The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a blow to their coaching staff on Wednesday. The team announced that assistant coach Mo Cheeks underwent successful hip surgery. The timetable for his return is expected to be about six weeks, placing him back on the bench just as the playoffs are set to begin.
This may be a bigger blow for the Thunder than it would be for most teams. Under rookie head coach Billy Donovan, OKC can use all the experience possible on its bench. Cheeks, who was an assistant in OKC before a failed head coaching opportunity in Detroit, provides that experience. Cheeks has also coached in Philadelphia and Portland to varying levels of success, or lack thereof.
Nevertheless, the Thunder are a stable enough team to withstand this obstacle. The team should be able to continue winning at this pace and lock in the third seed in the West before getting their assistant coach back for the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the team has promoted the head coach of D-League affiliate Oklahoma City Blue, Mark Daigneault, to the Thunder bench for the rest of the season..
