Discount Diallo Cheick! The Malian Mauler! The innumerable question marks that so adorned my perception of his last 19-point performance have been reduced to only a few: ????
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Unlike last time, all the way back in December, this one we could have seen coming at least a little bit. This is April NBA. The domain of the scrubs and the D-Leaguers and the Tony Romos (what a god-damn joke that was for real it’s a good thing no Mavericks player had a good enough game tonight because the whole description would be about what a farce that whole sitch was come at me bro). Cheick Diallo is two of those three things, making this his time.
The impression I got from him this time: he’s like Thon Maker except with less range. Those midrange baseline jumpers were super money, in fact I don’t think I’ve seen so many in a highlight vid this year. Normally dudes in that position retreat to the three-point line and try their luck there; good on Diallo for knowing his limitations. Like Maker, he doesn’t seem to be super explosive unless he gets to gather himself, and he uses his length to make up the difference. Hasheem Thabeet was similar, but I’m not even going to compare those two because Thabeet never scored this many points. Somehow. God, what a bust that dude was.