Thunder's Mark Daigneault honest take on being named head coach in All-Star Game

01/20/2025 04:36 PM

After head coach Mark Daigneault and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 127-101 win against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, Daigneault clinched the best record (35-7) in the Western Conference through games played on February 2. In doing so, Daigneault was named head coach of the All-Star Game and commented on the honor after Sunday’s win. 

The reigning NBA Coach of the Year, Daigneault, will coach the All-Star Game for the first time in his coaching career. He’s honored to be named the head coach of the Western Conference All-Stars.

“[It’s] an honor. Huge thank you to all the people that are behind the scenes on that in the organization that work with the players, not only this season but previous seasons, obviously,” Daigneault said. “This has been a build, and a lot of people have their fingerprints on that, so a huge thank you to them, and then a huge thank you to the assistant coaching staff. Many of which have been here for a long time and put in a lot of work.”

Mark Diagneault on this season’s G League standouts for Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault addressed rookie Branden Carlson’s ascension this season. While on a 10-day contract, Carlson’s breakthrough has earned him consistent playing time since the Thunder’s 136-116 blowout win against the league-leading Cavs.

Many players, such as the Thunder’s everyday players, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, and Aaron Wiggins, are homegrown through Oklahoma City’s organization. Daigneault credited members of his coaching staff. He also highlighted the emergence of some of the younger prospects, such as undrafted rookie Branden Carlson and third-year forward Ousmane Dieng, who have split the 2024-25 campaign between the Thunder and the Blue, OKC’s G League affiliate.

“He’s had a good stretch of time,” Daigneault said. “He came off his injury, I thought; he was rusty. Then, we used the Blue minutes. Like I [said] after the Dallas game, he played more minutes in a two-week stretch than anybody in the program. That allowed him to kind of get back to baseline and playing the way he was playing before he got hurt. And he’s done a nice job in his Thunder minutes since then.”

Dieng scored a dozen points in Sunday’s win. He also finished with three rebounds, two assists, and one block. Wiggins also finished with 12 points, five assists, and three rebounds. The two led the Thunder’s second-unit production while cruising to a 26-point (127-101) blowout win.

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