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Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault isn’t changing his routine approach to the upcoming regular season despite its high anticipation as expectations for the league’s reigning Coach of the Year, and his team is as high as ever for the fifth-year head coach. The Thunder upgraded its roster tremendously by trading Josh Giddy to the Chicago Bulls for two-time All-Defensive Team guard Alex Caruso. Then, poaching the New York Knicks’ defensive center Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million contract during the offseason. These moves catapulted the Thunder to having the second-best odds of winning the 2025 NBA Finals behind the defending champion Boston Celtics.
On Monday, at Thunder Media Day, Daigneault discussed what veterans such as Caruso and Hartenstein bring to his team and its 26-and-under core, the NBA’s youngest team to finish as a top seed in either conference.
“They’re both compete-together players, and we wanna be a compete-together team, and they’ve proven throughout the course of their careers that that’s who they are for the teams they play on,” Daigneault said. “In training camp, we’re starting with the most basic fundamentals to build a foundation that we can take into the season, and all of the iterations and evolutions happen from there. And if your foundation’s not strong, you can’t really do anything else; they’re two guys that have strong foundations to their game. And the stuff that we emphasize, which is boring and basic, is stuff that will resonate with them.”
With the additions of veterans Hartenstein and Caruso, which Daigneault envisions as a seamless fit to the team’s core, the Thunder’s defense projects to be the league’s best this upcoming season.
“It’s stuff that they’ve proven they can do, and that’s what’s most exciting,” Daigneault added. “Not just projecting where it goes but understanding that what we’re putting forward will resonate with them, and they will resonate with the group because of who they are.”
After capturing 57 wins last season with the best record at the top of the Western Conference, some predict that the Thunder can reach 60+ wins in 2024-25. After Oklahoma City won its division for the first time in 12 years, expediting its progression from its 40-win season in 2022-23 and 24 wins the season prior, its intimidating upgrades to its defense coupled with the growth of its 26-and-under core, the Thunder have arrived, that much we know. But is this the year they leap to becoming Western Conference champions, or is it still too early?
Mark Daigneault credits Thunder GM Sam Presti for roster additions
Led by their 2024 MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his young weapons in forward Jalen Williams, Rookie of the Year candidate Chet Holmgren, and veteran Luguentz Dort, head coach Mark Daigneault, and the Thunder reached the Western Conference semifinals in last year’s playoffs. Still, the Thunder General Manager Sam Presti and the front office were not done upgrading its championship-contending roster. They added a pair of defensive stalwarts, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, whom some believe will be the foundation of a historically elite defense.
At Thunder Media Day, Daigneault, using Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein as examples, accredited Thunder GM Sam Presti for bringing in players that align with the team’s character and overall values.
“It starts with the kinds of people that we bring in, in terms of the players — the guys we draft or the guys that we bring in the door. One of the things I think Sam has done a great job of is having a really high bar in terms of the type of people we want in the program and making sure they’re people that will naturally gravitate to the values that we’re gonna be preaching every day,” Daigneault said. “So, we found great alignment with the guys that we’ve brought it. Then, the other part of that is we have to put a program out that is worthy of their commitment. It’s not just their responsibility to commit, but it’s our responsibility to put something in front of them that’s easy to commit to.”
OKC quickly swept the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round but lost 4-2 to the Dallas Mavericks, who would eventually become Western Conference champions. However, Williams, 23, and Holmgren, 22, who averaged 18.7 points and 6.8 rebounds and 16.5 points and 7.9 rebounds, respectively, in 2023-24, are still improving as they enter the upcoming season as legitimate All-Star candidates, adding to what should be a very exciting season for the 2024-25 Thunder.
