Portland Trail Blazers: 5 options for pick No. 24 in 2018 NBA Draft
By Ty Delbridge
4. Keita Bates-Diop
- Height: 6’7″
- Weight: 235 lbs
- Age: 22
- Position: SF
From Ohio State University, Keita Bates-Diop was one of the best players in college basketball this past season and was the Big Ten player of the year. He was the go-to guy on his team and was the main reason for his team’s success on both ends of the floor.
In his senior year, Bates-Diop averaged 19.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.6 blocks in 33.1 minutes per game while shooting 48 percent from the field and 35.9 percent from the 3-point line.
Bates-Diop can handle and score the ball in a variety of ways, and he is also a guy who is a good defender. He has an excellent looking jump shot and can score in the post as well.
The Ringer labeled Bates-Diop as a “combo forward who can space the floor and defend multiple positions.” They compared him to Jonas Jerebko and Brian Scalabrine. I think of him as a Trevor Ariza or more measured Marcus Morris type of player. He is a smart, mature, calm player who is going to make the right play.
Besides Maurice Harkless, the Blazers do not have a guy who can do those things at the forward position consistently. Bates-Diop would mainly play small forward and power forward, but has the skills to play shooting guard as well. He would not have to be the main guy for the Blazers, but could become someone who plays hard on defense and hits shots when defenses leave him open to help out on Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum or Nurkic.
On the defensive side, he uses his long arms to contest a lot of shots and gets his hands on deflections. He competes when he is defending guards, wings and even significantly bigger guys in the post.