The Cleveland Cavaliers are expected to stash their No. 39 NBA draft pick Khalifa Diop in Valencia, sources say BasketNews.
As BasketNews reported before, Valencia was after a 20-year-old big man for weeks. The initial plan was to sign him as a draft-and-stash player unless the NBA team wished to call him to the league immediately.
But the Cavaliers plan to keep their 2.11 m Senegalese second-rounder to develop in Europe, and the EuroLeague-bound Valencia is ready to use him in the two major European competitions.
Diop is coming off a successful season with Gran Canaria. He was named the 2021-22 EuroCup Rising Star Trophy winner.
Diop averaged 5.7 points on 58.2% two-point shooting, 3.9 rebounds, and one assist.
In the games where he spent more than 15 minutes on the floor, a promising big posted 7.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 12.6 PIR.
Diop also posted 7 points (2FG: 64.1%), 4.3 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks on average in the Spanish league.
He played a couple of his best games of the season against Valencia Basket.
Diop had his EuroCup career-high 18 points in 21 minutes in an overtime win (91-90) on February 1.
He also was 2 points shy of his highest-scoring game in Spain when his 13-point performance boosted Gran Canaria to a victory 89-83 on May 8.
Valencia officially parted ways with bigs Mike Tobey and Louis Labeyrie recently.
 | Valencia Basket | |
| Position | Player | Status |
| PG | Martin Hermansson | Signed until 2022 +1 |
| PG | Nenad Dimitrijevic | Signed until 2025 |
| SG | Klemen Prepelic (story) | Signed until 2023 |
| SG | Josep Puerto | Signed until 2025 |
| SF | Victor Claver | Signed until 2024 |
| SF | Xabi Lopez-Arostegui | Signed until 2025 |
| SF/PF | Jaime Pradilla | Signed until 2024 |
| PF/C | Jasiel Rivero | Signed until 2023 |
| C | Bojan Dubljevic | Signed until 2023+1 |
| Coach | Alex Mumbru (story) | |
| Expired contract | Mike Tobey (won't comeback), Sam Van Rossom, Louis Labeyrie (won't comeback), Olivier Hanlan (won't comeback) | |
| Rumored to leave | ||
| Interested | Will Cummings, Luigi Datome, Chris Jones, Rolands Smits, Khalifa Diop (story), Marius Grigonis | |
