Thunder Bench Boss Dishes on Scouting Denver Nuggets

The Oklahoma City Thunder will look at game planning for the Denver Nuggets the same way they do every night - like a menu. Mark Daigneault explains that philosophy.

Oct 9, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault watches his team play against the Houston Rockets during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The Oklahoma City Thunder will open their season on Thursday in Ball Arena. Battling the Denver Nuggets on National television, the Thunder will be short-handed without any front-court depth to begin the year.

At practice this week, Thunder bench boss Mark Daigneault was asked what the balance is between scouting for opponents game to game all while matchups change and he revealed the secret.

"You got kinda like a menu, and different menu items are relevant on different nights," Daigneault said "A lot of it is like how they are playing you. If Denver comes out and they play 48 minutes of zone, zone offense becomes really important that night."

These principals stay the same night to night which makes it easier to prep for stretches during the season - You could imagine the help it provides when the 2024-25 campaign begins with a three game in four night stretch.

"We are not like introducing new things every single night, have a menu that can pretty much cover the entire league," Daigneault said "Every game, every game plan, you are going to that menu you are finding what is most relevant, that becomes your game plan but it also can carry over to the next time you play somebody."

This is partly due to the carry over effect of the league and how similar players are and the pictures from each game remain.

"The way you guard [Jamal] Murray may be a similar way that you guard Donovan Mitchell, so there is a cumulative effect to that...It is game to game, but it is coming from a menu that is consistent throughout the year," Daigneault explained.

Earlier I asked Mark Daigneault about scouting for a specific opponent in the regular season while having to prep for multiple opponents as well as self scouting.

He gave an interesting analogy about it being game to game but coming off the same menu that can be used all year. pic.twitter.com/PFUnfxAzG3
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) October 24, 2024

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