April 1, 2026, 6:00 p.m. CT
Visiting the practice facility, Mike Budenholzer caught up with Sam Presti and others. Cross-armed on the bench, the one-time NBA champion shared war stories with his former colleague and shared his opinion on league-wide trends with Mark Daigneault.
During this latest homestand, Budenholzer spent time around the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s taken the year off after being fired by the Phoenix Suns following his sole season there in 2024-25. Of course, most know about the two-time Coach of the Year winner.
Budenholzer was the Atlanta Hawks’ head coach from 2013-18 and the Milwaukee Bucks’ from 2018-23. In the latter, he brought home the Larry O’Brien trophy alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2021. With that type of pedigree, he had a lot of intangibles to offer the reigning NBA champions.
“He and Sam worked together in San Antonio. There was a previous relationship there. Sam invited him in. I knew him from coaching against him and from limited interactions,” Daigneault said. “I had never spent a ton of time with him, but he’s incredibly astute.”
The Thunder have made a good habit of bringing along other head coaches for visits. Whether it’s the college ranks like OU’s Porter Moser and Kentucky’s Mark Pope or NBA legends like Tom Thibodeau. Daigneault said it’s good to have an outside-the-box voice now and then to avoid falling into echo chambers.
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“Really understands the league. Really is a smart person who applies that to basketball. I really enjoyed my time with him,” Daigneault said. “It was the longest I’ve ever been able to sit with him and hear his observations on the current NBA and listen to his experiences that he’s had and how he views our experiences as a result of those, and I got a lot out of it.”
Budenholzer has recently talked about how much he respects OKC’s draft and development programs. The Thunder have crafted an NBA champion and perennial title contender with just a sprinkle of high-end lottery picks. You can’t control where your pick falls, but you can control how you coach up young players.
The Thunder are a living and breathing example of that. Only Chet Holmgren is the sole top-five pick of their roster. The rest of it is filled with guys who have punched above their weight — with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the top of it with his improbable rise to NBA superstardom. Budenholzer can respect that.
“I appreciate him taking the time to come in. I appreciate him being as open and honest as he was, at least in his interactions with me,” Daigneault said. “I’ve got nothing but great respect for him.”