Moussa Diabate

Moussa Diabate (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

When Moussa Diabate is patrolling the paint, best believe he’ll stop at nothing to take what is his. The fourth-year Charlotte Hornets big man is an undeniable force when he steps on the floor, ripping away the ball from anybody who dares to step in his way.

“Just go for it. I think that’s the main mindset,” Diabate told RG in an exclusive pregame interview last Monday in Cleveland. “It doesn’t change at the end of the day. It’s always trying to go get whatever you can get. If that has to be through one person, two people, three people, the whole team, sh**, the whole coaching staff with it, then I’ll try everything I can.”

He wasn’t lying. Although it came in a loss, Diabate corralled 14 rebounds for the Hornets as they battled the Cleveland Cavaliers in a knock-down, drag-out contest on Monday. He was relentless with his efforts as usual, willing to go to extreme lengths to secure the basketball. That even included a couple of dust-ups while tracking it down, particularly when Diabate caught De’Andre Hunter square in the nose.

“Listen, it’s WWE out there,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said to RG in his postgame press conference. “I just feel like he’s just throwing people around, and I guess legally. I mean, I don’t know. I’ve gotta look at it. Obviously, give him a lot of credit. I’m not taking it.”

Diabate commanded the interior, especially in the first half, obtaining extra possessions and forcing the opponent to adjust its strategy coming out of the locker room. 

“Probably the best offensive rebounder in the league,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said in his postgame press conference. 

“We’ve gotta find a way to keep a guy like that off the boards. We told the guys at halftime, let’s put two on him.”

One-upping himself the very next game, Diabate wrangled a career-high 18 rebounds on Wednesday against Charlotte’s division foe, the Washington Wizards. He scored 12 points and posted a game-high plus-38 in the box score to boot.

“We’ve got to highlight my man Moussa,” Lee said following the 126-109 victory. “That’s another part of our offense that’s really clicking. He’s played more and had 18 total rebounds [Wednesday]. But the thing I told him, even after the game, is that when he comes up with offensive rebounds, there are so many people that just try to go up by themselves, and it becomes a little bit of a selfish thing. 

“Every time he gets it, he’s thinking a little bit, how can he score? But once he feels the crowd, he’s kicking out. That’s how we’re getting so many open looks, too. So, credit to Moussa.”

Impacting Winning

According to Basketball Reference, Diabate has the top offensive rebounding percentage in the NBA. Among those playing 23 minutes or fewer, he is one of five players in the league averaging at least three offensive boards. Only Diabate, Steven Adams, and Mitchell Robinson are pulling down at least three contested rebounds a night.

Those are just the individual numbers; the team’s numbers with him on and off the court tell an even greater story. Charlotte is nabbing 36.9% of its own misses with Diabate playing and just 27.4% while he’s resting, per Cleaning The Glass. Last season, it was more of the same (36.8% on vs. 26.3% off).

RG asked Lee on Monday what makes Diabate the presence that he is.

“I think it’s a mindset,” Lee said. “I think Moussa, No. 1, understands his NBA journey has been one where he’s gotta scrap for things. He’s got to outwork, outhustle. He hasn’t been guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup. He hasn’t been guaranteed a spot in the rotation. He’s had to go through the G League, so a bit of a journeyman so far. So I think there’s just this mindset of being hungry to succeed and to find his niche in the league.”

Diabate told RG that he agrees “completely” with Lee’s assessment because “that’s how my life’s been.” A native of Paris, France, he moved to the United States as a teenager and attended three different prep schools. He was a five-star McDonald’s All-American who participated in high-profile AAU circuits and Basketball Without Borders Global Camp at the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend, drawing the eyes of pro scouts for years.

He committed to the University of Michigan in the fall that year, spending one season with Juwan Howard and the Wolverines. Although the team produced four players currently in the league, it fell short of its collective goal with a 19-15 record. Diabate decided to enter the 2022 NBA Draft pool at the end of the campaign.

The Los Angeles Clippers selected him in the middle of the second round with the 43rd overall pick. He was a two-way contract player for a couple of seasons with the franchise, suiting up for only 33 games and spending the majority of his time developing in the G League. A double-double machine with plenty of room to blossom, Diabate drew the Hornets’ attention once his second LA contract expired. 

He got his first opportunity to showcase his abilities in early November 2024, seizing the chance. There was a different energy when Diabate got in, an infectious tenacity. By the time February rolled around, Charlotte’s front office converted his contract to a multi-year standard deal. All parties involved are seeing the benefits of that decision now.

“He just wants to impact winning as much as he possibly can,” Lee said to RG. “He wants to impact the game. He does it with his relentless offensive rebounding. You see him on our free-throw boxout, he’s going. If Kon [Knueppel] is shooting the ball, who’s a great three-point shooter, I think he’s got a really good knack for where the ball is gonna come off, too. So credit to him and his mindset on top of just the technique that he brings to the game, too.”

Next Steps

Diabate’s maturation will continue with expanded playing time. For example, offensively, Lee sees his growth as a screener, yet feels he can still improve with the details.

“Being able to have coverage recognition of if a big is back in center field, how are you screening? Maybe you’re sticking it a little bit more,” Lee said. “If a team is redding (switching), how are you getting out a little bit quicker? If a team is up, kinda blitzing, same type of thing, where you’re getting a little bit of contact but still getting to that seam a lot quicker. His feel for those situations, I think, is starting to get better.”

Confident in his abilities, Diabate looks at his overall development in a unique light.

“I wouldn’t say get better specifically in a sense that I don’t have it; it’s more like sharpening it up,” Diabate stated. 

“I think obviously my rebounding is something I can keep on getting better at, especially defensively. I think my touch around the rim, my reads in the pockets.”

“I think it’s something that I already have. It’s just more so understanding, ’Okay, if the defender is coming in, finding the open guy,’ because it goes so fast. So, it’s really a mind game where you have to understand and read the game very quickly and very fast.”

Lee is witnessing that ascension in real time. 

“You want to keep earning that trust of your teammates for them to be able to throw it to you and you keep making the right play over and over again, whether it’s for yourself or for kick-outs versus some of their shifts,” Lee said. 

Charlotte’s net rating is 9.4 points per 100 possessions worse when Diabate isn’t playing, which ranks in the 88th percentile according to Cleaning The Glass. He’s been watching a lot of film, which he feels is “crucial” to helping.

“I think damn near the base of the game,” Diabate said. “That’s one of the foundations. There’s so many games. I wouldn’t even think of a specific situation; I just think to do some things that just happened, it’s like you watch film and it’s like, ‘Alright, I’mma apply that.’ And then, boom. It’s like, ‘Okay, cool, now I see it.’”

On the other end, Diabate has all the tools he needs to succeed as a plus-defender.

“He’s shown us that he can guard the ball at a high level,” Lee said. “He comes over and blocks shots at a high level. Just that next level will be personnel tendencies, understanding that I can’t guard Josh Giddey maybe the same way I guard Donovan Mitchell. There’s certain things there that I think that with more reps, he’ll continue to get better.”

Trusting The Process

The Hornets do not boast the sexiest record of the bunch at 10-20, but their progress is highly evident. They’ve won four of their last six games, with plenty of closely-contested games in the first half of the NBA season. Lee likes Charlotte’s direction and believes his players are buying into what’s being sold.

“I focus on what’s our daily process,” Lee said. “We’re a group that’s really trying to build habits and routines, and I think that we want to embody just being obsessed with daily improvement. I would put our process up there with anybody on just how we structure our days, how we’re helping our players get better, communication level, the organization.

“When we can go to a game and have some results that I think follow up what you’ve been doing in practice and what you’ve been doing and your vitamins, it does feel pretty good. But we have to be able to sustain it and finding that consistency within it when game time comes.”

Diabate is on the same page as Lee. All it takes is practicing what is being preached, and the Hornets will be rewarded for it. He is a part of that, and there’s no telling how far he and his teammates can take it – now and down the line.

“I think there’s an understanding and agreement of being about what we say, not just talking about it,” Diabate said. “I think that’s the main thing.”