The Hornets have guaranteed Moussa Diabate’s contract for the 2026/27 season, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk tweets.
It’s not a surprise, given that Diabate has proved to be one of the league’s biggest bargains. He’s due to make $2,461,462 next season, a pittance for a rotation player who started 47 of 73 games for Charlotte in 2025/26.
Diabate had a non-guaranteed deal that would have become partially guaranteed for $250K if he made the opening night roster and would have been fully guaranteed if he was still on the team beyond January 10.
Diabate won the NBA Hustle Award this past season. Among qualified players, he ranked first on a per-minute basis in offensive box outs, fourth in screen assists, eighth in offensive loose balls recovered, 10th in contested two-point shots, and 11th in defensive box outs and contested three-point shots.
Diabate provided some stability at the five for a Hornets team whose center position looked like a major question mark entering the season following the offseason trades of Mark Williams and Jusuf Nurkic. His counting stats included averages of 7.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks per game.
He’s slated to be an unrestricted free agent after next season if he doesn’t reach an extension agreement with the Hornets. He vowed in a recent interview to continue to improve, especially offensively.
“Not saying that at the end of the day, I want to (have) a pull-up jumper and all this, but being a threat offensively is going to make me even better, and it’s going to help my teammates,” Diabate said. “So for me, definitely being comfortable with the ball more. Whether it’s me pushing it on the break or just on my handoffs or anything like that, me driving to the basket. Just really expand my game.”
LaMelo Ball, Moussa Diabate, Tidjane Salaun, Liam McNeeley, #14 overall pick, Mia’s 2027 1st, Cha’s 2028 1st & Cha’s 2030 1st to Milwaukee
Giannis Antetokoumpo & a future 2nd to Charlotte
Hornets have even more they could give Milwaukee but this seems about fair. 4 1sts, 4 young guys that should all be in the Bucks rotation next yr, including a possible franchise type player at pg who’s alr been an all-star & only going into his 25yo season. Also get a young, inexpensive, elite off rebounder in Moose… Melo, Rollins, KPJ, Liam, AJ Green, Ousmane Dieng, Salaun, Turner, Moose is a fairly strong young base w/ a couple of lottery picks in this strong draft plus a bunch of future 1sts as well. Kuz & Melo would be comedy together as an added bonus & Portis is the perfect big to mentor Salaun.
Giannis goes to a city/region that has never had any type of real success on the pro level. But they are arguably the best basketball fans in the world. North Carolina may not be the huge market that people expect, but it would sorta go with Giannis’ overall vibe. They’d need to add another ball-handler but Coby & Tre ‘young AI’ Mann would def be able to score from the perimeter & Kon would flourish next to prime Giannis. They’d still have the #18 pick to replace some of the young talent they’d lose to Milwaukee. They’d still have Kalkbrenner to help Giannis protect the paint. And they’d still have Miles who wouldn’t be a great fit alongside Giannis but numerous teams would value his scoring ability from the forward spot. Hornets could trade Miles to his home state Pistons or elsewhere to recoup some of the picks they lose in this deal. Brandon Miller continues to ascend into all-star status & while Giannis’ presence may halt that a bit, he should def be an elite role player at worst in this scenario.