Practice Media Availability | JDub, Cason, and Coach Daigneault | June 1, 2025 | OKC Thunder

Practice Media Availability | JDub, Cason, and Coach Daigneault | June 1, 2025 | OKC Thunder

Dub, just what have these last few days of practice and rest been like for you guys? It’s not your first time having this sort of layoff, but what has it just been like for you guys as a group? Honestly, today was our first practice. You know, you don’t want to go How many days off? Seven. Seven or eight. Like you don’t want to burn out playing seven. So, we got an actual like official day off two days ago and then we had like a recovery day. Um, and then today was like a real deal practice. So, it was fun just getting back out there. Um, two days feels like an eternity now. So, just knocking I guess some of the rust off, but just, you know, running up and down the court, getting our win back a little bit and just like repping out some of the stuff that we do. And is it nice now? I mean, you have this time and you actually know who your opponent is and being able to prepare for them now. Yeah, that was that was part of the the two days off, I think. Um, just, you know, obviously when you don’t know who you’re playing, it’s really hard to like continue to have practice. So, I think those two days off kind of timed up well with how the series ended and then, you know, we were kind of getting to some of their stuff, but a lot of it was just focusing on us and we have a lot of days to prepare for them, too. Uh, so I I wanted to talk to you a little bit about Indiana offensively. Obviously, they’re a team that likes to run and gun, uh, score a lot of points. What’s the primary challenge that you feel that their offense brings? They’re one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Uh probably that. Yeah, probably that just um they play fast. Um and that’s what kind of like fuels their whole their whole identity. Um and they’re really talented. Mark made a really good point. Like they are feeling the exact same we same way we feel. You know what I mean? Like they’ve they’ve had to win three series. We’ve had to win three series. So they’re coming in extremely confident. We’re coming in confident. So um should be really fun. But yeah, that that drives their their thing, I think, just like their pace and you know, you kind of saw it just wear down the Knicks a little bit. Um, so that’s something that we’ll look at and um yeah, we’ll just go from there. And then as a team that uh, you know, they wear people down with their running up and down, but you guys do the same and you guys have a bunch of, you know, perimeter defenders, wing defenders that really, uh, embrace playing defense. How do you feel about that particular challenge, that aspect of it, uh, really being tested in that regard? Yeah, it should be fun. Um, all tests are fun. Um, and we get to do it on the biggest stage any of us have ever played on. So, it’ll be it’ll be a very fun challenge. Um, like I said, that’s a really good team. Obviously, they’re in the finals for a reason. Nobody just waltes into the finals. So, it’ll be our our ultimate test. Indiana is a team with a lot of depth, plays really well together, seems to enjoy playing together similar to you guys. just how much you think a matchup like this really shows, you know, the importance of that and how much of a a winning formula that is. Yeah, I was uh watching Miles Turner’s interview yesterday. Uh he made a really good point just um I think teams that get along well and actually have like a real chemistry is starting to show a little more. You know, you’re starting to get into the NBA just naturally getting younger. Um and I think we’re kind of like in that transition now. So, I think it’s cool that you have two like small market teams playing on this big stage. So, that’s really cool, too. But, um, yeah, I think you just made a good point like they they are pretty close to us in regards to like how close they are as a team. Obviously, I’m not in their locker room so I don’t know, but outside looking in like they look like they have a lot of fun playing with each other and um their crowd is really into it. Like their city loves them. So, that’s kind of like around the same thing as us. So, it’s cool that you’re kind of like playing yourself in a way in that in that kind of regard. Bit of a different question, but it was recently announced that you’re going to have a street named after you outside of your old high school. Just what does that mean to you? And just what did your time there at Perry mean to you? Means I’m old. High school is a long time ago. Um, yeah, it’s really cool. Uh, I definitely didn’t expect it. Uh, but yeah, I stayed at Perry all four years when I could have went prep or did something else. I had really good coaches, Coach Dwayne, um, Coach Fcher, Coach Hartwig. um that kind of made me into the player that I am today just as far as like understanding the game, how to approach the game, watching film, like they introduced me to a lot of that. So, I’m always thankful for that. And then I made my best friends are ones that I met, you know, 8th grade through through now. So, it’s really like a full circle moment to kind of have something that’s going to stay at school. Jaylen, after game five, Mark was out there at midcourt just talking about you guys as a group and that you embody everything that is, you know, right about being a team and being together and you were just talking about, you know, Miles uh comments as well. Yeah. I I know obviously you’re competing at the highest level, but are are you excited to, you know, demonstrate as a group that aspect, that side of of yourselves in terms of it being a a representation of like what the NBA is all about? Yeah, for sure. Um, just being in the NBA, obviously, you represent something more than just yourself, and you always try and, you know, put on your best shoes in regards to being in the NBA. And I think this is arguably two of the best teams that do that just as far as like our attitude, guys doing the right thing on and off the court. Um, so it’s, like I said, it’s really cool that both teams are kind of in this position. Uh, it’s a very deserving thing. So it, like I said, it’ll be really cool to to do that just cuz it’s like on the other end like you can tell that they they enjoy playing with each other, too. Joe, when you first got here, what were some of the things that stood out to you about the character of this team, about the way they wanted everyone to play? What were some of the things that stood out to you right away? Yeah, I don’t think it’s um I’m going like go backwards from your question. I don’t think it’s more that like we like want everybody to play. I think it’s just more like that’s the position that coach gets put in. Like we have a lot of guys that can play and from there I think that’s where the character part kicks in cuz then he allows us to to do that. You know, he gives everybody the opportunity to play. And I think when you know that your coach like you can play any game, any moment, whatever, it just keeps you ready and engaged throughout the season. Um, and then as far as character, when I first got here, uh, I told my parents like I didn’t expect to get along with the group as well as I did. It’s really just like a organic thing. So that’s probably more of like a a Sam Prey question in regards like doing background checks and like who he’s bringing into the the organization. But I mean, you guys see like everybody we bring in like fits in really well. Everybody we trade for. So, um, a little bit is probably luck and the other part is just like who we’ve brought in over the course of time, I think, and just allows everybody to be themselves. Oh, yeah. Dub, over the span of just this season, you’ve gone from like promising young rising star to allstar to all defensive team, all NBA team. Was there a moment like this season or last where things just really clicked for you like like I’m better than 90% of the league? I wouldn’t say it like that, but uh I don’t really I don’t really look at it as like who I’m better than or like I’m just trying to get better than I was the day before. I know that sounds like corny, but like I think if you try and focus on like somebody in front of you, it’s really hard to like focus on what you’re trying to do. And I think I’ve done a really good job of just trying to get better every time you do practice, trying to get better understanding like the little parts of the NBA, uh like rest and recovery, how I eat, how I go into like working out. Like I try and like master all those things off the court and then that allows me to just do what I do on the court. So, I think I’ve just gotten better and better at that and like managing outside noise and things that go on throughout my life. And then it allows me to just kind of play more free. Uh, playing free, too, is I’m in a good spot to where I’m allowed to grow and like kind of grow through the growing pains of being young and being in the NBA. Uh, so that that goes down to like coaches and like who I’m playing with. And I think when you just factor all that in, it’s kind of like the result you get. And then I think a lot of casual basketball fans um don’t appreciate being like a well-rounded player. I feel like if they don’t see like, you know, 25 plus points every night or 20 plus points every night, they’re like, “What’s JDub doing?” You know, but at the end of the day, you’re still impacting the game, you know, defensively or um you know, teammates involved. Can you just talk about the importance of being like an all-around player in this league? Just don’t know how many there are. Um, and that’s not like a slight, it’s just when I got into the NBA, that was like how I was trying to like find my niche, like figure out how I can stand out and it’s just be good at everything. Obviously, that comes with a lot of casual people that don’t watch the sport, which isn’t their fault. Like, it’s not it doesn’t really bother me, but yeah, I just try and like go out and win the game. You know, you look at some of like the best players ever, like some of their worst shooting games have also been like their best rebounding games or their best like defensive performances. So, there’s just so many things you can do to impact winning. And if you truly care about winning, you can sacrifice like maybe not scoring or sacrifice a part of your game in order to win the game. Jaylen, growing up, what do you remember about the finals and what does it mean to you to kind of be on this stage now? Uh, it’s crazy. I remember being at uh Guadalupe uh this like boys and girls club and we would like always have practice and like the way our AU practice would fall would always be on like the finals. So I just remember like rushing out of practice and like we would all get on like the group sofa and like watch it was usually like the Lakers and Celtics growing up, but we would always watch like whatever finals game was going on. So I I remember a lot of those very distinctly. So, just my time playing on my uh my first club team, I always remember like just being at the Boys and Girls Club till like 12:00 waiting for the games to finish. D, you you were the first to tell that story about Alex bringing in his 2020 ring to the locker room and showing everybody what what like thinking back to that, what what still sticks with you from that day and and what did you sort of think of the experience when it when it happened? It was a big ring, so that was motivation. Um, I think just the message. He he had a arguably one of the tougher rings, the the bubble ring. Um, just what goes into a season. I think when you look at that one for them to win and have all the ups and downs of that season and still kind of stay focused. I think that’s been our biggest thing being able to like block out noise and you know obviously there’s a lot of stuff about us being young and I guess too happy or whatever the case may be for like us not being ready to like be on the be the next level. But I think the biggest thing with him getting the ring was just like how to stay focused through whatever we’re doing and and just grow as a team. And um that’s what really stuck out to me when he brought the ring in. I know you jokingly said like the whole two happy thing, but Miles Turner sort of joked about that last night saying that the power of friendship that sort of besides the jokes feels like a real part of these two runs. Just what is the the collective friendship and bond for this team meant to how far you guys have come. It just allows us when everybody’s allowed to be themselves. I think you get the best growth from a team and it allows everybody to grow in their own space. I’ve said this since I’ve been here, just when you’re kind of the same age or in the same part of your career as everybody, it’s it’s very easy to empathize with like your teammates when they’re going through something cuz you’ve either been through it or or may start going through it. So, it allows everybody to like help each other and then through that we’re just able to grow through these experiences, get better day in and day out. We’ve all had the same approach and I think that’s why we’re we’re as good as we are and I think the Pacers probably have something to do with that as well. You know, obviously them being younger and you you see they have fun playing with each other, too. So, it might be a little bit of a theme. Dub, um, you getting better and better at the middle shot. Um, how much do are you learning from, uh, Shay? Um, I try and take bits and pieces that he’s very good at and incorporate it to how I would like to play, but I think what I’ve learned is if you try and do what he’s doing, it it’s a lot more difficult than it looks. So, you try and just incorporate some of like the basic fundamental stuff that he does and then you try and make it your own game. Um, you know, I want to end up being somebody that be like, “Oh, I play like JDub and not like who I’m like constantly trying to like play like, you know what I mean?” Go ahead. Yeah. These will be the last two. Okay. Uh, so Tyrese Hallebertton obviously is star player, head of the Snake. What stands out to you when you watch him and what concerns you most uh as you have to deal with him in this series? Um, I don’t know if concerns is like a not like a slight like he’s a hell of a player allstar for a reason. I think just what makes I’m just going to say like what makes him very good is that he’s very confident. So to be able to play as well as he’s been playing through like a lot of the overrated stuff and for him to be able to like play through that, you know, you kind of got to tip your hat to him for that. know just an extremely confident individual and I think that regardless of who you are makes you dangerous. Byron, last question. All season you guys have talked about just what’s in front of you the next game. Is that tougher now when you know you’re four wins away from a NBA championship? Yeah, for sure. I think we have the the right approach to it though. Um, we always talk about like human nature in our locker room. And like that’s kind of like the human nature way of thinking about it is like four wins away, four wins away. And you know, you kind of lose sight of the fact that you got to win one to get to four. And you know, you kind of got to stack wins. So that’s how we’re looking at it. Um, so I think the best way that we’ve done so far is just let’s get prepared for game one now and just and go from there. And I think that does make it a little easier now that we know who we’re playing. All right. Thanks, Dub. Thanks, T. Case, you guys have had a a layoff before before a series. Just what has this one been like given the fact that you’ve played already 16 playoff games up to this point? Has it been nice to get a little bit of rest and recovery here? Uh, definitely. You know, it’s always good to, you know, relax, take a step back. Um, and it’s always fun getting back to the grind. And now you know your opponent and the Pacers. Just I I know it feels like a long time ago when you guys played them, but what kind of stands out when you think about a team like them? um they all could, you know, score the ball. They all can guard. So, you know, they’re a good all-around team. You know, they’ve won the same amount of games that we have, so we can’t take them for granted. Jason, what what uh sticks out to to this day about the the time Caruso brought his championship ring to the locker room and and maybe the words he said, the message that came with that. um pretty much we can go do it too. I feel like that was the point of him bringing it, you know, to show him like what we could we could have, you know, achieved. And Dub kind of references, I don’t know if you saw Miles Turner speak last night, but he was just sort of talking about the strengths of each team and jokingly said like both teams run on the power of friendship. Like on a serious note, like from from the environment that’s been built here and the sort of camaraderie you guys have, like what has that done for this run and and and the growth of the team? Uh it keeps us together. It keeps us all humble. Um it keeps the spark alive. you know, we come to work essentially every day, but you know, coming here and seeing the guys and, you know, being able to have fun with them, it it doesn’t give it like a work environment type feel. Is this the closest you’ve been with with guys on any team you’ve been part of? Um, I’d say, yeah, I mean, every team that I’ve been on, you know, I’ve been close with the guys, but yeah, this is this is like they’re going to be my brothers forever. case, usually young teams like yourself have to fail numerous times before getting to this point. It’s almost like you all skipped a step. Like what about this team is special to sort of overcome kind of youth and inexperience? Um I don’t think we skipped any steps personally. I feel like we we deal with adversity just like everybody else has. You know, what it looks like is different for every team, but we’ve gone through our struggles and, you know, I feel like we’ve stuck together and that’s why we’re here today. What What did that adversity look like for you guys? Check going down, not having any bigs at one point. Um, players having to change their roles, um, losing by a lot in the playoff going to game seven. Um it’s a number of things that we’ve had to come or overcome. Hey, I just want to ask about kind of the collective intelligence within your group to be able to play so many different styles successfully. I mean, I think about um times where you guys, you know, play really up and down and then you can also kind of grind it out half court wise, too. you know, between Memphis and Denver and Minnesota, like some drastically different opponents. How have you guys mentally been able to jump from each of those challenges and come out successful against all three? Uh, just go compete. Go compete at a high level. Um, go do what we’ve been doing all year. Stay together. Um, and the pieces will fall in place. Case, when you first got here a couple of years ago, what were some of the things that struck you right away about the culture of this team, about what they expected from everybody on it? Uh, be the best version of you. Don’t try to overplay your role or or shy away and, you know, take a backseat to somebody. You got to earn everything you get. You’ve you guys like to run. They like to run. Not that all some teams are half court. Everybody would take break opportunities, but they they push the pace like you. You like that you don’t have to coax them. You don’t have to make them get out on the break. That’s something that’s you guys like. Um I don’t think we have a preference. You know, we’re going to come to every game and play as hard as we can. Whether half court team, you know, fast-paced team, we’re going to come out and play to our standard. And also, um I asked Dub about this. You guys have had this deal mantra. It’s just the next game. Win or lose next game. Is that tougher considering you’re four wins away from the NBA championship? Tough to keep that same mindset. Uh for me, no. I mean, we all got a mindset of zero and zero. We got to, you know, tip the ball every game um the same way. So, we just we just come out and play as hard as we can every game. Kase, I assume you’ll end up on Hallebertton various times throughout the series. What makes him so difficult to guard? Uh he can score at all three levels. You know, he’s a good player. Um he can’t relax, you know, just go out there and make life difficult for him as best as possible. Yeah, um do you believe like some of the criticism uh behind this team’s defensive identity um the physicality in which you guys play is a product of like I guess the league standards kind of changing in the way that you know teams play defense just it not being as physical of a game as it was back you know 10 15 20 years ago. Um, are you asking me about their defense or No, no, just like defense in general. The defense that you guys play being mischaracterized because that’s just not the way that, you know, the average team plays defense anymore. You guys do play like a physical brand of defense and that’s very uncommon in today’s league. I guess uh like you said, it’s uncommon. That’s what we’ve been preaching, you know, since I’ve got here. So, whatever makes us uncommon, that’s what we’re going to do. Anything else? Go ahead, Joel. Case, you you seem to push back on the idea that this team hasn’t faced adversity. I just wonder for you, what what’s this adversity sort of look like for you in your couple years here? Um, you know, growing up, you’re always a man. I speak about that coming into the league and having to be a role player, you know, finding your role, finding who you are in the league, injuries, you know, minutes. Um, yeah, teammates, you know, going through tough times, you know, we’re our brothers, so that affects all of us. For you to push back on the idea that, you know, this team hasn’t faced adversity, is that something you’ve sensed that people have like or almost sort of been shortsided in the adversity you guys have faced that they’ve almost like not seen your struggles the way you guys have. Uh yeah, I mean everybody well a lot of people thinks that they’re what they’re going through is you know tougher than what somebody else is going through. And just because struggles look different you know that don’t mean that you know the the next guy or next person isn’t going through the same thing or you know their own their own battles. you know, you’re playing now, so um tell us how your preparations went today and just going forward. Yeah. Uh first of all, congrats to Indiana um for making the finals. A lot of respect for their team uh how they’ve done it and the run that they’re on right now. So, uh obviously a tall task for us. Today we practiced, it was our first like full team practice in a couple days. A lot of that was just a focus on us, our fundamentals, uh the things that are going to be important, you know, every game independent of opponent. Uh we did some thematic things with Indiana today, but uh it’s a little too early, I think, to start getting like really deep into them. Um we’ll do that as we get closer to the game. Right now, we’re just trying to get ourselves, you know, back and get ourselves primed up. You all look back to the regular season matchups with them always as a data point, not as a uh as a signal, you know. So, um, we try to get all the information we can and all the opponents certainly having played against them, uh, is information. Uh, we were not whole in those games. Uh, and so, um, some of those are contextual. There’s always like scheduling context as well. Who I mean, I don’t know what the context was, but one of the teams could have been playing, you know, their seventh game in 11 days or something like that. So, um, we learn a little bit from it, but we don’t overreact to it. Mark, do you know Rick Harile well or just what have you thought of him from afar? I mean, I obviously have a lot of respect for him. Uh, he’s just got an unbelievable life in basketball. When you look at all the things he’s experienced, uh, in his playing career, uh, and then in his assistant coaching career and his head coaching career, um, yeah, he’s forgotten more about the game than most of us have seen. So, I have a lot of respect for him. Um, I know him. He’s the head he’s the president of the coach association. So, he’s got, I think, 29 really good relationships with the coaches and is in constant communication with us. Um, and so I’ve had many interactions with him over the years. He’s been very good to me as I’ve come up um, you know, here and couldn’t have more respect for him. And just personally for you, I know you probably don’t put a lot of time into this, but how much have you heard from maybe family and friends back home, you know, in Linster just for you to to be in this spot? Yeah, I’ve I’ve heard um from a lot of people one of the best things about this is obviously a great um opportunity for all of us. You know, everybody uh that gets to participate in the NBA finals. Um it’s something to be grateful for and one of the coolest cool things is that you get to share it with people that you care about and the people that care about you. And so, um that’s certainly the case for me and I’m sure I’m sure that’s the case for all the players, all the coaches that are involved in this. Mark, I’m not sure you saw this last night, but but Dub was referencing Miles Turner’s postgame press where he was mentioning, you know, the similarities between the two teams and and at the end of it, he sort of half jokingly said that both teams sort of run on the power of friendship. I just wonder like on a serious note what what that sort of means to you in the context of this team and what you think that’s done for for Jaylen’s growth specifically. I didn’t see the interview. Um, I think well the first thing I’d say is like no one’s like limping into the finals, you know, like you’re you’re earning your way to get to the finals. Uh, and so you’re going to get two teams that have um a lot of shared experiences in those playoffs together. Um, that builds team chemistry. Um, the confidence from certainly the wins you have and the the series wins. Uh, and also you got to battle up in some of these games. They’ve had to do that. We’ve had to do that. And so, uh, both teams are coming into the into the finals with the same like psychological profile right now where they’re highly connected, um, and more connected now than they were at the beginning of the playoffs. Uh, and then it becomes about who can play better in the games. But, um, we have a lot of respect for them from afar. Um, the program they’ve built, the the way that they play, the identity they’ve built on the court, the way their guys play together, the whole is better than the sum of the parts with their team. Uh, which I think is the sign of a good team. Um and so again, you know, nothing but respect for them. Gallow. Mark, obviously your team is incredibly competitive, but it been a similar vein to that. Your guys are going to have an opportunity on the biggest stage to show the kind of caliber of people that they are. what you described the other night after game five, the way that they compete, the way they talk to each other, the way they uh treat their opponent. How how excited are you for them to maybe be a representative of the NBA in that regard and the way that they comport themselves? Yeah, I think this finals is a great um representation with the two teams that are in it. You know, they’re teams that uh play, you know, good exciting styles of basketball. um players that have great individual stories, teams that have a great story collectively. Um you know, and we’re we’re proud to be a part of that. Mark, it’s been a long road to get to this point for you guys. When you talked to Sam in the beginning of all this about kind of what kind of players you want, what kind of style you want to play, what will succeed in the modern NBA, what were some of the things that you were looking for early on? Um I I honestly don’t look at it like this, like you’re saying. Um, I think coaching in the G- League helped me with this. It’s less, um, it’s not like here’s the style of player I like. Um, because I think the NBA system is so constraining with, um, you only have so many roster spots, you only have so much money. Um, there’s salary cap rules, there’s CBA rules. Um, the whole league is designed for parody, you know, the way the system is designed. And so team building is very constraining because the system is constraining in a in a in a intentional way and in a way that’s good for the league. Um and when you’re the coach and you’re like on top of all those constraints, here’s more constraints, you know, here’s more stuff that you have to work around is I don’t like this. I don’t believe in that. Um, you know, we obviously want to have the best team we can, but I think our job is to maximize um the team we do have and to figure out what the strengths of that team are, figure out the trade-offs of that team, and then to operate within that. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of players come through here. Sam and I talk all the time about, you know, the players that are here, the team that’s here, the roster, the draft. and he’s incredibly inclusive in that process and we’ve had, you know, hours and hours and hours of conversations about that. Um, so there’s input and there’s collaboration. Um, but I try not to bring a strong hand to that conversation. I try to bring a lot of open-mindedness u, and a lot of flexibility to that conversation because I think ultimately that’s how I can best contribute to us being successful. Um, and so that’s how I’ve tried to approach it. And when you look back at the the two 20-ish win seasons that you had, what did you take away from them that maybe helped you in this team get to where it is today? A ton. You know, I think starting with Shay and Lou and K Rich being there at that time and establishing that was kind of a blank canvas. You know, we had a brand new team, you know, at a weird time. There’s a new head coach, a lot of new staff members on the ground with the team. it was COVID, you know, so like the first year we didn’t even, you know, have fans in seats. Um and so it was it was a blank piece of paper and um those three guys have had their fingerprints on this and then um the you know establishment of the type of environment we were going to have with this particular team. The establishment of the system we’re going to play on both ends of the floor, the fundamentals, um refining that over time. Um building our our metal through the adversities of losing more games than we win by a large margin. Uh and then there were also like flickers of like we might have something here, you know, like even then, you know, like there was a competitive spirit that the team had where they were kind of um competing independent of the outcomes of the games, which I thought was uh very encouraging. And we were doing that on a pretty consistent basis. I think if you’re a hardcore Thunder fan and you were following those teams, um those teams on a lot of nights were punching above their weight and I thought showed some signs of feistiness and competitiveness that um have certainly like flowered as time’s gone on. So, coach, obviously you guys are are good at pushing the pace and creating turnovers and such to move the tempo in the direction that you guys want to do, but Indiana runs as well as anyone in the league. Um, what challenge does that present for your roster? The same challenge it presents for everybody that plays against them. You know, I think if you look at this playoff run, uh, you’ll see how challenging they are for their opponents. Um, they the way they defend contributes to their team identity. It’s not just offense. You know, their uh, defensive philosophy is very much aligned with their offensive philosophy. So it creates a certain air to the game uh when you play against them that is difficult to play against. You know, as you can see from um the way that they’ve performed and really run through the Eastern Conference to get here. So um they’re an incredibly challenging opponent that um stays in character in all circumstances. You know, they play the same way in January as they do in uh May. Um they play the same way up 20 as they do down 20. um they they’ve got unbelievable integrity to the way that they do things and uh that’s why they’re good, you know, so there’s gonna be a challenging uh opponent. And then just a just a quick followup, specifically Tyrese Hallebertton’s imprint on that. If you could just uh speak to that a little bit. Yeah, he’s a great player. You know, he stirs the drink. Um he’s he’s got an unbelievable ability to uh score, you know, which I think creates a lot of the passing. You know, you think back to guys like Nash was like that. You know, like the passing is what you think about, but the threat of scoring is what creates the advantages and opens up the passing. And Hallebertton can really score. He can shoot threes. He can score in the pick and roll game. Uh he’s a constant threat. And then the minute um you commit yourself to him, he leverages that threat to throw the ball early to his teammates and put guys in advantages. So, um, obviously a great competitor, uh, great player, and someone that enhances the guys he plays with, and, you know, we obviously have a ton of respect for him. Oh, go ahead, Chris. Yeah, Mark. Um, after the last time you guys played them, when they were here, Rick said something kind of paraphrasing about how if if you want to model your team to be a playoff team, watch them. Watch you guys. I don’t know if you remember those comments and specifically about how they’ve kind of played since then. Have they reminded them? Have they similar to what you guys have doing been doing with your style of play mentality, how you’ve approached the game? Um, I don’t know. You know, like I think one of the things, you know, you get the opponent uh last night, like I haven’t watched all of Indiana’s games this season. you know, we we have eyes on um Indiana throughout the playoffs and we’ll now start to, you know, dig back into the regular season in certain games uh to do the leg work on it, but um I haven’t tracked them game to game. Um most of the stuff I know of them is from a distance and from, you know, being briefed, you know, heading into uh the finals once we qualify. But my focus, um my first focus is always the Thunder. Um, and then my next focus is always the team we’re playing. So, the I I’ve spent most of my time on Minnesota recently. And then once we won that series, I’ve turned the page a little bit. But, um, other than to say I have great respect for their identity and everything I’ve already said, um, I’m not like intimately aware of every single, you know, experience they’ve had this season. We got to go Joel. Mark Do was saying at the end of that Minnesota series that he felt the Denver series, game seven maybe more specifically, was the the hump that the team sort of had to get over. But but for your staff, um what do you feel like you sort of learned through this playoff run? And are there humps that you guys feel like you’ve gotten over as a staff? Um I don’t know about humps, but I mean every series presents um a lot of challenges. you know, you’re playing the same team over and over again. Each team is trying to evolve uh with the series and you end up seeing a lot of different things and and being posed with a lot of different um challenges. And so we’ve had that in every series to different degrees um tactically we’ve really I mean the Denver series was um you had to be incredibly um flexible in terms of the defenses they were playing um and the way they were attacking on offense. they were trying to free up their main guys in a lot of different ways, especially um in the games where we were able to get, you know, a grip on them. Um they evolved very quickly and forced us to do the same. Um in Minnesota, similarly, you know, with lineups specifically, uh the way they defended us and the way they tried to freed up free up their guys. So, you’re just in a constant, uh state of trying to evolve and stay a step ahead of the series to the degree that you can, knowing that the opponent’s trying to do the same thing. and sometimes they get the best of you just like um anything else. But um that’s the best way I can answer it from a coaching standpoint. But I think the the most value is what Dub’s referring to, which is, you know, we’ve now been dealt a lot of different hands just in these playoffs as a team. You know, we’ve um played a lot of different types of games. We’ve been up, we’ve been down, we’ve played a lot of different types of styles. We’ve seen a lot of different things. Um we’ve been up in series and we’ve had to close that way. we’ve been down in series and had to scrape back into it. So, I just think we’ve had um a nice range of experiences to this point that um we can utilize as we move forward here. Great. Thank you, Co. Yep. Thank you.

Hear from Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault as they speak with the media following today’s practice in Oklahoma City.

0:00 Jalen Williams
14:10 Cason Wallace
22:06 Coach Mark Daigneault

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