There’s not a date for NBA teams to circle when early-season trends solidify into sustainable numbers. Sample sizes are small until suddenly they’re not.
So when do numbers start to paint an accurate picture of a team?
“A hard question to answer,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
That’s why Daigneault is on a call with the Thunder’s data science department the morning after every game.
“We’re evaluating all the numbers from our team and we’re asking, ‘Hey, should we be reacting to this yet? Is this something we should be concerned about?’ Those guys help us dig a little deeper on all these different issues,” Daigneault said after the five-game mark.