LA Clippers second-round pick Diamond Stone made a rare appearance on Saturday night in the Oracle arena as Los Angeles suffered its worst loss of the season.
Diamond Stone, the 6’11” center out of Maryland was selected with the 40th pick in the 2016 draft by the LA Clippers, but has failed to get any sort of consistent time in the NBA, instead spending the last few months honing his craft in the D-League.
Stone took the floor late in the fourth-quarter of the blowout at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, scoring four points with one rebound in five minutes of play after being recalled from the Salt Lake City Stars last week.
Although Stone has played just 20 minutes in total for the Clippers, he has shown signs of being a capable role player for the future, making the most of his limited time to showcase his offensive skills and well-coordinated footwork for a player of his size.
In six games for Salt Lake City, the 19-year-old averaged 15.5 points and 10.8 rebounds.
Although not showing as strong a defensive awareness as the Clippers would like, Stone has displayed a surprisingly reliable mid-range game and an ability to not only get to the line, but convert his chances at a high percentage.
Leading up to last years draft, stone garnered a lot of interest from team executives and scouts as a potentially low-risk, high-reward prospect who was still probably two to three years away from being developed to the point of NBA readiness.
Stone, a Milwaukee native, declared for the NBA Draft after a single season at Maryland during which he averaged 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 23.1 minutes per game on .568/—/.761 shooting.
For the time being, it’s expected that Diamond Stone will continue to be in and out of the D-league as the Clippers are keen for him to develop and get as many meaningful minutes under his belt as possible.