{"id":297025,"date":"2025-11-21T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297025\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:52:13","slug":"mohamed-diawaras-breakout-to-earn-him-even-more-knicks-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297025\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohamed Diawara’s breakout to earn him even more Knicks time"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Mohamed Diawara, the 20-year-old rookie from France, has received spot minutes in the Knicks rotation and is in the line for more.<\/p>\n

With OG Anunoby sidelined with a strained groin, Diawara was subbed into the first halves of the last two games \u2014 a loss Monday to the Heat, then a win Wednesday over the Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a surprise maneuver from coach Mike Brown, if only because Diawara had previously only logged garbage-time minutes and Pac\u00f4me Dadiet has been touted as the greater prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Dadiet continues to log DNPs and Brown said Diawara deserves a longer look.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would\u2019ve loved to play Mo out there a little longer,\u201d Brown said after Diawara recorded two minutes in Wednesday\u2019s 113-111 victory over the Mavericks<\/a>. \u201cMo has done a great job in short minutes he played and to try to get him some minutes during this time of year, especially while OG is out, to keep us long and athletic would be ideal. And I\u2019m going to keep searching to try to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anunoby, a defensive-minded forward, strained his hamstring <\/a>Monday and is out until at least Dec. 1, and likely longer. Landry Shamet has started in Anunoby\u2019s spot, leaving Josh Hart and Guerschon Yabusele as the top backup forwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MohamedMohamed Diawara of the New York Knicks looks on during the game against the Dallas Mavericks on November 19, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Diawara was drafted 51st in June<\/a> and impressed in Summer League, leading to a standard NBA contract and now chances in meaningful NBA minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He recorded a block and a steal in the three combined minutes of his last two games. Brown said he\u2019s trying to maintain an expanded rotation to keep his starters\u2019 minutes down. On Wednesday, nine players logged at least 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge for a lot of reasons, but also it\u2019s so early in the season and the reality of it is, I don\u2019t want to gas my guys this early in the season,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd if the minutes can be respectable across the board, especially at this time of the year, then we can increase the minutes come playoff time or come late in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn case we have to throw somebody in the game, there is a comfort level they have \u2014 not only what they have, but I have, the staff has, and everybody else has, with somebody new on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MohamedMohamed Diawara of the New York Knicks in action against the Charlotte Hornets at Madison Square Garden on October 17, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s big foul call was confirmed as correct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the NBA\u2019s two-minute report, Mavericks guard Brandon Williams \u201cillegally hooked\u201d Shamet on his drive with 0.7 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Referee JT Orr indeed whistled Williams for that offensive foul, negating the layup that would\u2019ve sent the game into OT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the right call,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBecause (Williams) took (Shamet\u2019s) left arm \u2014 and I had a great view of it, and I\u2019m glad JT did, but more importantly, he made the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Mohamed Diawara, the 20-year-old rookie from France, has received spot minutes in the Knicks rotation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,14101,459,2901,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-297025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mike-brown","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}