The Maryland Terrapins are one of the most talented teams in the country, consistently making an appearance in the top five in both polls throughout the preseason and non conference. Talented sophomore point guard Melo Trimble leads the way as a potential first round pick.
Perhaps the most talented of the bunch has recently broken out, with former five-star McDonald’s All-American Diamond Stone showing his talent in the latter half of the non conference slate. Stone has been a consistent force for the Terrapins of late, notching double-figures in eight straight games capped off with a 39-point, 12-rebound performance against lowly Penn State. He’s shown a nice touch around the basket and from the baseline, on his way to a 13.2 per game scoring averaging — which is second on the team.
Stone has NBA size and length at 6-11 with a 7-3.5 wingspan, and utilizes his 250-pound frame to create angles smartly around the basket. He’s an ambidextrous finisher around the rim, and has a quicker-than-expected second leap, which allows him to be a force on offensive rebound putbacks. Stone has a soft touch as well, and when you combine all these attributes you get a dominant low post scorer at just 19 years old.
Stone has surprising mobility, which allows him to hunt offensive rebounds with ease and play in space out of the pick and roll offensively. Stone’s excellent length helps him as a weakside shot blocker on defense, where he blocks 1.4 shots per game, including nine blocks over his last four games. When Stone’s at his best, he runs the floor extremely hard, getting opportunities solely because he outworks the opposition. While he has yet to prove himself as a shooter with any range at the college level, a 77.4 percent free throw shooting average leads me to believe he could improve his range in time.
There are still a number of things for Stone to work on for the next level; right now he simply lacks the explosion to finish over NBA-level big men, as his game is more smooth/skilled than dynamic. Stone needs to improve his overall awareness and activity level while defensive rebounding — he’s only averaging 5.5 per game in around 20 minutes per game at this stage of the season. Stone still needs to work on passing out of the post and general awareness with the ball — he’s accumulated just two assists all season in 301 total minutes on the floor.
Questions will linger — especially in this new pace-and-space NBA — about his ability defensively to switch onto other players on the pick and roll. Stone still has to get in better shape as well, which should help his overall game immensely. It’s easy to see a team just try to utilize his lack of lateral quickness defensively, but maybe in time he’ll improve his body to where he can stay with small-ball centers. Stone’s initial role might be best as a backup center, taking advantage of his great size and touch on lesser big men.
The good news is NBA trainers should be able to get the best out of him once they get him into a weight room, because at just 18 years old (he turns 19 on February 10) there’s a lot of room for improvement. When projecting to the NBA, Stone has a very high ceiling, but it’s going to take some time to reach it.
Right now, Stone projects as a mid-first round pick — but if he can keep up his incredible scoring prowess on a contending Maryland team that seems destined for a deep March Madness run, it seems like he has the most to gain. Stone’s combination of size, fluidity, touch and upside should intrigue a lot of NBA teams come June.