Youth and potential are the two building blocks of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise and suddenly, this is a team on the rise in the NBA. Led by their All-NBA First Team guard in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder reached the Western Conference Play-In Tournament this past season with a 40-42 record after two consecutive seasons finishing with just over 20 wins.

Heading into the 2023-24 season, the Thunder will be looking to build off of their recent success with more youthful, high-potential players being added to their roster. While GM Sam Presti is the architect behind the growth of this franchise, head coach Mark Daigneault has been at the center of their success and as a result, the team made a long-term commitment to him.

On Tuesday, the team announced that they have agreed to a multi-year contract extension with Daigneault, keeping him on the sideline in Oklahoma City for the foreseeable future.

Joining the Thunder ahead of the 2020-21 season, Daigneault inherited what was the youngest team in the league at the time and he himself was the youngest head coach when he took over the reins on the sideline. Now, he is the third-youngest coach at 37 years old behind Boston Celtics' Joe Mazzulla (35) and Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy (35).

Over the last three seasons, Daigneault has led the Thunder to a 86-150 overall record, winning just over 36 percent of the games he has coached. While these numbers may not suggest success, Oklahoma City is a growing franchise that have very quickly put themselves back on the map in the Western Conference. Daigneault has always been known to be a great developmental head coach given his time in the NBA G League with the Oklahoma City Blue and he has definitely left his mark in terms of player development with the Thunder.

Gilgeous-Alexander is just one of the young, emerging stars on this roster and heading into the 2023-24 season, the Thunder have a chance to be very special with players like Josh Giddey, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams, rookie Cason Wallace and 2022 second overall pick Chet Holmgren rounding out what many believe to be the league's best long-term core group.

Every team goes through some type of rebuild eventually and the Thunder have truly embraced the process in front of them. Daigneault has proven that he is the guy to lead this team into a new era of winning, which is why the organization decided to reward him for what he's done these last few seasons.