BOSTON — The Oklahoma City Thunder traveled up north on Monday night for a date with the Boston Celtics. Touted as a potential NBA Finals preview, the matchup also features two of the most strategically-sound head coaches in the NBA in Joe Mazzulla and Mark Daigneault.
Both from New England, Mazzulla (36) and Daigneault (40) are two of the youngest head coaches in the league, but they’re also two of the smartest. And in the Thunder’s recent game against the Denver Nuggets, Daigneault showed off his brain with a bit of exploitation—an incident the refs and Nikola Jokic were not too thrilled about.
But, from Daineault’s mouth to the refs’ ears, “It’s not against the rules.”
Joe Mazzulla appreciated Mark Daigneault's 'permanent sub' strategy vs. Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic loves to inbound the basketball very quickly. He urges the refs to give him the ball so he can kick the ball up the floor before opposing defenses are set, earning mismatches for the Nuggets.
To combat this, Daigneault put rookie Dillon Jones at the scorer’s table. So, whenever the ball went through the basket, the refs would stop play to allow Jones to enter the game. But each time, Daigneault declined the sub, leaving Jones standing at half-court, waiting to check-in.
This prevented Jokic from inbounding the ball quickly, but the refs handed Daigneault a delay of game waning for his antics. Still, it was an intriguing exploitation that helped his team.
For Mazzulla, a guy who constantly preaches the importance of “mental edges” and other such advantages, it was appreciated.
“From time to time,” Mazzulla said when asked if he looks for similar ways to gain advantages.
“That was smart. That was good,” he said of Daigneault’s permanent sub idea.
In a game where the slimmest of margins can help determine the game, small antics such as Daigneault’s sub concept are the exact type of thing that coaches like Mazzulla and himself like to utilize.
Even when the game extends beyond the 10 players on the court, there are still advantages to be had, and Daigneault found one.
Daigneault commented about the strategy post-game, and prior to OKC’s game in Boston, he added that he simply wants the rules to be applied fairly across the board.
““I commented on after the game. It's over now, [but] at the end of the day, we just want a fair shake, in terms of the application of rules,” he said. “And if we're not getting a fair shake, I think it's part of my job for our team to make sure we get one.”
Obviously, Daigneault was eventually forced to surrender his idea, despite there being no literal rule against it, and Jones retired to the bench after a sting of a few minutes in the first quarter where he loitered by the scorer’s table.
Still, seeing Daigneault’s willingness to go the extra mile and Mazzulla’s appreciation for the idea are enough to display their knowledge of the game (and desire to bend the rules wherever possible).