Not really, we\u2019ll still watch whatever happens at those events.<\/p>\n
On Diawara\u2019s small details and flashes:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of little things when you see Mo play that make you go, \u2018Oh my gosh, wow.\u2019 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, \u2018OK, let\u2019s see what\u2019s going to happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
On Diawara\u2019s feel and instincts:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the summertime, you started to see his feel. His feel for the game is uncanny for a guy who is 6-foot-8 or however big he is and how young he is. Everything you try to teach him, he tries to absorb it and works very hard. He\u2019s long and a pretty good defender \u2026 getting better. Just a lot of little things that you watch and go, \u2018Oh, wow.\u2019 All of those things, when they add up to a possible opportunity, it gives you more confidence as a coaching staff to throw him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Diawara\u2019s offensive freedom:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re wide open, let that thing fly. If not, try to touch the paint and kick it out. He doesn\u2019t have the leeway that obviously the other cats on the floor have to be able to go create a shot for himself. Now, having said that, one of the things that Mo has, and I\u2019m amazed at for a young guy, he has a pretty good feel of where his open teammate is. Like, he\u2019ll drive and it\u2019s not like Chris Paul or Magic Johnson where they\u2019ll drop a dime and everybody says, \u2018Whoa.\u2019 But if he touches that paint, that pass is getting there on time, on target and it\u2019s like a laser. So he\u2019s got a really good feel of where everybody is and his height and passing ability, he\u2019s able to make timely passes that look simple, but are really hard, especially for a young guy. So he\u2019s got a little more freedom in terms of drive and kick than a lot of younger guys might have at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the relationship with his sister, who drew him into basketball:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never played one-on-one. When I started really playing basketball, she stopped. We were never on the court together.\u201d<\/p>\n
On choosing basketball over soccer once he discovered hoops:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018That\u2019s the perfect match.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
On specializing to stay in the NBA:<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like if I wanted to have a long career in the NBA, I had to be good at something. So, I got to specialize in something. Three-point shooting and defense. Those are things that are going to make me stay in the league for the longest.\u201d<\/p>\n
On believing in his progression:<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I trust my work, and I\u2019m not working for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Knicks\u2019 situation at the ASW break:<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Diawara\u2019s training camp impression:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn camp, I thought he was going to be real good. He\u2019s young, raw and inexperienced. He\u2019s good defensively, and he\u2019s an even better shooter than I thought. It always looked good, but now it\u2019s going in. I think he\u2019s a good decision-maker in the pocket. He\u2019s athletic and can finish at the rim, get guys involved. I love where he\u2019s at, and he\u2019s continued to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Diawara\u2019s improved shooting:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an even better shooter than I thought. I always thought the shot looked good, but now it\u2019s going in.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Diawara coming out of shell:<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that (Yabusele) is gone, he doesn\u2019t really \u2026 all he did was speak French to him. Now that (Yabusele) is gone, hopefully that forces him to come out of (his) shell a little bit more. He\u2019s part of the guys. We\u2019ve got to get him more acclimated to rookie duties.\u201d<\/p>\n
On missing his pregame ritual after the passing of his mother:<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, her ritual with me was, I\u2019d be doing my warmup lines, we\u2019d run out, we\u2019d go into our two lines, and we\u2019d start doing our layup lines. My mom made it her thing to stand next to the stanchion and just wave at me. It felt great, being your mom\u2019s there, nothing can be wrong. She got me. I remember that first game back in Minnesota, I kept looking and kept thinking someone\u2019s gonna show up, and no one\u2019s gonna show up, so it was a different feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not really, we\u2019ll still watch whatever happens at those events. On Diawara\u2019s small details and flashes: \u201cThere\u2019s just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,2964,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-602842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-knicks-news","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116069448184039991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}