Daigneault navigates integrating two developing guards amid injuries, highlighting how adversity fuels opportunity for crucial on-court development.
At Thunder practice today, Mark Daigneault didn’t shy away from the reality facing the Oklahoma City Thunder. Integrating two young guards at the same time is rarely simple.
Doing it amid injuries, a midseason trade, and a comeback story that spans nearly two years makes it even more delicate.
Jared McCain arrived in Oklahoma City just a few games ago via trade, still learning terminology, timing, and tendencies on the fly. Nikola Topic, meanwhile, is working his way back after missing almost two seasons due to an ACL injury and a battle with testicular cancer.
Both need reps. Both need patience. And both are being folded into a team still chasing consistency.
So integrating both at the same time isn’t easy but having guys out is a little bit of a blessing in disguise at the moment.
“Well, we’ve got guys out, and that’s not ideal from a macro sense,” Daigneault said when asked about the challenges of integrating both players.
“But if you’re looking at integrating those two guys in a vacuum, it does give you windows of opportunity. I mean, it’s just the reality of having guys out, and it’s allowed us to get those guys on the court. And on the court in roles that they can play, but that would be difficult to get them if we had everybody. So we’re trying to make the most of the circumstances, and that’s one of the things we’re trying to take advantage of right now. So that’s the first thing.”
In other words, adversity has created opportunity. With rotation pieces sidelined, the Thunder can give McCain and Topic meaningful minutes rather than fringe cameos. For McCain, that means learning through live action instead of theory. For Topic, it means discovering rhythm and confidence against NBA speed after a long and winding road back.
Still, Daigneault emphasized that progress can’t be forced saying,
“And then in terms of integrating guys, the lesson I think we’ve learned is there’s a lot to do, a lot of ground to cover,” he said.
“But the more you try to accelerate that process or try to skip steps, you end up taking one step forward, but you take two steps backwards. And you’re better off taking one step backward to take two forward later. And so we don’t rush anything, we don’t force anything. We try to let things happen organically. Initially, just make it about competing inside the team, learning the basic foundational things, and then going from there.”
That philosophy echoes the early rebuild years in Oklahoma City, when development trumped urgency. Back then, the Thunder were teaching structure and identity from the ground up. Now, the foundation is sturdier, but the onboarding process remains intentional.
“We’ve got experience, obviously, with a lot of different players over a long period of time,” Daigneault said. “And we’ve tried to get good at that. It’s not gonna be the last time we have a new player. And so we’ve tried to get good at the process of bringing a new guy on, figuring out where to start, how to onboard them, and then go from there. I like to think we’re better at it now than we were back then, but we’re not perfect either.”
Integrating McCain and Topic simultaneously is a challenge. But for a coaching staff that has built its identity on patience and process, it’s also familiar territory, just another step in a long term plan that rarely skips ahead.