OKLAHOMA CITY - Some Oklahoma City Thunder fans believe tanking to get higher picks in this year's NBA draft is the way back to contention.
Apparently, the team disagrees.
Expected by experts to be one of the worst squads in the league this season - just like last season, when the Thunder defied the predictions and made the playoffs - Oklahoma City was off to a 6-7 start ahead of Friday night's home game against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Thunder were flirting with the .500 mark despite five of their top seven scorers having been in the league three or fewer seasons and 35-year-old Mark Daigneault taking on his first NBA head coaching assignment.
Last year, the Thunder had veterans Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari, Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder to help them through the tough times. This year, young holdovers Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Darius Bazley, Hamidou Diallo and Lu Dort have carried more of the load.
And they clearly are out to win, even with losses offering a potentially greater return on the slew of draft picks Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti has collected through trades in recent years. Presti has been the team's GM since mid-2007, a year before the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.
"We're not trying to build a resilient culture, we're trying to continue a resilient culture," Daigneault said. "Resilient culture has existed here for a long period of time, ever since the team came here."
AP photo by Eric Gay / Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, celebrates after scoring during a road win against the San Antonio Spurs on Jan. 2. Gilgeous-Alexander, a 22-year-old Canadian, prepped at Chattanooga's Hamilton Heights and played one college season at Kentucky before becoming an NBA draft lottery pick in 2018.The 22-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander, a Toronto native who prepped at Chattanooga's Hamilton Heights Christian Academy and played one season at Kentucky, is the budding star who leads the way. He has averaged 21.0 points, 6.2 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, and he made the winning shot in the season opener against the Charlotte Hornets.
"He's taking on a different level of responsibility," Daigneault said. "He's playing a different role on this team than he has so far in his career, and he's not shying away from that."
That approach was clear after he had four turnovers in Tuesday's loss to the Denver Nuggets.
"For me, personally, I got a little careless with the ball at times," said Gilgeous-Alexander, who was drafted No. 11 overall in 2018 by the Clippers before being traded after the season. "They are a really good, active defensive team. They are always in the gaps, playing with length to get deflections and stuff like that. I just think I have to clean that up a little bit."
Even with that rough outing, there have been plenty of reasons for hope. The Thunder already have wins over the star-studded Brooklyn Nets and the New Orleans Pelicans and are 5-2 on the road. Last week, they rallied from 22 down to beat former coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls in overtime.
The Thunder have some lopsided losses - including a 29-point home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the reigning NBA champions led by superstar LeBron James - but the core of rising talent appears ready to dig in and compete.
Even the youngest players already have taken on the Thunder mentality - the one Daigneault picked up in his days as an assistant last season under Donovan and as coach of the Thunder's G-League affiliate before that.
"When I look at our logo, that's kind of what I think about is that spirit," he said. "The relentless competitive spirit of the teams were really good teams here. We've got a lot of new players and a lot of young players, and that's the type of mentality that we try and nurture."