Mohamed Diawara‘s emergence as a rotation player has made his future with the Knicks an offseason priority, Stefan Bondy writes for the New York Post.
Diawara, who has become an unexpectedly reliable shooter off the bench for New York, is on a one-year, $1.3MM contract that makes him eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Since the Knicks signed him to that one-year deal, he has become perhaps the team’s best draft pick since Miles McBride was selected in the second round of the 2021 draft, Bondy writes in a separate piece.
“There’s just a lot of little things when you see Mo play that make you go, ‘Oh my gosh, wow,'” coach Mike Brown said. “And all those things, when you add them up to a possible opportunity, it gives you more confidence as a coaching staff to throw him out there and say, ‘OK, let’s see what’s going to happen.'”
While he has shown some interesting flashes of dribbling and passing at 6’9″, Diawara knows what he needs to focus on if he wants to succeed in the future.
“Three-point shooting and defense,” he said. “Those are things that are going to make me stay in the league for the longest.”
Bondy writes that the still-raw wing is not expected to command a large market as a restricted free agent but that his contract situation will be one of the more important ones for the team to resolve, after that of impending unrestricted free agent Mitchell Robinson.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- There’s still no timeline for Jayson Tatum‘s return from his Achilles tear, but there have been encouraging signs of late, including his recent 5-on-5 scrimmage with the Celtics‘ G League team. Teammate and co-star Jaylen Brown recently added his cautious endorsement, saying, “In terms of what I’ve seen, he looks pretty damn good,” according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (via Twitter).
- Nolan Traore knows the Nets are a work in progress, but he believes he and fellow rookie Egor Demin complement one another well and could become Brooklyn’s long-term backcourt, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “We complete each other, and we play great [together],” Traore said. “He is a good shooter, and it is always good for me to play with good shooters.” Head coach Jordi Fernandez says he likes what he’s seen from the two and challenges them to improve their physicality. Traore started the season in and out of Brooklyn’s rotation, but he has hit his stride of late, averaging 12.0 points and 4.8 assists on 43.2% shooting from deep in his last 12 games.
- Josh Hart is an identity-setter for the Knicks, but despite being an integral part of the team’s success, he knows he’s unlikely to ever get an All-Star nod, Steve Popper writes for Newsday (subscriber link). “I think you’d always like to be an All-Star,” Hart said. “Do I think a guy that’s my style of play is really going to be an All-Star? Probably not. If I was ever fortunate to be in that position, I would love it, but I just know the play style, it’s not the glitz and the glamour to it.” The Knicks have a record of 29-14 with Hart playing this season and have gone just 6-6 without him.
Well, Draymond is a 4 time all star, so I think if Josh continues to improve and the team has success, he could be an all star.
Hart is the heart of the Knicks. Reminds me Oakley great player does all the dirty work. Diawara has been fantastic however with the Knicks counting every penny. I doubt highly they can afford Diawara,Duece and Mitch to stay under the second apron
Diawara has avg 7.1 mins for the yr. He had a good 4 game run avg 20 mins. Lets not tgrow him a parade yet. He has great size. Has potential for a 2way player. Actually reminds me of OG a lot. 4 gms is nothing to get looney about. We have plenty of time to see him. As a rookie he looks polished. He plays smart and within himself. Nice to see that from a rook. Solid pick. He just adds to the bench depth. Knicks are gearing up and looking good. Be nice to get command of the second seed. Even push the Pistons …. NYK
Diawara is only 20 and was clearly a steal at the 51st pick. And it’s not just the last 4 games, he has his career high 18 pts on 7-9/4-4 shooting in < 18 minutes as a starter with Hart out in the road win over the Pelicans.
brown needs to find him rotation minutes.
If the Knicks can't afford him, there will be plenty of teams that will be interested!
So one game got you excited. Kolek has had some nice games too. He isn’t playing over Alvarado now. Diawara is a nice pick. He has already opened eyes. The bench is Mitch, McBride, Shamet, Alvarado, Sochan then Diawara. Knicks are a contender. Diawara will get his chance. He’s not in top 10 yet. And why would they let him walk. We got more important things to handle now. He will be dealt with. Great to have depth ……. should of done this for Thubs.
I like Diawara. But his contract situation is disturbing. Hopefully, it won’t be another casualty of the Yabu fiasco.
Diawara should be on a 2-way contract, and thus effectively controlled at minimum wage for the next two seasons. He’s not, and will be a RFA next year, so we’ll see. Either way, it takes alot of the fun out of hitting on a late SRP if you have to pay a guy market value after one season as a borderline rotation player, or worse, you can’t pay him market and he’s lost.