ARTICLE BY DAVID PEDDIGREW

Published On 03/15/2015

The Minnesota Timberwolves have on their roster one of the most intriguing projects for the 2015-2016, and I am not talking about the curly haired Kansas product with a thousand watt smile.

Enter the world of Senegalense Basketball Phenom, Gorgui Dieng

Gorgui saw his first major increase of minutes come during the second half of 2014, when both forwards Nikola Pekovic and Ronny Turiaf fell victim to debilitating wear and tear injuries on a Wolves roster that was desperately being held together by Kevin Love like a macrame egg. Past Head Coach Rick Adelman usually played to the Veteran coach stereotype of ignoring Rookies, a reputation that may have shortened his stay in Minnesota. (Maybe like letting Dieng and Muhammad average 17.3 MPG combined while Chase Budinger averaged 17.9 MPG, but I digress) in dire situations people can get desperate and Dieng became the go-to guy at Center.

Dieng took advantage of his increased playing time in late 2014 and set a Minnesota Timberwolves franchise record, becoming the only Timberwolf to Score 20 points and snatch 20 rebounds in his rookie season. He continued his record-breaking season by becoming the only player to record at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in their first three career starts (at least since the NBA started tracking starts in the 1970's, although the significance is not lost.) If you were curious about the other names on the list, they are Dave Cowens, Larry Smith, Terry Cummings, Roy Tarpley and Enes Kanter(?!).

Dieng parlayed his success in the starting position by winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for March, earning himself some league recognition for his impressive 8.6 Pts. 8.3 Rebs, and 61.3% FG averages over the duration of the month. Dieng's second half of the season was rewarded by the NBA when Gorgui was named to the All-NBA Second Rookie Team for 2014, an impressive feat for an unheralded Senegalese player drafted 21st overall.

The summer of 2014 set the tone for Dieng, as he left the FIBA World Cup with one of the most impressive standout performances from the tournament. Averaging 36.3 minutes, 16 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2 assists per game, he demonstrated an efficient and dominant performance, managing to shoot as well as 42% from the line over 6 games played. For a guy that had little to no exposure to the greater basketball world, Gorgui was catapulted into the forefront of the international Basketball conversation. Post FIBA saw the greater basketball world asking the question “Who the hell is this guy” and more importantly “Will he be able to do again in the NBA?”. These two questions seemed unimportant after the soap opera of Kevin Love reached a fever pitch and was finally dealt with (sorta...) If you haven’t been keeping up on the news than let me catch you up really quick on who they got back.