Following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s frustrating 137-134 loss to the short-handed tanking Charlotte Hornets, fans sought blood.
Scrolling through social media, a good portion of the fan base was heavily critical of Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault’s rotation, the first time he’s received serious pushback after being considered a coach of the year candidate.
In a pseudo-must-win game, the Thunder resorted to giving Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (27 minutes) and Jared Butler (seven minutes) extended looks. This game also marked the return of Aleksej Pokusevski (10 minutes) from the non-displaced tibial fracture he suffered in late December.
Meanwhile, Aaron Wiggins, who is a proven steady player, logged 12 minutes.
With only eight games remaining and the Thunder a half game ahead of the 11th-placed Dallas Mavericks (really, 1.5 games ahead since OKC owns the tiebreaker), fans were confused at the tinkering of rotations.
This late in the season with such high stakes revolving around each game, fans are ready to see Daigneault tighten his rotation with his best players — not expand it to look at guys who are on the fringe of the roster or are struggling.
When asked if he’s prioritizing player development for the youngest roster in the league over winning to make the play-in/playoffs, Daigneault said he thinks they can delicately balance both goals:
“I don’t think you have to choose. We think that development is the priority to achieve short and long-term success. We’ve got a condensed schedule. We just got off the road. We play again tomorrow. We turn around, we travel again. We play Phoenix. We’re down a couple of guys. And so, just trying to expand the roster, see if somebody can give us some jolt. Give guys opportunities, allow them to develop and play. And we think that’s the best short-term strategy as well. Maybe not in every minute of the game, but certainly with where we are in the season and context of the season. But you know, I can’t say enough how important that mentality is in the long term as well. I mean, that’s just gonna be a constant for us, regardless of what the circumstances are around.”
Once that quote hit Twitter, there was immediate pushback from fans: That losing to the lowly Hornets shouldn’t be categorized as a positive development.
It’s also interesting to hear Daigneault bring up OKC’s schedule. The Thunder are in the midst of playing 17 games in 31 days in March — the most games in a month in their season. You have to wonder if playing that many games is finally catching up to them — even with their young legs.
They will not publicly admit it, but playing that many games in a short span of time this late in the season is a huge scheduling disadvantage the Thunder are dealing with. It would make logical sense if they’ve developed tired legs because of it.
Daigneault further clarified the importance of making the play-in tournament and playoffs, saying they will not deviate from their process to chase short-term gratification.
“I think if it is an outcome that’s downstream of our process, and the way that we’re trying to do things, it would be great because it would just be kind of a marker along the way, but (it’s) not so important that it’s going to distract us from our way of doing things. We need to bet on that day over day over day. We’ve done that for two or three years. That’s what’s put us in a position to compete for the Play-In. So for us to abandon that at this point would be hasty and, quite frankly, we need to double down this mentality past this season. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
These answers certainly didn’t earn Daigneault any brownie points with the fans following a frustrating loss. Even though fans might not like that the Thunder aren’t going to stray from being frisky with their rotation, Daigneault thinks their process is more important for the long term than chasing a top-10 spot.
