Should Gorgui Dieng be traded by the Timberwolves?

After the Timberwolves likely draft an uber-talented big man with the first overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft in either Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor, they’ll have a lot of bigs that will need to see minutes.

Aside from Towns or Okafor, the Wolves have Kevin Garnett, Adreian Payne, Anthony Bennett, Justin Hamilton, Nikola Pekovic, and Gorgui Dieng filling in at the power forward and center positions. If the Wolves wanted to deal one of these guys to lessen the logjam, there is only one player that would really generate any reasonable value in a trade.

Gorgui Dieng is the only one of these big men that could generate enough interest from other teams to get reasonable assets in return. Dieng was a first round pick in the 2013 NBA Draft and has shown some potential to be a serviceable starting center in the NBA after his first two seasons in the league. As my fellow co-editor Ben Beecken writes in his season review of Dieng, it doesn’t get much better than Dieng in terms of backup centers in the NBA (even though Dieng was mostly a starter because of injuries to Pekovic).

Trading Dieng could open up a number of possibilities for Flip Saunders and his crew. If they wanted to trade a couple of pieces in a deal with Dieng, they could probably find a solid veteran backup point guard, which would address a serious need for this team. Additionally, combining Dieng with one of the team’s second round draft picks would likely allow them to move back into the middle of the first round in the NBA Draft and grab another young talent. They could even get back into position to grab a certain point guard from Apple Valley, MN.

In order to decide if trading Dieng is worth it, we must look at how valuable he is to the Timberwolves. This past season, he started 49 games for the Timberwolves and played in 73. He averaged 9.7 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, and 1.7 blocks per game in 30 minutes per game. Reasonable numbers for a backup center-turned-starter due to injury.

Dieng’s offense seemed to improve in his second season compared to his rookie year. He improved on that deadly 12-15 foot jump shot he has and also started to show an array of post moves. Here’s a look at his shot chart from the 2014-15 season, according to nba.com/stats.

The mid-range jumper is certainly there, especially from the free throw line or elbow area. 19 of 24 from that zone is completely absurd for a 7-footer, especially a 7-footer that was supposed to be limited offensively.

Defensively, Dieng wasn’t as good as advertised this season. Yes, his 2.1 blocks per 36 minutes are very good. However, as Ben writes in the season review that I linked above, most of his blocks were in help defense situations. His man-to-man post defense was generally poor, as he was easily outmuscled time and time again against bigger opponents. Overall this season, Dieng allowed a field goal percentage of 51.9% to the players he was defending (nba.com/stats).

For Dieng to continue being a valuable asset to this team, he’ll have to get stronger so his man-to-man defense can improve against those bigger defenders. If Dieng can do this, he’ll be a solid player in this league for a long time.

The case for trading Dieng is simply that teams will likely give a decent amount in return for Dieng. He’s a young big man entering his third season with good size and has shown some serious potential.

The case for keeping Dieng would be that his depth is too valuable. Although it may create a logjam in the power forward and center positions with all these young guys needing minutes, Dieng’s overall makeup as a player and his presence as a shot blocker inside make him a valuable player to have coming off the bench.

For me, it all depends on the situation and what the Wolves can get in return. If Saunders legitimately wants to trade back into the first round in the draft or wants to find a solid veteran backup point guard, I’d be all for trading Dieng. Again, it would depend on the assets the Wolves would get in return for Dieng. However, Dieng is a solid backup center and provides great depth for this team. I would have no problem with keeping him on the roster for next season.

My goal here was to lay out both sides of the argument and let you see the advantages and disadvantages of each. In all likelihood, Dieng won’t be traded this offseason. However, it does pose an interesting question and one that Saunders may ponder in the coming weeks until the draft.

Continue to check in with us at DWW for NBA Draft and offseason coverage that we’ll have up daily.

Should Gorgui Dieng be traded by the Timberwolves?

By Drew Mahowald | May 22, 2015

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