Thunder Make SMART Move... - Daigneault SPEAKS OUT on Rookie | Thunder News

These Thunder players are receiving some high praise from Coach Mark Dagnall and everyone else going around right now at these latest medium scrums. Dylan Jones, Kendrick Williams were sitting down to the G League not too long ago. Dylan Jones was called right back up, and it was kind of concerning because at first when we saw this happen, it was seen as a sign like, okay, maybe Jay will, maybe Kenny Hustle, they're about to return. Maybe that's what's going on. Then it came out, the real reason why this is going on, and it was just for practices. That's it. However, Kenny Hustle being sent down to the G League, this is big news as it shows he is ramping up and he's almost ready to go back to action for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They aren't the only ones receiving praise right now. Some other guys receiving praise, AJ Mitchell and Ousmane Dieng, they've been guys that have been playing very well for the Oklahoma City Thunder to start the season, and we're going to break down everything that's kind of been said in these past few media scrums by Coach Mark Dagnall on these players, what they've had to say about themselves as well, just kind of break it all down. as I do think it is important as we're getting ready to enter a pretty hefty home stretch here in a week or so, I believe, where we might have like five home games in a row. So it's definitely going to be interesting to keep our eyes out. Can you all be looking out for paying attention to that home stretch as we're going to need everyone hands on deck. All right, we're going to have a lot of games coming up in the month of November. But before we get all this, though, before we get into the topic of video at hand today here, I just want to take a quick moment to recognize that 66% of you guys coming back and watching these videos are not subscribed to the channel if you find yourself coming back on regular basis you enjoy what we're putting out here at thunder digest and you want to support the channel best way to do so is to hit that subscribe button uh and then also if you want to stay up to date hit that bell notification as well uh with that out of the way we can go ahead and get into the video and topic at hand here today talking about everything that's been said at these past few media scrums and kind of some updates with the team it's been quiet these past few days we've we've gone three days now without thunder basketball nothing really going on at all so this is the most we have all right just what he has to say on these young players no one in the media has really been talking about the Thunder all that much because like I mentioned once the season gets going you're going to react to a bunch of games all right you're going to react to a bunch of performances you know whether that's an overreaction underreaction you know properly you know well-observed reaction that's what's going to be going on but these media scrums they can prove useful all right they can help out us as fans all right I don't want to use that word fans too lightly you guys are more like a family I've always said that but truly as a community it can help us out a ton kind of understand what is going on with the team the first thing that I did notice all right going here um per Thunder PR the Oklahoma City Thunder has assigned guard slash forward Kendrick Williams to the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G League what this simply means is Kenny Hustle is ready to get going and start practicing and ramping up a little bit that's purely what it means the Blue are about to go through their kind of little training camp period all right that's what uh they're going through and so him getting sent down to the G League yes all right he might get called back up very soon we don't know but him being down there it's purely just for reps seeing how he feels gonna feel for it rehabbing just seeing if he's good to go for us as soon as we get this home stretch going on and it'd be nice to get him back it truly would all right it'd be nice to get Kenny Hustle back i'm not gonna lie about it all right he is a veteran presence who is a good three-point shooter he's not the biggest guy so size wise it wouldn't really help that much but just having him there making us a little bit deeper it would help out a ton all right just purely having him back uh coming off his surgery it'll be interesting to see how he is but this is good news all right this is a good sign showing that he is progressing and ramping up and uh practicing with uh the blue a little bit and he's also at thunder practices as well he's just getting in extra reps to see if he's gonna be fine to go the next thing that i saw was over Dylan Jones when he was sent down to the G League, but Mark Degnalt had to say this per Joel Lurinzi when he was there. Mark Degnalt said the team sent Dylan Jones down to the G just for today because the Thunder's practice wasn't overly punchy. Three games in four days. Says the Blue had a high-intensity practice, and Jones would get more out of that. Note that he hasn't played a lot, and that they haven't had a lot of development time because of travel. So, Dylan Jones getting sent down to the Blue, sent down to the G League, is purely so he can develop he's a young prospect he's a rookie hasn't gotten a lot of time at the nba level yet and so they want to just get him reps get him as much time as possible and that's what is happening uh sending him down to the blue sending him down to the g league just being like hey we recognize we haven't had a lot of time to development you know develop you haven't got you on the court a whole lot all right so what we're going to do we're going to send you down to the G League for practice today might happen more often when we have these little long stretches of breaks uh we have one later in November i believe uh that we could see be happening with Dylan Jones as well send him down to the G League just for a little bit so he can practice maybe play a game or two then call him right back up all right along with that AJ Mitchell might get sent down soon we don't know he's on a two-way contract so we really don't know how many games he'll be with us uh for the rest of the season out before he gets put back uh put down in the G League it'll be interesting interesting to see when Jalen and Isaiah Hartenstein come back Is he going to be sent down to the G League again? Is that when we utilize that two-way contract? It's going to be interesting to see. He's also the next guy that we kind of, you know, talk about here, A.J. Mitchell, Mark Daignault and A.J. Mitchell. We like what we're seeing from him so far. He's also gotten better very quickly. Usually when people show that type of quick improvement, it shows they have a trajectory is worth exploring. It just goes to show Mark Daignault sees the potential in him, all right? He is, what, 6'5", I believe. He's a guard. 6'5 guard um good size to him and when I watch him play he reminds me a lot of Aaron Wiggins he truly does kind of same kind of play style when I see it he can do everything well doesn't necessarily stand out at one thing but he does everything well he does everything at an average or above average rate which makes him a good player and he has that potential if he can develop one or two things into being deadly kind of like what Aaron Wiggins did last season where he developed his three-point shot into being one of the best on the team when you look at the percentages if AJ Mitchell couldn't find that one thing to improve on which I truly believe he can with the Thunder organization because we do a very good job of developing young guys I feel like he could be a key part of this team for years and he quickly gets off a two-way contract I could see that happening for the guy just he he truly does have a lot of potential all right jack of all trades as i see him he was our um he could go down as a steal in the NBA draft a lot of people said that he should have been a first round pick the way that we got him in the second round realistically with the way it's all looking right now he probably should have went like 20 or 22 all right somewhere in that range looking at every other draft pick it could end up being a steal could also say the same for Dylan Jones we just haven't seen much of him so far but AJ Mitchell Mark Dagnall recognizes that he has potential he wants to get him all these development minutes get him out there as much as possible so they can see what he is capable of and that's what he's doing right now the last guy of significance that we're going to be talking about is Uzman Jeng all right and it's just a quick little quote from him that kind of shows how he has improved as a player and you know kind of as a person as well in this league Uzman Jeng on his confidence level i'm feeling good we're winning games i feel good i hope we'll keep playing like that so it just goes to show he's confident and he's confident in himself all right he's feeling fine he recognized when the team's winning he's okay he's not worried about his individual performances he's like the team's winning so i'm feeling great all right my confidence is all-time high we're three you know we're one of the last undefeated teams in the NBA why would i be upset about any of my performances and he shouldn't be upset about any of his performances he's been playing very well to start the season sure the stats aren't jumping off the page but his presence and what he's bringing to the court the fact he has a plus he's always in the plus and positives and the plus minus at the final box score final tally take that from him he's developing really well all right this year he could have a breakout year if he keeps playing like this but the key thing is he's got to keep playing like that can he do that is he going to fall off we don't know that's kind of the takeaways that we have so far before this next game here i know it's been kind of quiet uh since we are in like a three game break you know three game stint with no thunder basketball at all nothing really being talked about in the media so that's really the extent of what we've got let me know what you guys's personal thoughts are on these quotes and everything that we got some guys have been surprising you so far to start the season some guys are like and they need to pick it up let me know what you guys think in the comment section below i'll see you guys in the next video