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After watching Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren's three-point shooting percentage spike in the opening-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, head coach Mark Daigneault is encouraging more of the same from his starting big man. Holmgren and the Thunder swept the Grizzlies 4-0, and as they await their second-round opponent, Daigneault revealed Chet's 6.5 attempts per game against Memphis were by design.
It's a significant leap from the 3.6 regular-season average. Holmgren connected on 49.0% of his threes against the Grizzlies as Daigneault addressed his big man's shooting for the rest of the Thunder postseason.
“It's always defense-dependent. You're never trying to force a certain number up there, but he did a good job of being open and available. We did a good job of finding him,” Daigneault said. “I actually thought in Game 4, there were a couple more available to him that he could have taken. But we want him ripping open shots. It's such a threat. It creates great floor spacing. It puts him in close-out situations. He shoots it efficiently.
“There are just so many downstream positives that come from him being ready to shoot and shooting when he's open. He had a great series in that respect,” Daigneault concluded.
Compared to shooting at a 37.9% clip during the regular season, Holmgren settled into the second postseason of his career. He also posted averages of 18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks in four games against Memphis.
Mark Daigneault on Thunder's three-point shooting emphasis
After Game 4, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault applauded the Grizzlies' effort in a hard-fought first-round series. When a reporter asked Daigneault about his team's three-point shooting, which was at its best in games 2 and 3 at a 38.7% and 34.2% clip, respectively, the Thunder head coach said his team's shooting results were reassuring.
“We shot below expectations for the series from an offensive standpoint, which is encouraging in a couple of ways,” Daigneault said. “The first way is that it gives us some confidence that we're generating good shots, which is important. You want your process to be good, and it was. Then, the other thing is the fact that we didn't shoot it on expectations. We believe we will over a larger sample, but the fact that we didn't forced us to manufacture some wins.
“It forced us to manufacture offense with offensive rebounds and finding other ways to score, and it forced us to lean on our defense, and we're going to need all that as we continue to move forward. The shot-making is variant, as we know, night-to-night,” Daigneault concluded.
The Thunder connected on 38.8% of their threes throughout the regular season.
