Day after day, week after week and month after month this offseason, Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan and his staff were camped out inside the INTEGRIS Thunder Development Center.

Spending hours poring over film, meeting with team staff and analysts and getting to work on the floor has helped the new Thunder general get a sense of what each of his players does best and where they can improve. As U.S. Cellular Thunder Training Camp began on Tuesday, Donovan saw the dividends of all of that summer work being paid.

“I have a very good understanding of their games, their strengths and what they do well,” Donovan said. “I’m trying to put them in a position to be successful and take advantage of the strengths they have. I felt that way before camp started.”

“Trying to come up with a system, I think you have to look at a lot of the numbers, lineups and film and those things to make those kind of assessments,” Donovan continued. “We spent a lot of time in the summer as a staff evaluating all of those things. It has to match up also philosophically in terms of how we as a staff and myself see the game.”

Aside from their own preparation, one of the main reasons the Thunder staff was able to hit the ground running from the get-go was the reception they got from the players. Team leaders Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Nick Collison and Serge Ibaka all helped set the tone from Day One, and even before that when they met with Donovan and worked out with teammates this summer.

Being willing to receive instruction, bringing a high level of energy to practice and providing guidance to younger players were all ways in which the Thunder veterans made Day One a success.

“I think guys came in with an open mind, listened and were eager to learn,” Collison said. “It was a good first practice.”

“Stuff was new for us with a different system and different coaches, but we have a veteran group of guys who are smart with the game and know how to catch things on the fly,” Durant echoed.

Some of the early topics during the Thunder’s two-a-day session on Tuesday included half-court defense, transition defense, guarding the ball and general offensive concepts. Just like he has every year in his two decades of coaching, Donovan found a balance in his coaching- providing information and direction to his team while still allowing the players to get into a rhythm.

The players are absorbing that information while getting into practice tempo, and Donovan and his staff will be sure to continue installing the game plan while the players develop chemistry with one another. Thanks to the work that both the coaches and players put forth this summer, that process started off on the right foot.