Thunder swingman Hamidou Diallo will be reevaluated in four-to-six weeks after suffering a hyperextension sprain in his right elbow, Royce Young of ESPN tweets.
Diallo was injured during the fourth quarter of Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron James drove to the basket and made contact with Diallo. As he was falling, Diallo then collided with teammate Mike Muscala. He quickly retreating to the locker room.
Diallo had just returned after missing three games due to left knee soreness. He underwent a surgical procedure on the same elbow during last year’s playoffs.
The 2018 second-rounder was a regular part of the club’s rotation early last season, but played sparingly after the All-Star break. In 12 games this year, Diallo has averaged 8.8 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 1.5 SPG in 21.3 MPG. Abdel Nader and Deonte Burton could see an upswing in minutes during his absence.
The shooting guard out of Kentucky has a team-friendly rookie contract – $1.42MM this season with a $1.66MM team option next summer.
OKC needs to do a better job of tanking if they want a shot at a decent lottery pick. Although it won’t make much of a difference since they will never draft 3 consecutive MVP’s again like they did with KD, Westbrook, and Harden. Poor Thunder.
The Thunder will be fine. With Paul mentoring SGA and Bazley’s ceiling, add all the picks they acquired and future cap room. They don’t need to draft three consecutive MVPs, plus that didn’t get them a title anyways. If you can stay competitive and rebuild at the same time, why not?
They are better off eating Paul’s contract and starting the rebuild. They have a few nice pieces and tons of picks but none of those picks will be very high and CP won’t be with the team when they become relevant again. This is a prime situation of a teams pride getting in the way of practicality.