In sports with promotion and relegation, when teams get relegated and suffer significant losses of revenue as a result, the bigger teams who survived tend to pluck the prized pieces from the relegated upon season’s end. And while American baseball does not have the same sort of system, the NBA teams nevertheless yield tremendous spending power relative to the rest of the world, and can generally get who they want. Functionally, with only rare exceptions, they have the pick of the litter.
To that end, a former member of the Phoenix Suns – albeit briefly – is highly likely to be on the market this summer, as his current EuroLeague club underperform amid ongoing financial problems. And having only gotten better since his brief time as a Sun, his name is being bandied about in NBA circles as being a potential name on the free agent market.
His name is Alpha Diallo. And he is one of the best defenders around today.
Diallo’s Early Career And Suns Audition
Diallo is an American-Guinean wing who has internationally in Greece and France – or rather, the French league – in the six years following his college career at Providence College. He played four seasons at Providence from 2016 through 2020, and during his senior season in 2019-20 averaged 14.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game as a do-it-all wing while earning All-Big East First Team honors.
Diallo began his professional career in Greece with GS Lavrio, and averaged 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game in his one year of Greek play, shooting 52.9% from the field and 41.1% from three-point range. His performance in Greece – and particularly the uptick in his outside shooting, which had been his weakness coming out of Providence led to interest from EuroLeague clubs during the following offseason – and also from the NBA.
Sandwiched between his one year with Lavrio and his five years with AS Monacocame Diallo’s sole sojourn to date with the NBA. He joined the Suns for summer league in 2021, and appeared in two games with the team. The disjointed nature of summer league, however, does not favor defensive whizzes such as Diallo, and no full contract was forthcoming. He instead signed with Monaco to play at the EuroLeague level – and has been there ever sicne, getting consistently better.
First NBA Contract May Yet Come
Diallo’s basic statistics have been remarkably consistent across his five seasons with Monaco. He averaged 10.3 points per game his third year, and 11.9 this past year, with the other three all falling somewhere in between. What he has however done is make incremental improves year on year, to his scoring bag, his outside shooting, his decision-making, and his four-position defense.
In the 2025-26 EuroLeague season, Diallo continued as a primary perimeter defender, while averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.4 steals in 42 games while shooting 49.0% from the field. He won the EuroLeague Best Defender Trophy, thriving as a wing/face-up forward defender, transition scorer and secondary ball handler. Standing 6’7 and 210lbs with lateral movement, some burst, great anticipation and a high motor, Diallo absolutely looks the part of an NBA defensive specialist, and was built to thrive in the pace of the modern game. It is not a coincidence that as the EuroLeague has sped up, Diallo has been more effective. If the Champagnie brothers can do it, so can Diallo.
Monaco have had financial troubles all season, and despite reports that former NBA All-Star Jamal Mashburn is part of a consortium looking to rescue the team, the damage to the spirit of the incumbent players is done. Diallo, it appears certain, will leave. The European rumor mill initially seemed convinced that he would join Spanish giants Barcelona, but has now pivoted to unanimous reporting that Diallo will join Dubai Basketball, the current home of the enigmatic Bruno Caboclo, in an deal that contains an NBA opt-out clause.
Whether Diallo ever uses that opt-out or not, it is not for us to say. But what we can definitely say is that Alpha Diallo is an NBA-caliber player. One that the Suns could stand to revisit, five years later.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Former Suns Forward Touted to Rejoin NBA Next Season appeared first on HEAVY.