WAIT AND SEE
Kentucky’s Diallo an intriguing gamble for Thunder
Maybe it could have gone differently for Hamidou Diallo.
Maybe if the Kentucky guard had entered the NBA Draft last year, had opted to skip college after a redshirt semester and never played a game for the Wildcats, he’d have been on a different path. Maybe he’d have been a first-round pick last June instead of the 45th pick he was on Thursday.
But as Diallo — who will be traded to the Thunder on or after July 6 — prepared for this year’s
month. “And if I had to do it again, I’m doing the same thing — going back to school and playing a year in Kentucky, trying to make it work like I did this year.”
It’s far too early to know if that decision will pay off in the long run.
But it’s easy to see what teams liked about Diallo last year and what probably made him appealing to the Thunder on Thursday.
It will be some time before Diallo is a part of the Oklahoma City organization. The Brooklyn Nets selected him Thursday, but he always was headed to Charlotte, part of a trade that will send Dwight Howard from the Hornets to Brooklyn, which reportedly will waive him.
That deal can’t be completed until July 6 at the earliest, and once it is, Diallo can be dealt to Oklahoma City. The Charlotte Observer reported that the Hornets will receive a 2019 second-round pick and cash considerations from the Thunder.
It’s unclear whether Diallo will join the Thunder for Summer League, which begins on July 6. But whenever he suits up, OKC will have a 6-foot-6 guard that ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony has described as having “thermonuclear athleticism.”
On a conference call earlier this week, Kentucky coach John Calipari said “there is probably not a better athlete in the draft” than Diallo, who at last year’s NBA Draft Combine recorded a 44.5-inch vertical jump, one of the highest ever at the combine.
That was before Diallo returned for a season at Kentucky. At this year’s combine he hit 40.5 inches on the vertical jump. He had the third-fastest lane agility drill time among 56 players tested. He ran a three-quarter-court sprint in 3.1 seconds, the eighthfastest time.
That kind of athleticism fits with the Thunder’s plan. At age 19 — he’ll turn 20 on July 31 — Diallo has some similarities in his profile to Terrance Ferguson, Oklahoma City’s firstround pick last season.
Diallo hasn’t shown himself to be a high-level shooter. He hit 33.8 percent of his 3-point attempts at Kentucky, attempting 2.1 per game. He shot 42.8 percent overall and wasn’t a good free-throw shooter, making 61.6 percent on 3.4 attempts per game.
But there are some encouraging numbers.
Diallo’s usage rate was 22.6 percent, secondhighest on the Wildcats. That means 22.6 percent of Kentucky’s possessions ended with him taking a field goal or a free throw or committing a turnover. But he committed turnovers on 12 percent of his plays, lowest among Kentucky players.
That high-usage, lowturnover ratio is reason for some optimism about his ability to make plays.
And Diallo could thrive in the more wide-open environment of an NBA court, especially given that Kentucky struggled to create spacing this season. The Wildcats made 195 3-pointers, which ranked 309th among 351 Division I teams.
Kentucky’s lack of outside shooting often meant a crowded interior, giving a slasher like Diallo limited room to work. The Thunder, at least as constructed this season, was a middle-of-the-road 3-point shooting team. Still, the NBA’s illegal defense rules necessitate a more open floor.
None of that guarantees that Diallo will click in the NBA. But the Thunder is taking a low-risk gamble on a high flyer with potential.
“Nothing is given as a rookie, and you’re gonna have to accept your role,” Diallo told ESPN this month. “It’s gonna be like Kentucky all over again. I’m gonna have to accept my role and I’m gonna have to do what that team needs me to do. I’m gonna have to put my own agenda to the side, at least until I’m proving myself in the league.”