Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault walked a fine line this season between developing players on a young team and winning—the Thunder won 57 games and were the No. 1 seed in the West.
All that winning got Daigneault a win himself — he is the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year.
Daigneault won COY going away with 89 first-place votes from the panel of 99 select media members who had a ballot. Daigneault finished with 473 points, well ahead of second-place Jamahl Mosley of the Orlando Magic with 158. Chris Finch of the Timberwolves came in third.
The complete voting results for the 2023-24 NBA Coach of the Year. pic.twitter.com/QatGZpJjYj
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 28, 2024
Daigneault becomes the second Thunder coach to earn the honor, joining Scott Brooks (2009-10).
Daigneault was impressive this season in getting players in positions where they were confident and could succeed. It helps to have MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the roster, but he had to fit in star rookie Chet Holmgren and handle the fast-developing game of Jalen Williams. It was not an easy line to walk
For those wondering what Daigneault’s path to NBA head coach was, he started as a student manager with UConn then used that to get an assistant coaching job at Holy Cross. From there he jumped to the bench of Billy Donovan at Florida, then he followed Donovan to the Oklahoma City and the NBA in 2014. While there, Daigneault was the lead coach of the G-League’s Oklahoma City Blue for five seasons. He eventually returned to the Thunder as a bench coach and was promoted after Billy Donovan was let go in 2020. Daigneault has been the head coach of the Thunder for the last four seasons.
