Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 reasons Hamidou Diallo was a bad pick

2. The Thunder should have sought out a playmaking prospect

The Oklahoma City Thunder now have five shooting guards on their main roster, but only one point guard: Russell Westbrook. Russ has certainly shown, via his back-to-back seasons averaging a triple-double, that he is a one-man show.

Raymond Felton, last year’s lone backup point guard, is entering free agency. The Thunder could have used this draft to get a point guard prospect to groom into a valuable role player. They haven’t done this since trading away Cameron Payne in February 2017 and waiving Semaj Christon in October. Even midway through the second round, there were still several available prospects with playmaking experience.

The Houston Rockets selected USC’s De’Anthony Melton (5.1 assists and 2.6 turnovers per 40 minutes in 2017) immediately after Diallo. Shortly thereafter, the New Orleans Pelicans took Penn State’s Tony Carr (5.7 assists, 2.6 turnovers per 40 in 2018) at No. 51.

The Dallas Mavericks even drafted SMU’s Shake Milton (4.8 assists, 2.5 turnovers per 40 in 2018) immediately after OKC took Devon Hall. By contrast, Diallo averaged 2.0 assists and 2.2 turnovers per 40 minutes in 2017-18.

A case could be made that the Thunder could develop Diallo into a decent distributor. On the other hand, why force the issue when you could have just selected the player you needed in the first place?