Inside OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault's quest to own NBA coach's challenge reviews

Mark Daigneault watched the play over and over through video replay. Official Pat Fraher and his crew remained glued to the same play. The two just weren’t looking for the same thing.

Perhaps no one was thinking what Daigneault was.

With 2:29 remaining and Oklahoma City up seven in its March 3 road win over the Suns, officials reviewed what they thought might’ve been a flagrant foul: Grayson Allen’s head colliding with a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander downhill drive. Fraher’s crew determined it was just an offensive foul. The Thunder's coach reached for the gavel.

The second the final syllable of Fraher’s ruling left his lips, Daigneault called timeout. The guns were out their holsters then, chess pieces internally skipping — Daigneault slipped into coach’s challenge mode. He questioned whether it was even a foul at all.

As he often has this year, Daigneault won, sinking Phoenix even further.

“He challenged that one on his own, nobody told him to challenge that one,” rookie Chet Holmgren said. “Nobody even knew that he could challenge after the replay.”

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Daigneault has established himself as part of the tier of coaches who’ve turned challenging plays into a skill rather than a tool. With how much human judgment still factors in, maybe it's impossible to master the art of challenges. Daigneault has gotten about as close as anyone.

He’s firm in his philosophy. Behind his discernment, an open dialogue with players and a desire to grip the game by the horns, he’s weaponized the challenge.

“I like going and getting plays,” Daigneault said. “I really do. I like being aggressive with it. You can’t take them with you. I don’t like leaving the game and not using it, and the guys know that.”

Underneath the perpetual quarter zip fleece and the squints that might be misinterpreted as confusion is a coach who’s calculated the game down to decimals. Underutilized assets, scenarios worked into percentages.

The NBA has known the coach’s challenge for five years, yet coaches are still trying to understand its limits. Daigneault has had more than enough time to familiarize himself with its advantages, though. Every year Daigneault was coach of the OKC Blue, the G League had been experimenting with the challenge. And ever since he’s joined the NBA ranks, it’s been available to him.

“The NBA is so competitive, you’re looking for every little edge,” Daigneault said. “And those are consequential plays. You can take points off the boards, they can swing momentum of a game. I also like doing it because it sends a message to the officials that we’re aggressive with it. I want officials going into the game knowing we’re a quick trigger with that.”

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Daigneault’s findings birthed a point system. One that measures each challenge based on circumstances in a game. Play type, the time left in a game, the reward. Daigneault isn’t a loose cannon. But he’ll scrap probability if the reward feels like gold. He was hoping for all the marbles that night in Phoenix, with Gilgeous-Alexander’s fifth foul in question and a couple of points in the air.

He adores points. He hates the feeling of ending a game without using a challenge. Could he have made Tony Brothers sweat (or shrug) more? Could he have kept Holmgren’s rim protecting leaps from being officiated a certain way?

It’s a feeling he rarely wants to live with. And so, usually, he doesn’t. Around the time Daigneault’s light bulb comes on, assistant Grant Gibbs and video coordinator DeVon Walker will have already examined the play and let Daigneault know whether he should commit.

If not, there’s the rare occasion where players will likely have already twirled their fingers or looked to the bench. That’s only rare in Oklahoma City.

“Usually in the NBA, the players are maniacs and the coaches have to tell them not to challenge,” Daigneault jokingly said. "I think we have the inverse. There’s a maturity. They’re like, ‘Hey, calm down there, killer.’”

Everyone — officials, players, staffers — understands the consequences when he signals to the table. He’s a madman crossing his fingers for the chance to reinforce the rulebook should officials stray away from it. His ears are also wide to every member of the bench. He let Holmgren know the stakes when he arrived.

Back during the Thunder’s preseason stint in Montreal, Holmgren emphatically called to challenge. Daigneault didn’t look at anything. Not the bench, not anyone else on the floor. He simply challenged the call. Holmgren knew then how much his own judgment meant, and how steep Daigneault’s trust was.

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As trigger-happy as he can be, Daigneault has found balance while leading a group that understands the weight of their roles.

“It be killing me because there be guys who will really argue calls and you'll look up at the monitor and it’ll be a super clear foul,” Holmgren said. "But if I stand up and I'm telling coach to challenge it, especially because challenges are so valuable, I really truly believe that it's not a foul or the play is going our way.

“The refs go and watch film. You b---h and complain to the refs, they’re gonna go back and watch the play you’re b------g and complaining about. If you’re wrong more than you’re right, they’re just not gonna believe you anymore.”

In the third quarter of OKC’s win in Phoenix, Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort looked over to find Dagneault considering whether he might burn a challenge. They pleaded against it. They preferred the jump ball over a low-reward challenge. Daigneault stood down.

Players are careful what they wish for around Daigneault, their calls for timeout as sacred as dragon balls. Daigneault is careful not to bury their wishes with ill-advised, vain attempts at embarrassing an officiating crew. Both sides are always listening, and the transparent dialogue between coach and player has bolstered Daigneault’s efficiency.

“It’s all about education,” Daigneault said. “I just try to make sure the players are educated on why we’re doing what we’re doing, even if it’s my decisions. You want them to be committed to whatever we’re doing. I always make sure they know why we’re making the decisions we are. I give them input when appropriate. If (Jalen Williams) comes up waving his finger and I don’t go get the play, I don’t want him to interpret that any other way than why I didn’t do it.”

Daigneault doesn’t want to complicate the idea. For him, it’s just another advantage. But perhaps unbeknownst to him, it’s almost a science. One that plenty others have not yet unraveled to this degree.

“He probably be bored at the crib,” Williams jokingly said of Daigneault’s devotion to detail. “He’s a basketball head. When you have coaches like that that love the game, and are constantly trying to figure out different ways to attack defenses and make us better as a team, the sky's the limit. He does his due diligence for basketball, which requires you to love it.”

There’s enough love to go around for every official in the league.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder: Mark Daigneault aims to own NBA coach's challenge reviews