Hamidou Diallo of the Detroit Pistons will be one of many shooting guards entering restricted free agency this offseason.
The Pistons are likely to re-sign him, as Troy Weaver is high on his potential and cleared some cap space in the Delon Wright trade likely so he could keep Diallo for the long term.
The Pistons aren’t going to have a ton of money to throw around and Weaver indicated that the they were going to take care of their own guys first and not have a lot of external additions.
The question is how much Hamidou Diallo will make on his next contract, as the Detroit Pistons don’t want to overpay for a guy who has some glaring flaws.
The Nets are in a similar situation with restricted free agent Bruce Brown, who will also be looking for a raise and also has some serious flaws.
Detroit Pistons: Hamidou Diallo and Bruce Brown have some similarities
Both Diallo and Brown are plus athletes with good length that allows them to defend multiple positions on the perimeter.
Diallo mostly came off the Pistons’ bench, while Brown earned a spot in the starting lineup for over half of the Nets’ games, including several in the playoffs.
Diallo scored 11.6 points per game to Brown’s 8.8, but neither of them were very good shooters from range, a glaring flaw that they need to improve.
Brown is the better defender at this point in his career, but Diallo is two years younger and has a higher ceiling on both ends.
Brown has already proven himself capable of playing well on the big stage, while Diallo has yet to play for a good team.
If I had to guess, I’d say that Diallo will get a bigger contract just because of his younger age and higher ceiling, though Brown has shown he can be a key contributor on a championship caliber team.
If either of these guys could shoot from range they’d be looking a substantial pay raise, but as it stands, I think Brown will get something in the range of 3 years $21 million while Diallo will get the more like 9-10 million per season.
Both players represent slight risks, as they are fairly one-dimensional, but the Detroit Pistons will bet on Diallo’s potential to be more. This could lead to Josh Jackson becoming expendable and if the Pistons think they can’t afford to pay two shooting guards who can’t shoot, it will be Jackson who is moved in a trade.
Brown and Diallo are both interesting free agents who can help the right team if the price is right.