Of all the areas of improvement in Oklahoma City Thunder training camp, one area stood out the most to head coach Mark Daigneault.
“The chemistry,” he said. “Starting where it was, with some guys out and then obviously a lot of new people, is pretty far along for what I would have expected back from the beginning of this.”
The locker room was full of new faces on Dec. 1, and then even more joined later as trades were formally executed.
After losing most of its core from last year, the Thunder organization wondered how their new players would mesh. Would they take to each other on a personal level quickly? Would basketball styles blend? Would there be enough leaders? Would there be too many people trying to take that role?
Daigneault is pleased with what he saw over these past three weeks.
“It’s just a credit to the environment that exists here to begin with and also the quality of the people that our players are,” he said.
“They’ve all come here in a great, great spot. Invested in the environment, invested in each other.”
George Hill and Al Horford have quickly jumped into leadership roles and earned praise from the coach and teammates in press conferences.
On the court, it’s difficult to say how the Thunder will look, but we may have seen the opening day starting lineup in the final preseason game when Hill, Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley and Horford were on the court together.
While the team plays well, it also sounds like they have similar attitudes entering the regular season.
“When we’ve had things we’ve fallen short in, they want to improve. When we have things that we’ve done well, they stay humble,” Daigneault said. “That’s probably been the most encouraging thing. That’s the stuff that sustains you over the course of a long season.”
