{"id":876798,"date":"2026-10-09T22:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876798\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T22:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:32:17","slug":"alpha-diallos-defense-making-impression-on-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876798\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpha Diallo’s defense making impression on Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alpha Diallo<\/a> plans to make some physical introductions this season.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Nuggets <\/a>rookie used the first two preseason games of his NBA career against the Jazz to establish himself as a capable defender, but he embraced the idea of being a relative unknown in NBA circles after starting his professional career abroad.<\/p>\n

\n Recommended Stories
\n \u25b6\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever I\u2019m assigned to guard at that time, if they don\u2019t know who I am, then hopefully they\u2019ll find out real soon,\u201d Diallo said after Friday\u2019s practice at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

Julian Strawther <\/a>got to know his new teammate\u2019s game over the summer. There were plenty of one-on-one matchups in the Nuggets\u2019 practice gym, and Diallo made a strong first impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been super fun. We get to push each other,\u201d Strawther said. \u201cFor me being a scorer and being able to play against a guy that\u2019s that physical and handsy and just that good defensively and then for him to come in and see the offensive guys in the league and how guys in the league are trying to create fouls and advantages\u2026 It\u2019s been real good to battle. It\u2019s been iron sharpens iron.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UtahUtah Jazz guard Darryn Peterson (22) looks to drive to the basket during defended by Denver Nuggets forward Alpha Diallo (11) the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo\/Tyler Tate)<\/p>\n

Diallo forced an 8-second violation in his first minutes of NBA basketball and continued to hound ballhandlers the length of the court. That\u2019s an ability the Nuggets have lacked in previous seasons, but that\u2019s far from the extent of Diallo\u2019s defensive offerings. Nuggets coach David Adelman believes he can use the 6-foot-7 wing in other ways, including physically fronting opposing bigs, like other teams have guarded Nikola Jokic in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat teams are trying to do to Nikola \u2014 aggressive, get into somebody\u2019s knees, front him \u2014 it allows the back side of your defense to come help. I absolutely think he can do that. The other things with Alpha, Aaron did it the other night. \u2026 Shedding screens in NBA is such a big deal, because you can keep your matchups and you don\u2019t get victimized by switching.\u00a0 \u2026 Alpha can do that. You can say, \u2018stay with your matchup,\u2019 and he\u2019ll do it,\u201d Adelman said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the league is.\u00a0 If you can do that, your defense is going to be a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Diallo brings to the offense remains to be seen. He missed both shots from the field in the preseason opener but knocked down a pair of free throws in Boulder. A couple of nights later in Salt Lake City, Diallo made all three of his shots from the field, including a couple of 3-pointers, but missed all four of his free throws. The shooting is a bonus, but the Nuggets will ask him to operate in the dunker spot where guys like Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Bruce Brown have gotten easy buckets in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to get used to playing in the dunker a little bit. He made a couple of corner 3s, which is great, but if he\u2019s out there and it\u2019s Cam Johnson and \u2026 all of our main guys, he\u2019s going to have to play the dunker sometimes, especially if Aaron\u2019s not in the game,\u201d Adelman said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of who we are. We post up guys, and that\u2019s our spacing. That\u2019s something he\u2019ll work on through the preseason and get used to. It\u2019s not about impacting as a dunker as far as a scorer. It\u2019s just the proper spacing behind the post up.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning All-Big East honors in his final two seasons at Providence, Diallo\u2019s professional basketball journey started in Greece with Lavrio. Then, he spent five seasons with AS Monaco in France where he won domestic championships and won the EuroLeague\u2019s Best Defender award last season before deciding to see how his defensive chops measure up in the NBA. Between the weight and film rooms, Diallo\u2019s hoping to be ready to introduce himself to some of the NBA\u2019s elite scorers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of weight room, a lot of strength and conditioning. We\u2019ve got a great staff here, and they help keep my body ready and able to slide my feet, guard bigger guys and guard smaller and faster guys as well. It all translates from the weight room to the court,\u201d Diallo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still learning. We\u2019ve had two preseason games, but I\u2019m in here every day watching film as well on some of the plays we\u2019ve went through and some of the plays we haven\u2019t even gone through yet. I\u2019m just trying to get a step ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpha Diallo plans to make some physical introductions this season. The 29-year-old Nuggets rookie used the first two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[326538,4134,4138,355,99],"class_list":["post-876798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alpha-diallo","tag-david-adelman","tag-julian-strawther","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}