Thunder's Ousmane Dieng With a Chance to Blossom Next Season
It’s been a little over a year since Oklahoma City sent in a trade to acquire Ousmane Dieng in the No. 11 spot from the New York Knicks, and the franchise knew it would be a slow, steady project to fully acclimate the now 20-year-old forward into a frequent lineup.
This could be the year, though, that Dieng begins to blossom into the prospect Thunder general manager Sam Presti envisioned when picking him in the lottery last year.
Following an impressive G League stint last season, some promising flashes in regular season play and a strong Summer League, the French prospect is primed for an opportunity to make one of the largest developmental leaps among Thunder players this season.
If you took the overall sentiment of Thunder fans after last year, they were more than likely disappointed in the lack of production from Dieng in his rookie season, given he was taken in the lottery.
In his first year, Dieng averaged 4.9 points alongside 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Despite some lackluster numbers, he displayed some glimpses of the type of player Presti might want Dieng to be.
Taking Dieng at No. 11 was a strategic play from the Thunder GM, as Dieng was projected to go a couple spots lower in many mock drafts. Holding an absolute mound of trade leverage with draft picks, Presti took a risk on Dieng before subsequently drafting forward Jalen Williams the next pick over.
Taking a raw, then 18-year-old prospect like Dieng isn’t going to increase a team’s chances of winning overnight. Williams was fronting the load in the regular season for the Thunder rookies, as well as Jaylin Williams with No. 2 pick Chet Holmgren injured for the entire year.
In turn, this gave Dieng the necessary time to develop at his own pace in the G League for nine games throughout last season. In those nine games for the OKC Blue, the 6-foot-10 forward averaged 17.2 points on 45.3% shooting, 7.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists as a primary playmaker for the team.
One aspect he’ll need to vastly improve on, however, is his care of the ball. Posting a 1.17 assist-to-turnover ratio throughout G League play, Dieng needs to desperately improve in this area if head coach Mark Daigneault often chooses to put him in ball handling situations along the perimeter.
Moreover, Dieng’s 3-point shooting will be pivotal for OKC’s game plan. Possessing so many dribble-drive ball handlers and paint scorers, the next step up in the Thunder’s offensive structure is to establish consistent shooters along the outside to space the floor effectively.
Holmgren will be a vital piece to this, of course, as well as Jaylin Williams and a few others. But Dieng needs to see his long range jumper fall if he wants to maximize his value this season as he vies to be the sixth man in rotation – especially after shooting 26-for-98 from beyond the arc in his rookie campaign, just 26.5%.
Dieng did show flashes of improvement in the Summer League in both areas of concern, though. In a 98-87 win over the Pacers, he shot 3-for-4 from deep and 9-for-11 from the field to tally 22 points while posting six assists with just a single turnover.
All in all, Dieng has the intangibles, skill set and knowledge to be a force for the Thunder. But dependent on physical and mental maturity once he takes the floor, it’ll be intriguing to see how the highly-anticipated forward responds in his sophomore season.
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