OKC Thunder: What we've learned from first week of training camp

With his team coming off an NBA title, Mark Daigneault is careful in setting the right tone during training camp.

He thinks this Thunder team can improve from last season’s 68-win championship squad — and there’s no reason to think otherwise — but Daigneault doesn’t want that belief to come across as arrogance.

“Improvement is necessary in our situation because everyone else is getting better,” Daigneault said after practice Thursday. “If you don’t pace ahead of that you fall behind very quickly. I want to be clear that improvement is a necessity for us. We don’t look at that like a luxury. It’s something we have to do if we want to be good.”