Mark Daigneault says Sam Presti relationship influenced Thunder success

OKLAHOMA CITY — After coaching the Oklahoma City Blue, the organization’s G League affiliate, for five seasons, GM Sam Presti named Mark Daigneault the Oklahoma City Thunder head coach. He joined Billy Donovan’s coaching staff as an assistant before taking over. Then, four seasons later, Daigneault guided the Thunder to the NBA Finals, leading a 2024-25 team that some consider as the best in franchise history.

During his first media availability since beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, Daigneault reflected on his relationship with Presti and how smooth it’s been since the very beginning of his NBA coaching career.

“When I started as the head coach, I already had six years in the organization. So, that’s a six-plus-year relationship that we already had,” Daigneault said. “He knew me very well. I knew him very well. We had seen each other over the course of a long period of time in a lot of different situations. So, there wasn’t a relational feeling out process there. It was a continuation of an existing relationship that we already had — which the communication between those two positions is essential — and I think that comfort helped with that.”

Daigneault has been in the NBA long enough to have seen that the relationship between a head coach and a team’s GM isn’t always smooth or a seamless fit as his bond with Thunder GM Sam Presti.

“A lot of those challenges come from philosophical differences,” Daigneault added. “And I was like raised here in professional basketball. I didn’t work anywhere else in pro basketball prior to coming here. I didn’t know much about professional basketball before I came here. So, my entire philosophy in professional basketball was underneath the umbrella of the Thunder organization. So, our philosophical alignment is so tight because of that.”

“This is the only place I’ve ever worked, and this is the only way I’ve ever done it. And a lot of it is stuff I learned from Sam and learned from being in this organization.”

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