Hamady N'Diaye

Sacramento - Hamady N'Diaye: N'Diaye is not reliable enough on the court to be of much use (unskilled offensively save for a mediocre jumper, extremely foul prone) and yet too old (turning 27 next week) to any longer qualify as a project. His retention would be a surprise.

Sacramento -­ Hamady N'Diaye: N'Diaye's one game with the Reno Bighorns resulted in 7 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. He is still prone to moments of awkwardness and confusion offensively, and even on the glass, but his shot blocking instincts are rivaled by few. However, turning 27 next month, he shouldn't be on the cusp of the D­League like this any more.

In some additional related bookkeeping, the reason for many of the players listed in the previous list was due to the NBA's contract guarantee date. All players on NBA rosters on or after January 10th have their contracts guaranteed for the remainder of the season (future seasons are unaffected); this also includes waivers. In-season waivers are 48 hours long and do not include weekends; therefore, with the 10th of January being a Monday, players had to be waived by close of business on Wednesday 5th in order to have cleared waivers before the deadline date.

Eleven players with not fully guaranteed contracts were waived in the hours before that deadline: Steve Novak, Damien Wilkins, Jarron Collins, John Lucas III, Ime Udoka, Lester Hudson, Ronald Dupree, Brian Skinner, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Sundiata Gaines and Rodney Carney. Twenty seven unguaranteed players survived; Delonte West, Von Wafer, Brian Scalabrine, Samardo Samuels, Manny Harris, Alonzo Gee, Brian Cardinal, Melvin Ely, Gary Forbes, Jeremy Lin, Ish Smith, A.J. Price, Ike Diogu, Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Ben Uzoh, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Shawne Williams, Malik Allen, Garret Siler, Patty Mills, Sean Marks, Darnell Jackson, Chris Quinn, Sonny Weems, Jeremy Evans, Cartier Martin and Hamady Ndiaye. Players with contracts who had already become guaranteed due to specific guarantee stipulations in their contracts were Sherron Collins, Derrick Brown, Josh McRoberts, Willie Warren, Derrick Caracter, Luther Head and Joey Dorsey.

N'Diaye barely played in summer league, much to this annoyance of his agent, as Epic Vale started four of the five games at centre instead. The Wizards didn't really need to do this; McGee's place in next year's rotation was (or should have been) already secured, and as a third year player, all his presence in summer league did was minimise the opportunities for N'Diaye. (The third centre on the roster, Aaron Pettway, had 14 fouls in 33 minutes. Not even Josh Lomers had that many.) With his minutes gone, N'Diaye did not have much opportunity to impress, and thus he did not have much opportunity to drum up overseas interest; therefore, here he is, on a completely unguaranteed one year minimum salary contract, trying to make it as a young project big man on a team already with two of those. Hamady has a chance of sticking, but this situation isn't ideal for anyone.

Pick 56: With their 14th pick of the night, Minnesota (picking for Washington) select Hamady N'Diaye from Rutgers.

I like this pick. N'Diaye shares more than a nationality and an apostrophe with Boniface N'Dong. He defends around the basket, rebounds sufficiently, blocks shots, is athletic, has a huge wingspan (as Jay Bilas naturally saw fit to mention), run the court, has some rudimentary post-up offense and can also run the pick and roll. Washington has a made a good late pick here; even though N'Diaye is still raw and about to turn 24, he could potentially be an NBA player.

The Timberwolves/Wizards trade now reads Trevor Booker and Hamady N'Diaye for Lazar Hayward and Nemanja Bjelica. I would rather have the former duo.