With preseason and training camp in the rearview, the Thunder is now only two days away from its regular-season debut against Houston on Wednesday. The start of the season and game play also means a decrease in consecutive practices days making the current on-ramp of practices for the Thunder all the more valuable in order to solidify and fine-tune the foundation established throughout training camp.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and sophomore guard Luguentz Dort sat down with the media after practice on Monday to discuss the progress the team has made since the start of training camp and the goals of the group moving forward.
Coach Daigneault
On the challenges of the first regular season game…
It’s the same challenges we had in preseason which is how much can we learn from the experiences we've had as a team so far, and how much can we carry over an identity and a style of play that we've tried to establish. I think that we've had moments in the preseason where that's been really good on both ends of the floor and then obviously there's just the natural slippage of a 48-minute game. But the best teams can maintain that level of play over the course of as many of the 48 minutes as possible. That'll be our first challenge on Wednesday and then our continuous challenge through all the games of the season.
On the type of defensive team he expects this group to be…
I think what you saw in the first few games is the base – on the ball, in our coverages – that's certainly what we've been working on. But we do have an athleticism and a feistiness to us that we'd like to tap into on the margins. Over the course of 48 minutes in a game, and how good the players are in the NBA, you can't get too crazy with your aggressiveness or the ball will stay ahead of you and you'll end up in rotation all night. But there's small ways that you can get your physicality into the game and that you can get your energy into the game and I thought the last Chicago game was really evidence of that. I thought we had a real presence on the ball I thought we had a real presence disrupting cuts and getting physicality into the game and that's, I think, where we can turn it up a little bit.
Luguentz Dort
On how to ensure good team defense…
Really communicate and be loud, be vocal. There’s not going to be a lot of fans, so it's really just being loud, keep talking and help each other.
On team chemistry…
We’ve just got a great group of guys and we’ve got guys like George Hill and Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) stepping up and being leaders and being vocal. There are some guys that have been in the league for a little bit, so they're just leaders and they’ve been able to help the young guys to learn the NBA.
On if he’s looking forward to defending Harden again…
I really look forward to just playing basketball and playing the games that we have coming up. I just like going against a big challenge and I feel like James Harden is a big challenge. I'll just be ready to go in there and really compete hard.
We’ve just got a great group of guys and we’ve got guys like George Hill and Shai stepping up and being leaders and being vocal. pic.twitter.com/JYTkjcXHlI
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) December 21, 2020
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