Diallo makes adjustments as NBA begins to figure him out
Thunder rookie Hamidou Diallo laughed when asked if anyone had given him grief about his missed dunk at the end of OKC’s last game. The windmill attempt had slipped out of his hand and bounced so far off the backboard that it got national attention. On Diallo’s own team, Steven Adams couldn’t stop cracking up from the bench through the entire next possession.
Yes, Diallo had gotten grief for it.
“I’ll definitely make up for that,” he said after practice Friday. “100 percent.”
Daillo strolled away from the scrum at the edge of the practice court, ball in hand, chatting with a Thunder communications staffer. As he reached the basket, Diallo suddenly sprang up and hammered home a windmill.
The rookie’s adjustment to the league has not been quite as immediate as that, but Diallo has shown improvement against opposing teams’ new approach to guarding him. Now that they have film on the rookie, they’re giving him room on the perimeter and often going under screens. Long-term, knocking down 3-point shots will be the answer, but as Diallo works on his shot, he has found other ways to work around the
league’s adjustment to him.
Last year at Kentucky, in Diallo’s one and only season of college ball, he also had to work through opponents’ acclimation to his game. But that was different.
“In the NBA there’s much more space,” Diallo said. “If a guy goes under on you, you can still figure out a way to get to the rim because guys have to guard their guys. In college, in the paint, they just literally wait there for you.”
Diallo stays after most practices and shootarounds to take reps at the NBA 3-point line. Thunder coach Billy Donovan complimented Diallo on his form but noted that it will take time for him to develop consistency.
Because of that, Donovan anticipated these new challenges Diallo is facing as the NBA gets to know him. They were evident in the Thunder’s 122-116 win over New Orleans a week and a half ago. Diallo scored just two field goals. Both came off steals, when he could use his length to gain possession and dunk in transition.
Diallo missed his other two shots — a driving layup and an uncontested 3-point shot.
“There’s things that he can do in relation to screening, cutting, how he handles pickand-rolls ...” Donovan said in Dallas last week. “This is probably the first time in his life he’s been defended like this in certain situations, but there’s still things he can be much more effective at.”
Donovan said then that he had seen improvement in those areas. On Wednesday, in a 128103 win over the Knicks, Diallo tied his career high of 11 points. He wasn’t perfect. He went 5-of-11 from the floor and didn’t end up in many pickand-roll situations to demonstrate growth in that aspect. But he also fought through contact at the basket and sank his second 3-pointer of the season.
“Hami’s just a ballplayer,” veteran Paul George said at shootaround before that game. “He still finds a way to get to the rim, make plays.”
His words held true.