Daigneault’s name gets mispronounced and misspelled, but he’s fast become a force as the Thunder enters the NBA playoffs.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racked his brain. You could tell he was trying.

Gilgeous-Alexander is a careful answerer. He doesn’t phone it in. His answers aren’t long, but they are thoughtful. SGA tries, which is more than you get from most NBA superstars.

But Gilgeous-Alexander failed. His memory was blank. Nothing sprang to his mind about Mark Daigneault in SGA’s first Thunder season.

In 2019-20, SGA was a potentially budding star but clearly a sidekick to Chris Paul on that charming team that was on a 51-win pace when the pandemic hit in March, reconvened in August for the Orlando bubble and eventually lost to Houston in a memorable seven-game playoff series.

That was Billy Donovan’s last season as the Thunder coach and Daigneault’s first as a full-time Thunder assistant, having served five years as head coach of the G League Blue.

And Daigneault as assistant coach is a blank to Gilgeous-Alexander.

Does SGA remember his first encounter with Daigneault? “I don’t,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, after a few seconds of thought. “I don’t remember talking to him much. I don’t know why. I think the staff was a little bit different back then.”

OK. So what does SGA remember about Daigneault? “I don’t really know, until he (head) coached me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “ I didn’t have too many encounters. We never really sat down and talked my first year. It’s a blank, until he coached me.”

Seems inconceivable, doesn’t it? Two months after the Thunder left Orlando, Daigneault was SGA’s head coach. It’s possible that when the Thunder announced the hiring of Daigneault on November 11, 2020, Gilgeous-Alexander’s response was, who?

That certainly was most the refrain of most Oklahomans, including me. Daigneault was an anonymous staff member. The Thunder doesn’t publicly market its assistant coaches much at all, but Daigneault was particularly low-profile.

No NBA experience of any kind until hired to be the Blue coach, off the University of Florida campus, where he was a low-level Donovan assistant.

Low profile and low ego.

How certain is Daigneault that Gilgeous-Alexander even knew his name before Nov. 11?

“Not certain,” Daigneault said.

“I was really huddled up with Billy that year. I didn’t do a ton of player development. I did scouts, I did stuff assistants do.”

Daigneault worked with two players, Danilo Gallinari and Deonte Burton. The latter played for Daigneault on the Blue. Other than Gallinari and Burton, Daigneault’s duties were strategic, such as tactics and practice planning.

Daigneault said he interacted with players, but he wasn’t with them every single day. And particularly left alone a certain budding star who was new to town.

“I tried to give him space,” Daigneault said. “He was a new player. He definitely didn’t know my last name. Maybe my first.”

SGA knows the name now. Daigneault this week was voted the NBA coach of the year by his peers and is the favorite to win the official award, voted upon by the media. Gilgeous-Alexander is a runaway NBA superstar. And the Thunder is the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs; OKC hosts New Orleans at 8:30 p.m. Sunday in Game 1 of the West quarterfinals.

Coach under the radar

Daigneault’s rise to prominence has been swift. Before last season, only hard-core NBA fans knew who coached the Thunder. Even today, Daigneault’s name is mispronounced more often than not (Dagg is correct, rather than Dayg).

Of the 20 teams that reached the NBA postseason, eight are led by coaches who produced an NBA championship. That’s a remarkable number for a league that only recently has encountered parity.

Meanwhile, Daigneault entered this season with a record of 86-150, so no matter how impressed Oklahomans were with what they saw out of this young-coach/young-team combination, nobody paid attention.

Even here, we didn’t know the laboratory that was functioning in Thunder headquarters during the massive rebuild, when OKC went 46-108 in Daigneault’s first two seasons. The style of play. The new, collaborative culture, which was far removed from the player-dominant style of the Russell Westbrook days. The experimental nature of Daigneault’s leadership.

Daigneault is known for his willingness to try new things. Like 11-man rotations that are not confined to the same 11 players. Or guard-on-guard pick-and-rolls that have flummoxed opponents accustomed to NBA’s tried-and-true formulas. Or the inbound plays that seem far away from NBA orthodoxy and the Thunder’s history.

Daigneault takes no personal credit for such ingenuity, crediting his staff and Thunder culture. 

Wondering why Thunder players bark at the end of postgame TV interviews? At first, it was for fun. Now, it means a little more.

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“Super cool,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Daigneault’s coach-of-the-year award. “He puts in a lot of work. Super humble guy. Obviously very deserving. He got to this point for a reason, and I’ve kind of been blessed to see his journey.”

Daigneault had limited coaching experience when he arrived in OKC at age 29, having worked as a student manager for Jim Calhoun at Connecticut, as a three-year assistant coach at Holy Cross and as a graduate assistant and non-coaching assistant to Donovan at Florida.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti had a “huge” impact on Daigneault’s development, but “I was raised in this organization,” Daigneault said. “I wouldn’t limit it to him. I’d say organizationally, I was raised by this place.

“I’d never worked in professional basketball until I got here. So I didn’t know what a game felt like with a 24-second shot clock until I got here. I’d never managed a staff before. I had very little exposure to like analytics and data science and all the resources that we have.”

When viewed through that lens, the hiring of Daigneault to coach the Thunder was not as stunning as the hiring of Daigneault to coach the Blue.

“I’d never had this level of access to the vastness of an organization and all the different people that have to hum in order for things to move smoothly,” Daigneault said. “And I was brought up in that environment first with the Blue, then my exposure with the Thunder.”

Some have called Daigneault a Presti clone, but that’s not true. There are similarities in their backgrounds — both got their foot in the door of big-time basketball operations because their unique talents were recognized — and both have to be in the 99.9 percentile of intelligence. 

But also there are striking differences. Daigneault, for instance, is easily the most forthcoming coach in Thunder history in terms of explaining what in the heck is going on with the franchise. It’s a level of communication that stands out in a franchise that historically is wound quite tight.

Daigneault said Presti’s fingerprints are all over the franchise and Daigneault’s personal development as a coach.

“But it’s not limited to him,” Daigneault said. “There’s a ton of really talented and competent people here that we all benefit from working around.”

Communicator in Chief

That communication skill comes in quite handy when dealing with NBA ballplayers.

Scotty Brooks never was a strategic whiz, in his seven seasons as the Thunder coach. But he was a people person who managed the many and massive personalities as the Thunder made three Western Conference Finals in a four-year span.

But Daigneault appears to possess the best of both worlds. Both the “tactical competence” that Presti said he was looking for when he hired Donovan in summer 2015 and the relational skills to keep a team rowing the boat on rhythm.

“His biggest trait that serves us really well is being able to relate with us,” said Jalen (Santa Clara) Williams, the Thunder’s second-year phenom who seems headed for stardom, if he’s not there already. “I think anytime you can relate to the people you’re teaching, you’re able to get a lot further with progress … that makes us want to play hard for him.”

Daigneault is forever preaching collaboration in the building, and Williams said that extends even to the players. Even for a young team — the median age for the Thunder’s 10 best players is 23½ — these players apparently like to talk and think and explore the game.

“Us as players have done a really good job this year, voicing some stuff we’d rather do in certain situations, and they’re willing to listen and kind of adhere to some of the stuff we have to say, too,” Williams said. “It’s been a good back and forth. Good player/coach relationship throughout the whole year.”

Daigneault said that he simply trusts his players

“They deserve trust,” Daigneault said. “There’s only so much you can do when you’re coaching. They gotta make the plays. They win the games. Coaches can’t win games. Coaches can lose games, but they can’t win ‘em. So they’re the ones, they need confidence, they need trust, in order to do that. And they give me every reason to trust ‘em.

“I mean, they’re intelligent players, they’re about the team, they’re competitive. They’re trying to solve problems out there on the court. And ultimately, we’re in it together, we’re always working together to try to get to the best thing, and we don’t care where that idea comes from.”

That collaborative spirit evokes Presti’s experience in San Antonio, when Gregg Popovich encouraged ideas.

So when Daigneault said he’s “humbled” by the coach of the year award and calls it a shared honor, with his entire staff and organization, it’s not just talk.

Thunder watchers know what a splendid player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, but his case for NBA MVP got a boost Sunday afternoon.

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The Thunder ideas can come from anywhere. From a player to a video assistant. It doesn’t matter. Dagneault said the organization can “beat up” an idea, with little ego involved.

“Allows us to get to what we think is the best decisions, whether it’s practices, game, team, anything like that,” Daigneault said. “We’re just trying to get to the best thing and move in the same direction.

“If I’m going to expect that from them, I have to be able to walk that walk. It’s not about the decisions I’m making or anything like that.”

Daigneault is that unique person who talks in his own cliches. In other words, he pioneers the use of phrases. You can notice his players reciting them in press conferences.

“A lot of things come from Coach Mark,” said Lindy Waters. “He has a lot of little sayings. We joke about ‘em, but we also take ‘em very seriously.

“Things like, ‘solve problems with five.’ And ‘0-0 mindset.’ We have guys that really take those to heart and we live by those things.”

Daigneault, who turned 39 in February, is from an older generation than his players, but only because they are so young. Daigneault is 56 days younger than LeBron James.

Playoff newbies

We’ve heard all season how young teams must take their playoff lickings, and maybe that’s true. But the Thunder compounds the situation with a quite inexperienced coach.

Daigneault has coached in exactly two postseason games — a play-in victory last April at New Orleans and a play-in defeat last April at Minnesota.

When Mike Brown, now coaching the Kings, was NBA coach of the year in 2009, Daigneault was a 24-year-old assistant at Holy Cross. When Tom Thibodeau, now coaching the Knickerbockers, was NBA coach of the year in 2011, Daigneault was a graduate student at Florida. When Tyronn Lue, now with the Clippers, coached the Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA title, Daigneault had just finished his second basketball season with a 24-second shot clock.

Daigneault is sharp, but how will he respond to playoff coaching? The constant adjustments needed when playing the same opponent game after game over a fortnight?

“I have no idea,” Daigneault deadpanned. “Anything could happen.”

But clearly, Daigneault has considered what’s needed from a playoff coaching staff, everything from game planning to culture to scheduling.

“I think the goal is to set a certain way of operating in the season, both from a tone standpoint with our approach as a coaching staff, as a building, that can carry into the playoffs,” Daigneault said.

“Then same thing with all the tactical things we’ve done. During the season, when we’re moving things around, you guys are asking about it, and a lot of times, I’ve referenced that we want to be a team that’s adaptive. And the playoffs are a context that force you to adapt.”

Daigneault’s real message? It’s too late to change. If your regular season routine doesn’t work in the playoffs, your regular season routine is the problem. 

Gilgeous-Alexander seems to be in tune with that thinking. He expects Daigneault “to be the exact same person he is. I don’t think he’ll change. I don’t expect him to change. I don’t think he should change.

“I think he should continue to hold us to a high standard and trust his instincts throughout the game.”

The tactics? Whether to start Kendrick Perkins vs. Miami? Whether to play Enes Kanter vs. James Harden’s pick-and-roll? How much to play Gordon Hayward vs. New Orleans?

That stuff is easy for Daigneault. He’s processed all the strategy options well before Sunday.

Daigneault is the NBA coach of the year for a reason. NBA insiders might not know how to spell or pronounce his name, and Daigneault can walk unrecognized into most NBA arenas. But that budding star who didn’t even know Daigneault’s name four years ago knows all about him now, and the superstar player seems to playing for a budding superstar coach.