OKC Thunder: 3 season goal for Hamidou Diallo in 2020-21

Work on his free throw shooting

Diallo improves in every area except two from his rookie season. The first was his field goal percentage which dropped due to Diallo taking a greater variety of shots. The second was his free throw percentage.

While Diallo shot slightly more free throw’s in his sophomore season than his rookie year. The difference is marginal, shooting 1.2 attempts in 2018-19 and 1.4 attempts in 2019-20. The problem was he went from 61.0 percent to 60.3 percent.

This number is simply not good enough for a guard who plays above the rim, dunking over people. As teams work him out, Diallo is going to have to play through contact to get his shot up. Defenders are going to make decisions late in games to foul Diallo.

If he can improve this skill this is going to allow Diallo to stay on in late-game situations which he can not at the moment. His defense is good but not as good as the like of Andre Roberson or Luguentz Dort who are also poor free-throw shooters.

The Thunder coaching staff are going to use the better defender every time. For his career to continue developing in the future he needs to be able to play in all game situations. His free throw shooting is holding that back.