The Detroit Pistons have agreed to acquire guard Hamidou Diallo in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder, sending out Svi Mykhailiuk and the Houston Rockets' 2027 second-round pick.
The move adds another young wing player in Diallo to a Pistons team trying to figure out who its cornerstones will be as it tries to rebuild. Diallo, who will be a restricted free agent after this season, will have roughly two months to impress the league and increase his value. Meanwhile, the Thunder are hopeful that Mykhailiuk can provide some necessary outside shooting to a roster still identifying who the key pieces will be to build around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort.
Can Diallo carve out a future in Motown alongside Killian Hayes and Sekou Doumbouya? Will Mykhailiuk make a difference for the Thunder? And what will Oklahoma City do with all of those first- and second-round draft picks?
Kevin Pelton answers these questions and hands out trade grades for both teams.
Detroit Pistons get: Hamidou Diallo
Oklahoma City Thunder get: Svi Mykhailiuk, 2027 second-round pick (via Houston)
Oklahoma City Thunder: C+
From a certain perspective, Diallo and Mykhailiuk are nearly as similar as any two players in the NBA could be. They were drafted two spots apart in the 2018 second round (Diallo 45th by the Thunder, Mykhailiuk 47th by the Los Angeles Lakers, who dealt him to the Pistons for Reggie Bullock during his rookie season), primarily play shooting guard and both are making $1.66 million in the final season of their original contracts before hitting restricted free agency.
Given those common traits, this is the ultimate "challenge trade" -- which player do you like better? It's a bit surprising Oklahoma City chose against Diallo, who has been hyped by the team as a contender for Most Improved Player during a breakout campaign at age 22. After playing spot minutes as a reserve his first two seasons, Diallo had emerged as the leader of the Thunder's second unit, increasing his scoring average from 6.9 PPG to 11.9 while tripling his assists per game from 0.8 to 2.4.
The downside is Diallo still struggles to knock down outside shots. He's a career 26% 3-point shooter, with marginal improvement to 29% over the past two seasons. A free throw percentage in the 60s doesn't offer much hope of long-term improvement.
Diallo's success has primarily come from attacking the basket as aggressively as possible. That has worked well in transition. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Diallo's 3.7 shot attempts per 100 possessions in transition rank 22nd among regular players, and he has posted an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 68.1% on those shots. Take those away and Diallo's eFG% drops to 45.8% outside of transition, putting him in the 22nd percentile league-wide.
As my ESPN colleague Zach Lowe noted in a recent 10 things column, Diallo has done a better job this season of finding teammates when opponents cut off his drives in the half court, accounting for that improved assist rate. There have been times he has looked downright difficult to stop, including averaging 16.6 PPG, 8.0 RPG and 4.0 APG in five starts.
Still, Diallo isn't the future of the Oklahoma City backcourt. Those spots belong to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort, with whom Diallo's game is a tricky fit. It's Gilgeous-Alexander who is going to have the ball in his hands in the half-court offense whenever he's on the court, and putting a second marginal shooter on the court in addition to Dort causes spacing issues.
Surely, the Thunder also worried how much attention Diallo would command as a restricted free agent. As one of the younger players in a market where the demand for talent will outstrip the supply, Diallo could have been a target for a big offer sheet that would have made for a difficult decision for Oklahoma City.
The Thunder also have to think about fitting in all the first-round picks they have coming over the next few years, potentially including two lottery picks this summer. Useful players might find themselves out of Oklahoma City's plans because of the numbers crunch.
By comparison, Mykhailiuk brings a more complementary skill set to a Thunder team that ranks 28th in 3-point accuracy and drops to 29th out of 30 on catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts (35%, per Second Spectrum tracking on NBA Advanced Stats). Although Mykhailiuk hasn't been particularly effective on catch-and-shoot opportunities this season (33%), he hit 42% in 2019-20 on 226 attempts, which better reflects his touted shooting ability.
If Oklahoma City wasn't sure Diallo was part of its long-term plans, grabbing a useful role player and a lottery ticket of a second-round pick is better than letting him leave in free agency.
Detroit Pistons: B
Pistons GM Troy Weaver was hired last year from the Thunder, for whom he'd been vice president of basketball operations when they drafted Diallo, and it's logical to assume that he was a supporter of Diallo within the organization.
From a fit standpoint, Diallo might make less sense in Detroit. Although the Pistons have been marginally more accurate from 3-point range (35%, 25th in the league), they already have a collection of players who are best with the ball in their hands that also includes reserves Josh Jackson and Dennis Smith Jr. Spacing might be hard to come by on the Detroit second unit.
Still, the Pistons are at the point of their rebuilding process where collecting interesting players is more important than making sure they fit together. From that standpoint, adding a player with Diallo's potential at low cost is a good move for Detroit.