National Basketball Association

Wolves player profile: Gorgui Dieng

Published Sep. 26, 2014 1:00 p.m. ET

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This is the sixth installment in a 15-part series running Tuesdays and Fridays profiling each Minnesota Timberwolves player leading up to the start of the NBA season.

Gorgui Dieng was back at the Target Center on Thursday, going through the usual player check-in process before training camp begins next week.

"Back to the office," Dieng tweeted with a picture of the Timberwolves logo in the middle of Minnesota's locker room floor.

Following a scorching conclusion to his rookie season, Dieng treated the Twin Cities as a semi-permanent workplace, spending whatever "down" time he had working out at the University of Minnesota or milling around the Target Center and communing with coach and president Flip Saunders and the rest of the Wolves staff. That's when Dieng wasn't in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League or Spain for the FIBA World Cup.

It was a wild, busy summer aimed at being ready to produce for an entire NBA season. It's easy to forget Dieng didn't last year, what with a final month-and-a-half that earned him all-rookie second team honors.

But Dieng hasn't forgotten.

2013-14 stats: 4.8 PPG, 49.8 FG %, 5 RPG, 63.4 FT % during 13.6 MPG in 60 games

2014-15 salary: $1,413,480

Last year: It's midway through the first quarter. Starting center Nikola Pekovic is ready for a blow, and backup Ronny Turiaf is out with a right elbow contusion that will cost him 31 games.

Reluctantly, Wolves coach Rick Adelman inserts Dieng. He's almost immediately whistled for a foul. At the other end of the floor, he misses and easy flush inside the paint.

This was the scene that unfolded for the better part of the 6-foot-11, 245-pound, 24-year-old Louisville product's rookie campaign. It got to the point where Adelman was barely willing to use Dieng unless in a pinch.

Yet it's the final impression Dieng left that's been remembered this offseason. And it only came by virtue of chance.

With Pekovic and Turiaf both nursing simultaneous injuries down the stretch, Adelman was left with no choice but to put Dieng on the floor. March 16 in his first NBA start, he had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double. Four days later, Dieng became the sixth player in league history to record a 20-point, 20-rebound game within his first three career starts.

In Minnesota's final 18 games -- 15 of which he started -- Dieng averaged 12 points on 52.8 percent shooting and 11.3 boards. That was enough to earn him all-rookie second-team honors.

Not bad for a 21st overall draft pick who for the season's first 5 1/2 months struggled to even stay on the court.

This year: Sustainability.

That's the name of the game for Dieng in Year 2. The tools are there. So is the confidence he can compete -- though Dieng insisted last season it was there all along.

But 18 games is far too small a sample size to determine a player's long-term worth. So Dieng has to prove himself all over again -- for months this time, not weeks.

He'll have minutes behind Pekovic waiting for him, but if he underperforms, Turiaf is right there in the fold as well. With Kevin Love gone, Dieng could see some more time at the four, too, if Saunders decides to go big.

To prepare himself, Dieng spent ample time in Dinkytown with Richard Pitino -- the son of Dieng's college coach -- and the rest of the Gophers staff. At summer league, he led the Wolves in rebounding (10.2 per game) and scored 11.2 points a contest.

Then he went to Spain -- Ricky Rubio country -- and helmed Senegal's surprising run to the FIBA World Cup's knockout round. The Spaniards eliminated them in the first round, but Dieng led his team with 16 points and 10.7 boards per game.

He's taken some much-needed rest since then. When camp opens Tuesday in Mankato, the next step of his journey -- the longevity-centric one -- begins.

Quotable: "I think you should work more when you don't play a lot. I didn't get minutes. I never got frustrated -- just keep working and hoped my time will come one day." -- Dieng after his first career start

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