The New Orleans Pelicans signed one of their Summer League stars, former Ole Miss Rebels forward Malik Dia, to a two-way deal on Tuesday.
The New Orleans Pelicans roster is coming into shape as they now have a full team under contract for next season after signing ex-Ole Miss Rebels star Malik Dia to a two-way deal on Tuesday morning, per ESPN's Shams Charania.
Dia is one of the players who made the most sense to receive the final two-way spot next to Jaron Pierre Jr. and Hunter Dickinson. He had a very strong Summer League performance, proving that he probably could have been a second-round pick.
Throughout the five games, Dia averaged 10.0 points and 5.8 rebounds on 37.5/35.7/71.4 shooting splits with about a steal and a block per game. The efficiency wasn't great, but it wasn't a huge issue the entire time. In a small sample size like that, trends are more important than actual numbers.
One trend that the Pelicans were pleasantly surprised by was his ability to hit a jumper. He had been around 34-35% from three for most of his career, but that plummeted to 27.5% on 2.3 attempts per game last year for the Rebels. The fact that he looked natural and went back up in efficiency was a great sign.
To make the team, Dia will need to continue to work on his defense. He is stronger than he is quick, which could be a great thing as Joe Dumars stated that this team needs to be tougher this year. Dia needs to prove that he can get stops, and then perhaps the team will call him up to the full-time roster.
