With the No. 33 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the New Orleans Pelicans selected Cheick Diallo, an athletic forward who had a bizarre season at Kansas.
2016 NBA Draft: Cheick Diallo goes to the Pelicans with No. 33 pick
Diallo heads to New Orleans.
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The pick was originally owned by the Clippers, who traded it to New Orleans in exchange for the 39th and 40th picks in this year’s draft.
If judging only by his college career, Diallo didn’t deserve come close to the first round. The freshman missed the first five games with eligibility issues, only to average 7.5 minutes per game the rest of the season. It was an unpopular decision by Bill Self to play Diallo sparingly, with fans and analysts alike thinking that the 6’9 big man deserved time to work through his mistakes and develop into a more polished player.
Diallo has a standing reach of 9’1 and a 7’4 wingspan, making it easy to see him playing small ball center rather than just appearing as a power forward. Most of his success on the basketball court comes from his athleticism -- he’s a fantastic rebounder, does a good job rolling to the rim and has excellent instincts blocking shots around the rim. As you can see from his debut at Kansas last December, Diallo really is a force around both rims.
Besides the occasionally mid-range jumper, though, Diallo is very raw. His defense techniques are poor and he only recorded one assist all season. There’s a lot to like about Diallo as a physical specimen, but as he enters the NBA, he must immediately start learning actual basketball skills to survive. If he doesn’t reduce his fouls, there’s no way he’ll even be able to stay on the floor of an NBA game consistently, either.
Still, there are worse gambles to make than a 6'9 forward who is agile on his feet, aggressive on the court and whose athleticism permeates through everything he does on the court. Teams drafting Diallo can show him film of any number of raw big men who entered the league, picked up the necessary skills and turned into stars in this league. There's no hope for Diallo turning into someone like Draymond Green, who is light years ahead of him with the ball in his hands. But a smaller Hassan Whiteside or Bismack Biyombo are comparisons that make a lot more sense for the Kansas forward.
Had Diallo played and developed more on the Jayhawks, as so many thought he should have, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have been available this late in the draft. There’s clear risk in grabbing Diallo without a clear indication about substantial his evolution can, but there’s a significant upside, too.
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