Brooklyn Nets Will Take a Close Look at Hamidou Diallo
A lot of high-profile players have taken the one-and-done route ever since the National Basketball Association (NBA) disallowed high-school prospects from entering the draft more than a decade ago. In fact, most of the top prospects in this year's draft class have only played a single season in college.
There are others who worked around the rule by going overseas for a year like Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Mudiay and Jeremy Tyler. However, Hamidou Diallo is about to do something different.
He was a midyear enrollee for Kentucky and he has yet to play a single second of college basketball. But that does not matter because he's planning to enter the draft anyway.
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According to basketball insider Adam Zagoria, Diallo is going to work out for the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday. The Nets have the 22nd and 27th overall picks in the draft.
Although Diallo is an unproven player, he does have the physical tools to succeed in the NBA.
He was impressive at the draft combine earlier this month when he posted the second-best vertical leap (44.5 inches) in the history of the combine. However, scouts think he's unlikely to move into the first round of the draft.
Still, the Nets should do their due diligence and see how well Diallo performs during the workout. Since a lot of teams are going to go after Miloš Teodosić this offseason, they should consider other options at guard and Diallo may turn out to be a good player.
He's a high-upside prospect, but he will need time to develop. Fortunately, the Nets have all the time in the world because they aren't going to be contenders anyway next season.
It should be noted that Diallo didn't hire an agent. That means he has until May 24 to decide whether he wants to stay in the draft or not.
