Mohamed Diawara‘s emergence as a rotation player has become a surprisingly impactful story for the Knicks, and his future with the team has suddenly become an off-season 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 an expiring $1.3MM contract, which was largely signed last summer because it was the cheapest option for the Knicks to fill out their rotation with. However, he has become perhaps the Knicks’ best draft pick since they took Miles McBride 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 to resolve, after that of impending unrestricted free agent Mitchell Robinson.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Jayson Tatum‘s status for the rest of the Celtics‘ season, 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). Tatum still has no set timeline for return.
- Nolan Traore knows the Nets are a work in progress, but he believes the team might have already discovered its backcourt of the future in the complementary skillsets of himself and fellow rookie Egor Demin, 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 get better with 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, compared to a 6-6 record without him.