Boris Diaw has agreed to a deal with Paris-Levallois in LNB Pro A, the top tier league in France. His deal reportedly has an opt-out clause that would allow Diaw to accept a contract either with an NBA team or elsewhere in Europe.
The 35-year old Diaw, a Paris native, returns home to continue his career after 14 seasons in the NBA. Boris has appeared in over 1,000 games in the NBA, averaging 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. Most notably, Diaw was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2006 and won a championship with the Spurs in 2014.
Rudy Gobert, a teammate of Diaw’s last season in Utah, recently tweeted his surprise that no NBA General Manager decided the veteran power forward was worth a contract.
Very surprised that no GM had the idea of signing Boris Diaw this summer. Maybe they haven’t watched the playoffs last year…
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) September 14, 2017
This will likely change. Because Diaw negotiated the opt-out in his contract with Levallois, he can return to the NBA at some point this season to help bolster the bench for a team looking to make a playoff run.
His role may have taken a step back in recent years, but he still has plenty left to offer an NBA team. In the past two seasons, he’s averaged roughly 5 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds in 18 minutes a game. In 2015-16 with the Spurs, Diaw appeared in 76 games almost exclusively off the bench. Last season with the Jazz, he played in 73 games with 33 starts filling in for the oft-injured Derrick Favors.
