OKC Thunder: Ousmane Dieng Could Still Find Minutes

The Oklahoma City Thunder are now fresh off a championship, enjoying their success and offseason while looking toward a 2025-26 campaign.

The team has managed to retain everyone, inking their big three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren while keeping on the extensive depth that aided them on the title run. 

Despite retaining the best roster in the league — one that will be looked fondly on in hindsight — young forward Ousmane Dieng could still carve out a role as early as next season.

Drafted at No. 11 in a now-famed 2022 class for OKC, Dieng has struggled to exit the launchpad thus far in his career. A spindly combo forward, he was always looked at as a developmental bet for the squad, but simply didn’t grow at the same rate as others did en route to a championship-level roster.

His offense looks suave and his frame lends itself to versatile defense, but his physicality has lacked so far, and the consistency hasn’t been there in bounds. Now entering his fourth season, he’s failed to score more than five points per game in any season, shooting a career-best 43% from the field in Year 3. 

Prior to the Thunder trading first-year guard Dillon Jones to the Wizards, many looked for a potential Dieng exit.

And still, Dieng is just 22, and showed glimpses of his potential just last season. Prior to injury, he’d begun to shoot the ball and play defense with confidence, providing impactful spot minutes for a surging squad.

General Manager Sam Presti touched on those minutes at his end-of-season interview.

“He had some great moments for us this year in real rotation minutes,” Presti said. “Minutes he could not have provided the year before. I like his path because when we drafted him, he was maybe the youngest or one of the youngest players in that draft class, so we knew this was going to take some time.”

"I feel pretty good about where he is.”

The vision remains there for Dieng to work his way into the lineup, despite the various factors working against him. The team still lacks a forward his size that can function on the perimeter and guard across multiple positions.

Should he re-find the confidence and consistency that he tapped into for a short stint in Year 3, he could very well re-gain those spot minutes and more for the Thunder.