Valley Suns trade for Mamadi Diakite, who reportedly agrees to Exhibit-10 deal with Phoenix

The Valley Suns acquired the rights to Mamadi Diakite in a trade with the Westchester Knicks on Friday. The Phoenix Suns’ G League affiliate sent back Theo Maledon and Trevion Williams.

Maledon and Williams were both expansion draft choices by the Valley Suns earlier this summer. Maledon was on a two-way contract with Phoenix for a good chunk of last season and appeared in four games.

After the announcement, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported Diakite had agreed to an Exhibit-10 deal with Phoenix.

Diakite has split time between the NBA and G League over the past four years. Most recently, Diakite appeared in three games last season for the New York Knicks after averaging 12 points, 8.1 rebounds, and three assists for Westchester.

The 6-foot-9 forward spent his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks during their championship season, coached by new Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer.

I was a big fan of Diakite’s tenacity and intelligence at Virginia, where he helped a championship run in 2019 before going undrafted in 2020.

However, he’s always been held back as a non-3-point shooter — career 8-for-35 in 55 NBA games but a slightly better 48-for-140 in 42 G League games — at his size.

He has an uphill battle to make the NBA roster, but Phoenix has a chance to keep Diakite in the organization and see what he can develop into. There aren’t many other players in his mold within the team, first-round rookie Ryan Dunn maybe being the closest thing.