LAMINE DIANE
Well, we’re here. 60 picks ranked, and 20 players highlighted. Hopefully you’ve followed along, because I think we’ve saved the best for last. Because oh my goodness, is Cal State Northridge forward Lamine Diane (pronounced La-meen Ja-nay) an interesting case. Diane played his two years in college in the Big West Conference, arguably the worst level of competition of any player ranked. However, his stats are simply insane. Two jump out right off the bat. First, he was sixth in the nation in scoring as a freshman two years ago, only to be beat out by finishing third this year! Second, there have only been two seasons in the past 25 years where a player has had such a high usage rate over 37%, and still grab at least 10 rebounds and two blocks per game. Lamine Diane,
…and Lamine Diane.
SO WHY IS DIANE LIKELY GOING TO GO UNDRAFTED?
A great question, is how a player who’s career averages sit at 25.1 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 2.1 BPG and 1.6 SPG fight for a draft spot. Surprisingly, there are actually many cases to be made against Diane. First, as mentioned before, he’s played an extremely weak schedule throughout his college career. In fact, he’s only ever played against one Power Conference school in his entire career. Albeit, that one game was against Washington State, not known for being a powerhouse necessarily. Naturally, Diane put up 32 and 18 with 5 blocks. Irregardless, he has never shown his talents in college against any top level competition, leaving a moderately sized asterisk over nearly all of his stats.
Second, his size is relatively concerning. One would think that with such gaudy rebound and block numbers that Diane would be massive, yet he stands at a conservative 6-7, 205lb. He’s long and can probably put on some weight, but it’s still a stretch to call him a power forward at this point. That brings up the third concern, his lack of shooting ability. Diane went only 23 for 79 from deep over the course of his college career, good for only a 29.1% clip. Even more concerning is his free-throw numbers, where he’s a career 58% shooter. Top it all off with the fact that he’s already 22, and the thought of developing him gets harder.
WHAT’S THE CASE FOR TEAMS GIVING HIM A SHOT IN THE DRAFT?
Numbers are numbers, and Diane’s sure jump off the page. However, more than that, his game is tremendously unique. He mixes in post ups with breakaway dunks and ridiculously difficult fadeaway jumpers. It seems like his greatest move is the element of surprise. Check it out for yourself.
Funny, I do seem to recall a player with a unique game such as him. One who also migrated from West Africa (Diane is from Senegal), whose father’s basketball dreams pushed his own successes, and who dominated a low-major conference the same way Diane did. Oh, and he’s also an NBA Champion, All-Star, and future All-NBA forward.
Yes, Pascal Siakam seems to have a lot in common with Diane. In addition to those similarities, they’ve also had virtually the same knocks against them as prospects. Seriously, read these weaknesses in Siakam’s nbadraft.net scouting report.
PLAYING IN A MID-MAJOR, IT WILL BE TOUGHER TO CONVINCE TEAMS THAT HIS NUMBERS WERE LEGITIMATE AND NOT ENHANCED BY THE LEVEL OF COMPETITION … TURNED 22 IN JANUARY SO THERE IS SOME QUESTION ABOUT HIS UPSIDE…HIS OFFENSIVE GAME IS A LITTLE UNORTHODOX…NEEDS TO ADD SOME UPPER BODY STRENGTH…HE COULD STAND TO ADJUST HIS FORM SOME…
That sounds a whole lot like Diane to me. Now no, I’m not comparing them as carbon copies, and surely it’s unreasonable to expect Diane to reach the levels that Siakam’s climbed to at this point in his NBA career. But Diane’s strengths do compare to Siakam’s as well. They both use their length to their advantage on both ends, and benefit from tremendous footwork. Most importantly though, they both have tireless work ethics, and never seem to run out of steam on the court.
With all things considered, I don’t want to lessen Diane by proving his worth vicariously through Siakam. He is individually one of the most successful, yet polarizing draft prospects in a very long time. The only players to average at least 24.7 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.2 assists per game in one season in the last 25 years? Lamine Diane twice, and Kevin Durant. Yes, I could play these numbers games all day, but they all seek out to prove one point. Lamine Diane is damn good at basketball, and whichever NBA team picks him up is going to have the chance at getting someone special.
Kinda reminds me of KPJ.
