adjust to things they’ve never done before.
“It’s always been curious to me. It’s like I don’t want to be in a situation where we’re adjusting to a thing we’ve never done in the highest stakes environment. We like to know what that looks like. We try to be pretty aggressive and proactive because of the playoffs.”
Daigneault and his staff have been experimenting with lineups all season and trying to find the best recipe for success. There’s always a method to the madness. As the playoffs creep closer, Oklahoma City has a roster full of battle tested players and a full season sample of lineup data.
Many people have assumptions and opinions of what playoff lineups should look like and how short the bench should be. According to NBA media, the entire game changes when the postseason comes around. It’s hard to see Daigneault really changing much though, as he’s operating a well-oiled machine. The Thunder’s depth, shooting, and team chemistry has taken this squad far, there’s no reason to change anything major up now.
“Everybody talks about the preparation for the playoffs, but the best preparation for the playoffs is the 82 games,” Daigneault said. “You carry your habits into the playoffs and we have to finish that job. We’re still a developing team, we can’t waste opportunities to improve.
“And these will be high level games, these teams that are coming in are playing for something or playing well. We’ll get to test ourselves against that. We get to finish the job of preparing ourselves, sharpening our blade, and building our habits so when the postseason comes we’re the most actualized team we’re capable of being.”
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