As simple as it sounds, New Orleans rookie second-round pick Cheick Diallo needs experience playing the game of basketball as much as any new pro. The 20-year-old was sparingly used during his one college season with the Kansas Jayhawks, meaning he has scant game repetitions against high-level competition. That makes his current assignment to Austin of the D-League an ideal opportunity - the power forward has started each of his four games and is logging 26.5 minutes a night. Diallo has averaged 15.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocks for Austin (3-1).
“An important element of his development is just playing,” Pelicans GM Dell Demps said of the 33rd overall draft pick. “The D-League is a situation that’s exactly made for a player like him, a 20-year-old. We wanted him to get better and he’s in a situation where he can develop all aspects of his game. So far we’re thrilled with his progress.”
Coincidentally, Diallo faced recently signed Pelicans guard Anthony Brown in a D-League game Saturday. Diallo was excellent, totaling 21 points, seven rebounds and a block (playing for Erie, Brown netted 25 points, then signed with New Orleans on Monday).
“He’s a high-energy guy with an incredible motor, so he always plays hard,” Demps said of Diallo’s play in the D-League. “He’s been a good rebounder, a good shot-blocker as well, and he finds a way to score. He has good touch around the basket. We want him to go from a good rebounder to a great rebounder. We want him to go from a good defender to an elite defender. Those are some of the things he’s getting an opportunity to do there.”
“I think that’s the best thing for him,” Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said of Diallo’s D-League assignment. “He didn’t get to play very much at all in his year at Kansas, so this is a situation where he can go and get minutes against professional players (and get experience with) the speed of the game and the size and strength of the game. He realizes that he’s going to have to get stronger. But just the experience of playing down there is what he really needed, and we’ll continue to do that with him.”
Other notes from pregame Wednesday at the Smoothie King Center:
Anthony Davis (knee contusion last night at Atlanta) and Terrence Jones (illness, but played through it and had 17 points against the Hawks) both are ready to play tonight vs. Minnesota on ESPN. Asked whether Gentry needs to talk to Davis about scaling back some of the hustle plays that have led to Davis crashing into the stands, Gentry said you can’t curtail a player’s hustle and energy. “That’s just who he is, he’s going to play hard,” the coach said of the three-time All-Star. “One of the things you can’t talk about is, ‘Don’t make this play, don’t make that play,’ because those are the times you end up getting hurt. I love the fact that he plays with that kind of aggressiveness and that he thinks that possession is so important that you’ve got to try to go all-out.”