Jalen Brunson saw it playing pickup basketball before the preseason. Josh Hart realized it during training camp.
So did Mike Brown. His rookie forward selected 51st overall in the 2025 NBA Draft showed flashes of the player he’s slowly become in his first season in New York back in September.
“In training camp we were like, ‘this kid might have something,’ because he showed flashes,” Brown said after the Knicks defeated the Boston Celtics, 111-89, for their ninth win in their last 10 games on Sunday, a game the freshman forward earned his first Defensive Player of the Game honor of the season. “And then as time went on it’s like, ‘OK, we’ve got to start trying to throw him out there with his length. He’s growing pretty fast, let’s get more of an opportunity.
“You guys have seen his growth. It’s been little by little.”
Mohamed Diawara didn’t see any of it coming. He knew his opportunities might be more limited given the minutes distribution at his position. Mikal Bridges is the NBA’s reigning ironman and hasn’t missed a game in his professional or collegiate career. Josh Hart is the league’s reigning minutes leader, a revelation Brown came to via a mid-season reinsertion into the starting lineup. And OG Anunoby is OG Anunoby, the most impactful player on a Knicks roster competing for a championship.
But the rookie kept his head down. He kept working hard behind the scenes and supporting his teammates from the bench. Most importantly, he maximized the opportunities given by a head coach more willing to throw young players into the fire.
And from that fire has emerged a versatile forward with wild upside on both ends of the floor, an unlikely candidate to play a steady role on a veteran team with deep playoff aspirations.
“Sometimes we’ve thrown him out to start games,” said Brown. “And seeing how he responds when he starts games–big games–has given us more confidence to put him on the floor.”
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Ask any player within the Knicks’ locker room why they were able to turn nine losses in 11 games into nine wins in 10 games, and they’ll inevitably utter some variation of the phrase “improved defensive communication.”
Diawara wasn’t supposed to be on the floor in the first quarter of a high-leverage playoff preview against the Boston Celtics–certainly not as pick No. 51 last June–but with Anunoby (toe) out of the rotation, he checked in at the 7:15 mark of the opening period on Sunday. And on his first defensive possession following a Mikal Bridges made layup, it’s Diawara who’s signaling to Bridges to pickup Celtics’ All-Star Jaylen Brown in the back court. Seconds later, when the Celtics put Diawara and Bridges in pick-and-roll action, the rookie once again is pointing out Brown’s position on the floor.
The possession resulted in a missed shot, a Boston offensive rebound, then a turnover leading to an easy Karl-Anthony Towns transition dunk–and a furious timeout from the always furious Joe Mazzulla. On the Knicks’ next offensive possession, Diawara scoreed at the rim on acrobatic finish over Boston’s Hugo Gonzalez on a pick-and-roll feed from Jalen Brunson, the captain who saw potential for these moments ahead of the season.
“I could see he was really good and smart and talented. So I’m not surprised at what he’s able to do given the opportunity,” said Brunson. “He listens. He corrects his mistakes the next time. He’s working really hard. And this is only the beginning for him.”
The Knicks don’t want to rush their rookie forward’s development. Quite frankly, with the roster as currently constructed, they don’t need to, and they know more playing time is the only way Diawara can pick up real-world experience he can use to improve his game.
“In training camp, everybody was like, ‘he’s gonna be good.’ And I think with him, it was just more about getting more comfortable, more experience, more minutes, those kinds of things,” added Josh Hart. “But he’s gonna be extremely good. He’s extremely talented, defensively he can be all over the place, but offensively he’s knocking down shots. He’s really good especially when they guard him with bigs. He can knock down shots but also play in the pocket and play make.”
They are excited, however, at his potential as a 6-foot-9 forward who can guard multiple positions, from Jaylen Brown, who shot 10-of-25 from the field for 26 points, to Payton Pritchard, who scored just six points on one-of-six shooting from three on Friday.
“It was tough because they’re both great players, but I was ready to take the challenge to guard them,” said Diawara. “And I was happy the coaches put me on them because that means they think I’m a great defender and I appreciate it. That was a tough matchup for sure to guard them today.”
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There’s been one caveat to Diawara’s insertion into Brown’s rotation: the almighty three-ball, a shot the rookie struggled to convert earlier in the season that he’s suddenly begun making with regularity entering the All-Star break.
Diawara converted on just six of his first 18 career 3s (8 of his first 24 including the preseason). He has since made 15 of his last 35 attempts from deep for 42.8% since Dec. 29. It was the night he believes his 3-point shooting turned for the better: a perfect four-of-four performance from deep that gave his confidence a jump start.
“But most of the time, it’s just work, working every day at practice with the shooting coach,” he said. “And yeah I’m getting really comfortable, and I believe in my shot right now.”
Diawara is shooting 39.8% from downtown in his rookie year, making him the third-most efficient 3-point shooting first-year player to appear in at least 30 games behind only Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel and Atlanta’s Asa Newell.
The rookie said he’s been soaking information from his vets like a sponge.
“He’s not here right now but Deuce was a big player for me. I’ve got Mikal. I got Josh, too. I got OG,” he said. “Pretty much everybody talks to me and tries to help me on the court, and off the court, too.”
It’s Diawara who is helping on the court in ways most rookie second-round picks never dream.
“Just keep working. The coaches saw it in practice and saw I was practicing hard every day,” he said. “And I think most of the time [I need to] to get reps and get comfortable on the court.
“That’s how I get more minutes.”
