Bhavnani relishes head coaching shot
THUNDER JOURNAL
LAS VEGAS — Vin Bhavnani has had a good run in pro basketball. He’s been a video coordinator, a scout, an assistant coach.
But in 15 years, he’d never called a timeout. Not really.
The Thunder assistant had coached teams in camps, but Saturday’s Summer League game — a 90-76 win against the Brooklyn Nets — was his first as a head coach in a competitive game.
“I did a little bit in scrimmages and practice situations,” Bhavnani said. “I did a Euro camp in Treviso, the NBA Global Camp, so I got a little bit of a taste there. But nothing like this, on this organized of a stage.”
Mark Daigneault, the head coach of the Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate is the head coach here, but turned over those duties to Bhavnani on Saturday.
That was something new for Bhavnani, a Los Angeles native who before working in the NBA spent a season as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball program at Santa Monica Junior College.
Bhavnani, who started as a video coordinator with the Thunder after working in the video departments with the Clippers and Spurs, spent five years as the team’s manager of advanced scouting and player development. For the past two seasons, he’s been an assistant coach to Billy Donovan, who watched Saturday’s game from the bleachers at Cox Pavilion.
“It’s just good kind of trying to be a mad scientist out there but at the same time just watch the action. I enjoyed it, and the staff was great,” Bhavnani said. “We divvied up responsibilities so I didn’t have think way too much.”
The game was a fairly smooth ride, with the Thunder leading by as many as 30 points. But there were some bumps in the road.
“(Trainer) Michael Ashton’s foot was right behind me, so I just kept tripping on him,” Bhavnani said. “And I didn’t have a seat because we wanted to bring more people up front (on the bench), so I was just standing there.”
Ferguson struggles
Nobody on the summer Thunder is expected to make more impact in Oklahoma City this winter than Terrance Ferguson.
The 6-foot-7 guard is a candidate for an expanded role in his second season after playing in 61 games with 12 starts as a rookie. Ferguson averaged 3.1 points in 12.5 minutes per game, and Summer League is supposed to be a laboratory of sorts for him, a chance to experiment with his game and expand his comfort zone.
He’s gotten off to a rough start in that regard.
Through two games, Ferguson is averaging 4.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He’s 3 for 17 from the floor (17.6 percent) and 0 for 9 from 3-point range. He hasn't always looked comfortable in the offense, but Bhavnani suggested Ferguson hasn't been as bad as his numbers.
“I’m impressed with what Ferg is doing,” Bhavnani said. “He’s playing defense really, really hard. The shots aren’t dropping right now, but he’s doing everything that we ask. He’s getting (into the) middle and he’s following the discipline of offense.”
Young leaves Hawks game
Rookie Trae Young missed the second half of Atlanta’s loss to Portland on Sunday with what the team called a right hip contusion. The former OU star injured his quad in Saturday’s loss to the New York Knicks.
“I tried to play out today,” Young told reporters afterward, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Early on, I started feeling it whenever I was running. They wanted to hold me out the rest of the game as a precaution.”
Young played 10 minutes before exiting and was ruled out for the second half. He didn’t score and missed his only two shots, both from 3-point range. Young finished with three assists.