Mark Daigneault, Thunder 'Looking at Everything' as Preseason Approaches

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to mix and match lineups ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season as training camp comes to a close and preseason begins, Mark Daigneault explains the benefits of that method.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault is pictured during the Thunder media day at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As the Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of training camp, bench boss Mark Daigneault is being peppered with questions about lineups, rotations, groupings and starters. The Thunder head coach en sured the local media on Sunday that the team is taking a look at every scenario and shuffling around the lineups even on the practice court.

"We have really shuffled a lot [of Lineups] around, we are not limiting ourselves," Mark Daigneault said at training camp Sunday, "We have versatile players, that can play inside of a versatile system. One of the benefits of that is you can play a lot of different people and have overlapping skills and those skills can be additive."

Part of taking a look at multiple lineups is about making sure the team is prepared to go up against anything as much as it is to get a look at potential groupings in game.

"We are trying to look at a lot of different things right now," Daigneault said, "A lot of that is stress testing your system too...Making sure that no matter what lineup's on the court, we have a system that can bear the weight of that."

On Monday, the OKC Thunder will begin their preseason slate without superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and defensive ace Lu Dort. The lineups will look different, but the team will be prepared.

Mark Daigneault says Alex Caruso and Lu Dort have played together “quite a bit,” including today. “We’ve definitely taken a look at that.

Says Dort, Caruso and Cason Wallace have been in a lineup together.

“We’ve looked at everything.” pic.twitter.com/f0iEFN3R8W

— Joel Lorenzi (@jxlorenzi) October 6, 2024

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