National Basketball Association

Cheick Diallo will develop in background as Pelicans try to win games

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Pelicans Rank begins with the Season Preview for the Pelicans’ second-round draft pick and athletibomb Cheick Diallo, who figures to spend the majority of his season in the D-League.

I’m really excited about Cheick Diallo, and you should be too. Yes, he fits the bill as a late-bloomer who might never actually bloom, but there are numerous reasons to believe that he can overcome the battle of having only five years of basketball experience prior to his second-round draft selection.

Any discussion of a physical marvel like Diallo will start with his body; standing only 6’9”, Cheick makes up for his smaller stature by lasso-ing opposing players with a ridiculous 7’4” wingspan and 9’1” standing reach. He makes plays that honestly bring to mind the game’s best modern centers– he can come out and play the pick-and-roll aggressively before recovering through the lane quickly and steadily enough to alter a shot at the rim at the end of the play:

That’s peak Dwight Howard-level stuff, but compounds the concern that he lacks the discipline and experience to fit into a system on either end. On offense, he leans a little too hard on his jumper (60% of his total field goal attempts, per Hoop-Math), a symptom of an inability to pick his spots within the natural movement and bend of a half-court set. He’s at his best as a rim roller and garbage man, cleaning up misses and throwing down easy looks in the paint. The hope is that in the more free flowing pace of an NBA game (especially under coach Alvin Gentry), he can further develop that nuanced practice.

The real question is whether or not he’ll have that chance this year. With the Pelicans owing minutes to four high-profile (or at least high-dollar) guys in the frontcourt, they’ll be hard-pressed to give Diallo minutes during the beginning of the season when they’re actually trying to win games. If Bill Self wouldn’t give him minutes, how will an NBA coach justify it? The fact remains that Diallo is inexperienced and not very disciplined, and the Pelicans hope to get a lot of what he does out of bounceback seasons from Anthony Davis, Omer Asik, and Terrence Jones.

More likely (and probably more beneficial) is that he spends time in the NBA Developmental League (NBADL). The New Orleans Pelicans, being one of the final eight NBA holdouts to lack a D-League affiliate, don’t have the means to directly oversee Diallo’s development if he were to be sent down. Instead, they would use the D-League’s Flex Assignment System.

In this case, the NBDL itself would receive the assignment receipt from the Pelicans and identify suitors from within the league. Those teams wishing to have Diallo on their roster would make themselves known, and the Pelicans would have their choice among them in order to find the best home for Diallo (or any other player in the same situation). This ability to select a home for their player is what has allowed teams to have a finger on the pulse of several players at once within the system of the D-League team they most often work with.

While you might normally criticize the Pelicans for not adequately taking advantage of the D-League by having their own affiliate, they have undoubtedly had their eye on the league throughout the past few years in replacing so many injured players. Last season, they signed James Ennis from the Iowa Energy, Jordan Hamilton from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and former D-League MVP and Superhero Tim Frazier from the Maine Red Claws. Dell Demps, scrap-heap metal detector that he is, has found ways to use the NBADL to his advantage.

He will surely do so again with Cheick Diallo if the frontcourt stays healthy and productive all season.

Really, Diallo’s presence for the Pelicans this season will be in lock step with the performance of the established bigs. If Jones recovers from last year smoothly, Asik takes a step toward his career norms, and Ajinca stays on the court, Gentry will already have too many minutes to juggle considering the team’s continued desire to play small. There will be no room for Diallo, and giving him playing time on a D-League team will be a simple decision.

However, if the team struggles or a frontcourt guy goes down, Diallo will be thrust into the familiar and uncomfortable terrain of a youngster developing amid a lost season. I think most fans would agree the first option is preferable, and so we enter a season in the enviable position of getting to watch a high-upside draft pick develop from afar, not relying on him to win games in a playoff chase.