Thunder Back From the All-Star Break

Coach Daigneault was obviously in high spirits as he began practice availability stating that today was birthday.

“You guys aren’t allowed to break it until practice is over,” Daigneault said,”the players have to sing happy birthday and I don’t like the whole deal.”

He continued on a more serious note by giving an injury update.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is back and will play in tomorrow night’s game against the Phoenix Suns.

Although still out for Oklahoma City is: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Ty Jerome, Kenrich Williams, Lu Dort and Mike Muscala.

Since Gilgeous-Alexander was out for an extended period of time, other players had to shoulder more of a load. Some even flourished because of it like Tre Mann and Josh Giddey.

With these players assuming more dynamic roles, there might be some growing pains to Gilgeous-Alexander returning to the fold.

“The challenge is now making sure he comes back and is additive and that’s something he’s hyper aware of,” Daigneault said.

Right before the break, Daigneault had the opportunity to see Lindy Waters in a Thunder uniform against the Spurs. Waters scored five points on an efficient two-of-three shooting in just eight minutes. Daigneault gave his impressions.

“He’s got a body of work as a shotmaker and thats a huge part of his value to the team,” Daigneault said,”he’s a pest defender. That understands schemes and is a good team defender…”

“…What we don’t want him to do is to go out there and feel like that his entire value is predicated on making and missing because there’s so much more to the game than that.”

Lastly, Daigneault reviewed Giddey’s performance in the All-Star weekend events.

“I just thought he handled it with great grace and maturity,” Diagneault said,”you can learn a lot about somebody when you see them in that type of environment. I was really impressed with him.”

The Thunder will face the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, February 24th in Paycom Center at 7pm.

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