Mohamed Diawara shot 1-for-14 in two summer league games, and Knicks fans lost it. The panic misses what actually changed this offseason. New York let Mitchell Robinson walk to Boston and lost Ariel Hukporti to Philadelphia to stay under the second apron, which means Mike Brown will play more small ball than he did during the championship run. That puts a premium on a 6-foot-9 wing with a 7-foot-4 wingspan who can guard four positions, and it gives Diawara a real path into the rotation behind OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. His next step is offensive: cutting with purpose and finishing at the rim inside New York’s motion principles, where the man in the dunker spot has to be a live threat for the spacing to work. Add a four-year, $11.2 million contract that’s guaranteed for only two seasons, and Diawara becomes the cheapest way a capped-out champion stays deep.

Mohamed Diawara spent the best afternoon of his life on Murray Street. Ya, know what? It was probably the best day of your life, too.

That was June, down in the Canyon of Heroes, confetti in the gutters and a million people wedged onto the sidewalks. On the parade float, Diawara was lit with a bottle of champagne, chanting “Fuck Wemby!” It had to be insane for the Frenchman, just 21 years old, second-round pick, snatching a title in his first NBA season. Capped off with New York City chanting his name. Kool Mo Dee didn’t play a meaningful minute in the Finals.

None of us cared.

Three weeks later, he was in a half-empty gym in Las Vegas going 1-for-14 in a Summer League exhibition.

Our guy only had seven points in two games. It was ugly.

But Vegas is a lab. In Summer League, the Knicks asked him to do things as the playmaker. That’s a role Mike Brown will never ask from him in the regular season. There wasn’t a point guard on that summer league roster, so the Knicks handed the ball to a catch-and-shoot wing and told him to create for others. He couldn’t.

The Knicks won a chip in June, but their roster is a lot smaller now. Mitchell Robinson took a three-year, $47.4 million deal from Boston. Ariel Hukporti signed in Philadelphia. New York brought in Andre Drummond, but is still calling around for a third center before training camp. The champs came out of the summer shorter, older, and more expensive. How do they fix this? Well, the best option is the kid who couldn’t buy a bucket in Vegas.

Can a second-round pick who played 9.2 minutes a game turn into a missing piece?

Buckle up.

Towns and Drummond are the only real centers on the roster, for now. Brown will cover some of those minutes the way every coach covers them now. With five switchable perimeter players. We saw Anunoby at the 5 in the playoffs.

Diawara could be next. He’s 6-foot-9 with a 9-foot-2 standing reach, and he switches across four positions without much trouble. In his rookie season, we saw Diawara picking up point guards 30 feet from the rim, then a few possessions later banging with a big man. On a roster this thin up front, New York needs that more than it needs another sniper.