The Oklahoma City Thunder have reached in agreement with former New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams to be their top assistant under fellow newly hired head coach Billy Donovan, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports.

As noted by Wojnarowski, Donovan who is transitioning from coaching in the collegiate level to the NBA, would benefit from having a five-year NBA coaching veteran by his side.

Williams won 45 games with the Pelicans this past season and led the franchise to their first playoff appearance since Chris Paul left. Under Williams' watch, New Orleans made steady improvements coming from 21 wins the season Paul left, to 27, 34, to 45 wins this season.

Despite many pundits pointing out Williams' lack of coaching genius, he was able to guide a young team mired in injuries to a playoff seed in the hypercompetitive Western Conference. They got swept by the Golden State Warriors in the first round, but fought through the final minutes in almost all of the games. Williams was also part of Mike Kryzyzewski's coaching staff with Team USA.

As noted by Yahoo Sports, Donovan will be keeping Oklahoma assistants mark Bryant and Darko Rajakovic on his staff, with former Alabama coach Anthony Grant likely to be added to the group soon as his No. 3 assistant coach. Wojnarowski notes that the Thunder are still searching for an assistant coach with a strong defensive pedigree.

The Thunder are in the tricky spot of trying to win now with their core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka. Durant was sidelined by a nagging foot injury for most of the past season, while Ibaka went down with a knee issue late in the season, which basically hijacked the Thunder's chances of contending for a title.

Durant is set to become a free agent in the summer of 2016, while Westbrook will enter the same path the following year.