THUNDER MAILBAG
In this edition of the Thunder mailbag, we take a look at how second-year forward Ousmane Dieng is playing for the OKC Blue.
@alykaramazov: Ousmane Dieng is finally killing it for the Blue. Something or nothing?
It’s something. Just not everything. Dieng has certainly seen an uptick in efficiency of late. In his past eight games, he’s up to 41.5% on 5.1 attempts, worlds above the 29.7% he’s shot from deep this season. Over the course of the year, he’s averaged 16.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists.
He’s initiating a notable amount of offense. His green light is blinding. He’s demonstrating a level of craft that he otherwise wouldn’t. The hypothetical version of Dieng — the one Thunder general manager Sam Presti took a swing on — is the mold of player that the Thunder could use to close games. To bind lineups, to erase current deficiencies.
In a perfect world, Dieng is a large, play-finishing wing with enough shooting to keep defenses honest and a physicality that allows for filling defensive gaps and giving anchoring centers fits with competent slashing. Dieng has shown glimpses of those qualities. Not enough of the picture, though.
While the sophomore’s shooting has been stellar lately, it feels more like he’s found some comfortability and finding his spots, even with tough shots. That’s surely a good thing, though not as good as actually ironing any inconsistency in his jumper.
His recent play has surely opened the floodgates for his confidence. He’s wrapping shot attempts around defenders, fooling them with ball fakes on drives, snatching his dribble back for stepback 3s. But plenty of that will be filtered out — both in his current and prospective future role for the Thunder.
His overall feel is improving. But the ball skills are still on their way. His handle has gotten tighter as the year has gone on, but it’s still relatively loose. His lob passes can go awry. Plenty of his drives end in finesse or strength or clearly outclassing G League players. A substantial amount of others see him fumbling before his destination or almost carelessly losing the rock once a second defender enters his atmosphere.
That’s the playmaking part of the whole play-finisher thing. Only he can make that choice. To, as time improves his handle, remain in whatever gear he’s in when he puts his head down and plows through defenders with a speed and force that keep the possession in his hands.
Dieng’s recent play means something for his confidence. For his feel, for his touch. But there are still flashes of him yet to be consistently seen before he progresses toward being the necessary low-pressure, gap-filling glue guy in the big leagues.