The Oklahoma City Thunder are onto the NBA Finals, and it's been a long time coming, especially for head coach Mark Daigneault and 3-and-D star Alex Caruso.

While much of Oklahoma City's core is homegrown, Caruso and Daigneault's history with each other dates back even further than when Daigneault became the Thunder head coach or Caruso was traded to the Thunder over the summer.

Daigneault joined the Thunder organization back in 2014, when he became the head coach of the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder's NBA G League team (the league was then known as the D-League). In his third season as the Blue's coach, Daigneault led his team to a 34-16 record and a conference finals berth. But possibly most importantly, he coached Caruso for the first time — and a now-viral photo of the two was snapped.

While at Texas A&M, Caruso played against Florida, for which Daigneault was an assistant coach, and shortly after going undrafted in 2016, Caruso joined the Blue. Caruso went his entire first season of professional basketball without getting to the NBA, but in 2017, he got his opportunity when he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Caruso proved his value on both ends of the floor, but particularly defensively, and helped the Lakers win an NBA championship in 2021. He stayed with the Lakers until 2021, at which point he signed with the Chicago Bulls. He would remain in Chicago until last offseason, when the Thunder traded Josh Giddey to acquire him.

While Caruso was demonstrating his skills as a player, Daigneault was doing much of the same in the coaching world.

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Daigneault spent five seasons as the head coach of the Blue, winning 57% of his games and leading them to the playoffs four times. In 2019, he joined Billy Donovan's Thunder staff as an assistant, and the following year, he succeeded Donovan as the Thunder's head coach, making him the second-youngest coach in the league.

In the beginning stages of a rebuild, Daigneault and the Thunder lost plenty of games — 108 of 154 games in the first two seasons, to be exact — but began to string wins together starting in 2022. During the 2022-23 season, OKC went 40-42 and lost in the Play-In to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Last season, the Thunder exploded for 57 wins and the first seed in the Western Conference. Daigneault led a largely young and inexperienced team to their first playoff series victory since 2016, only to be bounced in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks.

This season proved to be even better than the last, as the Thunder cruised by the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves and earned a hard-fought seven-game series win against the Denver Nuggets to reach the NBA Finals.

Regardless of the result of the Eastern Conference Finals, Oklahoma City will host the first two games of the Finals starting on June 5. The Thunder will either play the Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks.