OKC Thunder conspiracy theory No. 2) Is home calling to Diallo?
Another aspect that relates to the wing’s impending free agency is the matter of who might the OKC Thunder be going up against in regard to signing him and, to a greater extent, where might his heart ultimately be leaning towards in regard to his preferred destinations.
Though he recently referred to Oklahoma City as ‘the place I call home’ in a social media post thanking Thunder nation, “home” for Diallo is actually New York.
— Hamidou Diallo (@hamidoudiallo) March 14, 2021
While this, too, may not necessarily seem to be an indicator as to where he may prefer to sign, when one digs a bit deeper you’d find that, since coming into the league back in 2018, the two teams in which he always seems to shine the brightest whilst going up against are the Knicks and the Nets.
Looking at his career average numbers against both of these ball clubs, we find that Hami posts some of his best all-around stat lines, and they read as follows:
New York Knicks Stats: 12.3 points, 5.5 rebounds on 56 FG% & 60 3FG%
Brooklyn Nets Stats: 12.5 points, three rebounds, 1.5 assists, one steal on 54 FG% & 38 3FG%
Perhaps just a coincidence — heck, all of these points could be just that –, but even this season we saw Hamidou Diallo’s best game come against the Knicks, where he dropped 23 points and 11 boards on 62 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from deep.
In short, it has seemed that the majority of his top-notch performances have come against both teams from New York’s favorite boroughs.