OKC Thunder End of Season Report Card: Ousmane Dieng

The Oklahoma City Thunder capped off a brilliant 2023-24 campaign with a 57-25 record that saw the Bricktown boys win their first playoff series since 2016. Despite falling in six games to the eventual Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks in the second round, the Thunder season could be described as nothing short of a success.

As the year concludes, it is time for our OKC Thunder End of the Year Report Card to cycle through every player on the roster to give them a final grade mark and project into the future. Today it's Ousmane Dieng's final exam.

Season Recap

After being selected with the No. 11 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the OKC Thunder knew that Dieng would be a project prospect. The 6-foot-10 forward struggled to adjust to NBA game speeds and the physicality level in that jump.

In his second season, the Oklahoma City Thunder took a different approach, parking Dieng in the NBA G League to develop - the invisible league, as Mark Daigneault calls it - and that he did. While the Thunder rocketed up the NBA standings, Dieng's development was overlooked.

Setting a career-high in dunks in a season with 49, 51 percent on runners and 64 percent at the rim overall.

Dieng posted a point per possession in isolation, 1.3 points per possession on cuts, 1.13 points per possession as a pick-and-roll partner.

The 21-year-old 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two stocks per game while playing in 37 games through the course of the G League season en route to the OKC Blue's first-ever G League championship.

Dieng earned finals MVP honors for the G League and put the cherry on top of a quality season of development.

Grade: B+ Dieng developed his game in a big way down on the farm, being parked in the NBA G League, the 2022 lottery pick checked a lot of boxes in the G en route to the G League NBA Finals MVP award.

What to improve on

From the time the OKC Blue season wrapped up and the team hoisted the Championship trophy, the OKC Thunder paired Dieng with legendary shooting coach Chip Engelland. The next step for Dieng to be a fixture of the NBA rotation is figuring out how to tap into his 3-point shot consistently.

With the uptick in aggressiveness in the G League, and the ability to score inside the arc coupled with his length and defensive prowess, if Dieng can convert at a high clip from beyond the arc the Thunder would get a massive upgrade.

On catch-and-shoot triples, Dieng shot 33 percent while overall shooting 30 percent from beyond the arc in the G League.

Want to join the discussion? Like Inside the Thunder on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.