New Orleans Pelicans Draft Diamond Stone with 40th Pick; Trade Rights to Los Angeles Clippers

Diamond Stone walked onto the Maryland Terrapins campus as the most highly touted recruit newcomer on a team that had national championship aspirations. At times at the collegiate level, he proved to simply be way too much for the opposition to handle.

Stone is a physical monster for his age standing at 6'10" and weighing 254 pounds. Stone possesses strength in the low post that should allow him to be a formidable presence down low in the NBA. Despite his size, Stone showed fairly good post skill on the block and an ability to step out and shoot mid range jumpers at times at Maryland.

One of the skills that Stone has that should allow him to excel at the next level is his soft touch. At his size, shooting 76% from the free throw line like he did at Maryland is a stellar number in an NBA with big men that we've become accustomed to watching shoot 50 or 55% from the charity stripe. You will certainly never see opposing teams employ the "Hack-a-Stone" strategy if he can translate his touch to the next level.

As any big man has to do, Stone still has a bit of work to do to have an NBA level post skill set, but he's one of the more offensively gifted big man in the draft.

Stone is a player who can typically be counted to deliver each game, scoring double figures in 26 of the Terps 35 games this past season. He won't have to be a big time scorer in the NBA as long as he can rebound and protect the rim, but he definitely is far from a scrub on the offensive side of the floor.