Hamidou Diallo commits to Kentucky, and could play immediately ... but will he?
As if he didn’t already have enough, John Calipari just added a five-star recruit — another one — in the middle of the season.
Hamidou Diallo, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from New York City who was a top-10 or -15 prospect in the class of 2017, committed to Kentucky Saturday, and will enroll at the school for the spring semester. He will be eligible to play for the Wildcats immediately.
But will he? That’s the somewhat urgent question he and Calipari have to answer.
Diallo now has four options: He could play the rest of this season, and then return next year as a sophomore; he could play the rest of this season and then declare for the 2017 NBA draft; he could sit out the rest of this season and return to Kentucky in the fall for what would then be his freshman year; or he could sit out and declare for the 2017 NBA draft without ever stepping on a college court.
The expectation is that Diallo will choose the third of those four options. He’ll practice with the Wildcats but redshirt this season, and come back for the 2017-18 campaign. But it’s nonetheless an intriguing situation.
Diallo is eligible to enter the 2017 NBA draft in June despite only having played high school basketball for the same reasons Thon Maker was eligible for the 2016 NBA draft. He A) graduated from high school last spring, and B) was born on July 31, 1998, meaning he will turn 19 this upcoming summer. The NBA requires that players be at least a full year removed from their high school graduation and be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of a given draft to be eligible for it. Diallo fulfills both of those requirements.
Diallo isn’t the first player to enroll mid-season, but he’s the first to take this specific route. Dennis Smith did so at NC State last January, but that was to rehab with NC State’s medical staff and prepare for his freshman season, the 2016-17 one. Earlier this season, Austin Wiley enrolled early to play right away at Auburn, but he isn’t eligible for the 2017 NBA draft because he only graduated high school this past fall, and because his birthday is Jan. 8, 1999, meaning he won’t turn 19 until next calendar year. So Wiley’s most expeditious route to the NBA is a one-and-a-half-and-done.
Diallo, who had been playing as a post-grad player at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, could pull off a half-and-done, or even a zero-and-done.
SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell did a nice job of breaking down the pros and cons of Diallo’s potential choices here. Whether he does or doesn’t plan to play immediately, he could test the draft waters, get feedback from NBA evaluators, and if he’s told he’s a likely first-round pick, he could go pro; if the first round seems unlikely, he could choose to return to school before the deadline to withdraw in May.
It would be quite risky from Kentucky’s point of view to insert a player into an already talented rotation in the middle of conference play — a player, by the way, who has never once practiced with Kentucky’s current roster and coaching staff. That’s one of the reasons it sounds unlikely.
But even if he decides to sit out and only practice with the Wildcats, he’ll have a major decision to make. It could depend on whether he believe his draft stock has more to gain or lose from a year of college ball.
If Diallo does return to Lexington next year, he’ll join a six-player class that now has a five-star recruit at all five positions. Calipari just keeps on reloading.
