Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault rarely ventures into hyperbole, but in the aftermath of a gritty win over the Denver Nuggets he dropped the word "superpower" β and he was not talking about any of his star's highlight plays.
Asked to describe what separates reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the pack, Daigneault pointed to an internal quality rather than a physical one.
"Yeah, I mean, he never presses," Daigneault said. "He's just got unbelievable awareness of the circumstances, awareness of the length of the game. I think that's one of his superpowers β he understands how long the game is, and so he can make the right play knowing that he'll get his cracks. If he misses shots early, he knows that there's more game left, and he always stays in it mentally, and I think that's part of the reason why he's as consistent as he is."
Denver threw a steady diet of double teams at Gilgeous-Alexander, but the Canadian star still controlled the tempo and finished with a dagger late. Daigneault called his close-out sequence "outstanding" and compared it directly to the shot that finished Golden State in another recent win.
"The Golden State one, I mean, that was the shot of the night the other night, too," Daigneault said. "Tremendous poise, confidence. He doesn't change his mindset regardless of the circumstance. He doesn't break a sweat doing anything. That was an outstanding performance by him β not only the last stretch, but the game control. The blend of attacking and passing put his teammates in advantages all night. They threw two guys at him all night, and yet he was able to get his stuff in the game and also activate his teammates."
Behind the obvious narrative of an MVP-level closing act, however, was the quieter story Daigneault wanted his room to hear. AJ Mitchell returned from a two-month injury layoff and Daigneault rode him for 13 straight minutes in the opening half β a bold call on a player still shaking off rust.
"You never know how a guy is going to come off of a two-month injury from a conditioning standpoint," Daigneault said. "I played him 13 straight minutes in the first half. I don't know if that was my best performance, but he was really good. He was ready. Any time a guy comes in and is in that much rhythm and is in that much shape to be able to do what he did tonight, it's a testament to all the invisible work they do to get themselves back to that point. He was really diligent with a setback. It's hard mentally when you think you're going to be back a certain time, he has a setback with an ankle injury, and he just keeps plugging. We don't win that game without him either."
Daigneault paired Mitchell with guard McCain on a first-quarter substitution that flipped the game's energy. What made it meaningful was that McCain had sat the entire fourth quarter of the Thunder's previous game.
"I thought it was the first-quarter McCainβAJ Mitchell sub," Daigneault said. "Those guys went in the game and they bit into the lead a little bit, and our pace and our mojo was just a little bit different than our start. The guys off the bench know that they can elevate the game, and that's exactly what those guys did."
On McCain specifically, Daigneault spelled out a tough conversation he had before tip-off. "He hasn't been here long, and last game, for whatever reason, I didn't play him in the fourth quarter. I just went with other guys, and I talked to him about not reading into those situations. These guys are so used to that, but he might not be. I thought he showed great mental toughness tonight. He just got himself back to zero, got himself ready to play, and he's the guy down the stretch and helped us win the game."
For the Thunder, who have been praised all year for their "surgical" approach to regular-season games, Daigneault's postgame made it plain: the depth chart below Gilgeous-Alexander is what keeps the machine humming β and the head coach is more than willing to share credit when the moment demands it.
