Mark Daigneault, the fourth head coach in the Thunder franchise history, brought OKC its first NBA championship.
The Thunder have only had four head coaches throughout their history in the Association, which spans from 2009 to 2025.
We’ve compiled a list of Oklahoma City’s bench bosses across those 16 seasons, so let’s take a deeper look into their tenures in Loud City.
Scott Brooks – 545 games (2009-2015)
Brooks spent a little more than five years as an assistant with Denver, Sacramento, Seattle and Oklahoma City before he was appointed head coach of the Thunder in November 2008. That season represented the only losing record over the course of Brooks’ seven years in OKC (22-47), as his teams won 50-plus games on four occasions and at least 45 games in each of his six full campaigns there. He won Coach of the Year in 2010 by more than doubling their victories from the prior year, going 50-32 with a young core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
In the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, OKC finished 47-19 on their way to the franchise’s first-ever Western Conference championship and NBA Finals berth, where they would eventually fall to the Miami Heat. Brooks helped mold the Thunder’s homegrown players into superstars that took the league by storm in the early 2010s, guiding the organization to a 338-207 win-loss record during his seven-year tenure there.
Mark Daigneault – 400 games (2021-2025)
Fresh off winning the 2024-25 NBA Championship, Mark Daigneault has cemented himself as one of the best young coaches in the league at just 39 years of age. He spent some time in the G League until working as an assistant under then-head coach Billy Donovan with OKC in 2019, but, one year later, Daigneault was hired as the fourth head coach in the Thunder era.
In his first two years at the helm, Oklahoma City won a total of only 46 games, going 22-50 in 2021 while finishing 14th in the West. However, over his next three seasons, the Thunder improved on their win totals, going from 40 in 2023 to 57 in 2024, and a franchise-best 68 in 2025. Daigneault’s success earned him Coach of the Year and NBCA Coach of the Year awards in 2024, and his internal growth, player development, and ability to get each of his guys to buy in to what’s best for the team was pivotal to OKC capturing their first NBA title this past season.
Billy Donovan – 400 games (2016-2020)
A Hall of Fame inductee in 2025, Billy Donovan accrued a 243-157 record during his five seasons in Oklahoma City. His debut campaign in the NBA in 2015-16 saw the Thunder go 55-27, their best finish with Donovan calling the shots, and come within one win of making a Finals berth. OKC made the postseason and won between 44 and 49 contests in each of his next four years in Bricktown, but they were unable to advance past the first round despite the regular season success. In his final year, Donovan won the NBCA Coach of the Year award in 2020 after navigating the Thunder to a 44-28 mark in the Covid-shortened season.
P.J. Carlesimo – 13 games (2009)
Carlesimo was the first-ever head coach of the Thunder back in 2009, but he only made it through the first 13 games in the OKC era before he was let go in favor of Scott Brooks. P.J. managed just one win against 12 losses during his short time there.
