How Mark Daigneault Powered the NBA's Best Defense

Very little was known about OKC Thunder Head Coach Mark Daigneault when he was hired on Nov. 11, 2020. Now, he is a champion, Coach of the Year and minister of defense.

Daigneault's Thunder were the best defense in the NBA during their championship-winning 2024-25 campaign, leading the league in defensive rating, steals per game and opponent field goal percentage. He did not build an elite defense overnight; he found and developed the right personnel for his system.

When he started as the main in charge, he already had two of the most important players in his defense today, guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort.

Gilgeous-Alexander was a subpar-to-average defensive player throughout his first year in Daigneault's system, but is now one of the better team defenders in basketball. Dort, on the other hand, was always one of the premier on-ball defenders in the sport, but improved his off-ball defense enough to be top five in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season.

Daigneault always believed in Dort's overall game.

“What makes Dort good are the things he had when he broke through. He’s competitive, he’s tough, he’s incredible at the point of attack with both his physical profile and also just his motor and will,” Daigneault said in 2021.

"Mark is a big reason why I've had success in this league... I have a lot of trust in him and he has a lot of trust in me at the same time," Dort said May 14.

10 days after Daigneault's hiring was announced, on Nov. 21, the Thunder traded center Steven Adams to New Orleans in a multiteam deal. The deal included the Thunder's future veteran leader, forward Kenrich Williams.

Without a doubt, the TCU product helped instill a culture of toughness that Daigneault's Thunder is known for. On top of that, he displays a trait that's exactly what every rotation player needs to have: he's ready to get into the game at all times; no moment is too big for him.

Throughout the Thunder rebuild, Daigneault and his defense showed flashes of greatness no matter the personnel. This is part of the reason Thunder fans knew he was the guy all along, despite his record in his first two seasons.

The energy shifted when the Thunder drafted forward Jalen Williams and center Chet Holmgren in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft. Both players are vital to the Thunder's success.

Holmgren is the best defender on the roster when healthy, consistently bringing elite rim protection and versatility. The Santa Clara University product was All-Defensive last season due to his ability to guard every position on the floor at an elite level, while bringing phenomenal off-ball coverage as well.

The next season, the Thunder drafted guard Cason Wallace at No. 12. Wallace, in his first two seasons, has already shown he has some of the best hands in the league, always finding a way to get in the passing lanes or strip whoever he is guarding.

The 2024 offseason made Daigneault's dream defensive idea come through. The Thunder acquiring guard Alex Caruso from Chicago and center Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency turned one of the best defenses in the league a season before into of the best in history.

Adding Caruso ensured the Thunder would have an elite point-of-attack defender on the court at all times; his versatility allowed the Thunder to apply a "switch everything" approach, even on tough covers like MVP-candidate Nikola Jokic. Hartenstein allowed the Thunder, when healthy, to keep at least one strong rim protector on the floor, OKC's glaring hole the season before.

Pairing a defensive-minded head coach with a defensive-oriented core group of players is the exact recipe a team needs for success. The Thunder utilized a switchable roster and strong coaching to look like a swarm of bees tracking the basketball on the floor.

Daigneault and the Thunder this season proved that old sayings ring true: Defense really does win championships.