Ousmane Dieng’s choice to play in Australia's NBL for a season will serve him as he begins in OKC.

By Nick Gallo | Broadcast Reporter and Digital Editor | okcthunder.com

Three years before Ousmane Dieng became the 11^th pick in the 2022 NBA draft, Thunder Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti was in France watching the 6-foot-3, 16-year-old prospect just at the precipice of his professional career. The Thunder front office is always scouting along multiple timelines – for this season’s draft, for future drafts and just to get baseline grades on players who are potentially coming into the league. Amid Presti and his staff’s tour the globe in the hunt for talent, there’s no stone left unturned. 

“(Presti) is in the big gyms, he's in the small gyms, he's in the international gyms, he's in the future player gyms,” said Will Dawkins, Thunder Vice President of Basketball Operations. “Sam was one of the first people, with our scout Massimo Biasin, who was in France seeing him early when he was 16. So, he gets to see him when he was younger, gets eyes on him and kind of sets the tone from there.” 

Scouting any 16-year-old is a venture in uncertainty, but Dieng has a pedigree, as his father Ababacar moved from Senegal to France to play professionally in the third division. Ousmane was always with Ababacar in the gym learning the basics of the game, and it shows in his smooth ability to play within the flow of team concepts on both sides of the ball. The Dieng family supported Ousmane’s own professional career starting at age 13, including the sacrifice of sending him off to the National Institute of Sport, Exercise and Performance (INSEP) in Paris, an 8-hour drive away from his hometown of Lot-et-Garonne. That’s where Presti first saw him. 

“That really developed me on the court and off the court because I was away from my family and everything,” said Dieng. “That was really good for me.”

Dieng shot up from 6-foot-3, when Presti first got his eyes on him, to 6-foot-10 during his time in Paris. Even with the growth spurt, Dieng kept the ball handling, passing, vision, shooting, competitiveness and defensive ability, which put him even higher on NBA radars. As a 17-year-old in 2020-21, Dieng averaged 12.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the feeder team for INSEP players, Centre Fédéral, which is in the same third division that his father once played in. 

It would have been easy to continue producing in France and to play to it safe, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Dieng made the bold decision to move all the way across the world to play for the New Zealand Breakers of the National Basketball League (NBL) in Australia. 

“I was really fascinated by that decision because the easiest decision would have been to stay in a comfort zone,” said Presti. “He pushed himself out of that, and it wasn't always the easiest situation for him.” 

Dieng arrived in New Zealand at the end of August and had to quarantine for two weeks due to COVID protocols. Two weeks following that time-period the entire country went into COVID lockdown, meaning the then-18-year-old went nearly two months without playing basketball. Once the NBL season finally began, the Breakers couldn’t play any home games. So instead of Auckland, Dieng’s home base was in Melbourne, Australia for the season. 

“I was just trying to focus on my game and like what I can control,” said Dieng. “That helped me mentally because even after the slow start I was able to step up my game.”

“It made me tougher on and off the court,” said Dieng of the NBL. “Everything is more physical.”

It took some adjusting for Dieng as he entered the rough and tumble NBL, where as a teenager he was playing against a league full of mostly adults. He didn’t score in double figures for the first 11 games of the season and only attempted four total free throws during that time. But at the midway point of the year, he found his groove and started playing with more force, allowing his basketball IQ to shine. Dieng finished the final 12 games of the year with averages of 13.3 points on 48 percent shooting, including 36 percent from three-point to go with 4.1 rebounds per game. 

“You're in a foreign country and playing against grown men, and it's not being handed to you,” said Presti, highlighting Dieng’s work ethic and ability to respond. “It's not going to get easier. He's going to have to keep battling, but he does have a unique set of skills and he's got a good disposition.”

“(Dieng) started rough but kept fighting, persevered, and finished the season a different player,” added Dawkins. “We're excited he went through that, had to go through that, persevered through that and showed that resiliency.”

There was one other member of the Thunder organization besides the front office staff who had seen Dieng play before the team selected him in June: Josh Giddey. The Melbourne native and former NBL guard for the Adelaide 36ers managed to find time to watch some Breakers games during a busy rookie campaign, so when Dieng, whose 19^th birthday was just a month before the 2022 NBA Draft, joined the Thunder’s Summer League team in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, there were no surprises about the raw ability he possesses. 

“You can't teach that he's got long arms and good instincts. Defensively, he gets in the lane,” said Giddey. “He's so young still, so a lot of growing to do for him, but I'm really impressed from training camp to where he's at now.”

“His pace is really good, especially because he's super young,” added Jalen Williams. “That's rare to have that kind of pace and understanding about the game.”

With nine months remaining before his 20^th birthday, Dieng is just at the very outset of his development arc. Between games with the Thunder and the Oklahoma City Blue and all the practice time, film sessions and strength and conditioning opportunities in between, Dieng is looking to just be further along in his growth curve a year from now than he is today. In order to do that, he’s taking it a day at a time, and fortunately he has a host of teammates, including Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who have shown the ability to not just elevate the play of those around them, but to put their arms on guys’ shoulders and make everyone feel comfortable. 

“The team is really cool,” said Dieng. “All the guys are nice and ready to help you.” 

“It's just the beginning, so I need to get to work,” Dieng added. “I just want to learn from the vets, learn from the players in OKC and just improve on all of my game.”