Senegalese center Moussa Diagne is entering this year’s draft, the Interperformances agency confirms to Shams Charania of RealGM. The 21-year-old Herb Rudoy client is No. 42 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com prospect rankings and 56th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, so it appears Diagne is in line to become a second-round pick. Of course, that’s assuming he stays in the draft and doesn’t withdraw as he did after declaring for last year’s draft.
The 6’10” Diagne has played a reserve role for Baloncesto Fuenlabrada, his Spanish league team, averaging 4.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14.0 minutes per game this season. He impressed on the boards at last year’s Adidas EuroCamp, a prestigious showcase for overseas players, pulling down 5.7 boards in 16.5 MPG, but his offense lagged behind, as he scored only 4.0 PPG at the event.
The deadline for Diagne and other international prospects to withdraw isn’t until June 15th, so he and Rudoy will have plenty of opportunity to get a better feel for how NBA front offices view him. He’ll probably have the chance to attend this year’s EuroCamp, and he can perform individual workouts for NBA teams. Regardless, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ends up as a draft-and-stash prospect and remains overseas even if he is drafted this year.