Moose On The Loose: The Moussa Diabate Thread

[yosemiteben]

Today I learned that Moussa's birthday is January 21, 2002, and Kalkbrenner's birthday is January 17, 2002.

Maybe they'll have a joint birthday party.

[fatlever]

Watch on YouTube

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[Diop]

With his defensive abilities, could he develop a similar game to Claxton?

Mobile defender with below average shooting skills?

[fatlever]

With his defensive abilities, could he develop a similar game to Claxton?

Mobile defender with below average shooting skills?

predraft combine measurements are nearly identical
moose on left vs claxton on riht
height wo shoes - claxton .5 inch taller
6'9.25 vs 6'10

wingspan - same
7'2.5 vs 7'2.5

standing reach - claxtom .5 inch longer
9'1.5 vs 9'2

weight - same
216.6 vs 216.6

claxton has slightly bigger hands

max vert - same
36.5 vs 36.6

sprint / shuttle - moose better on both
11.19 / 2.90 vs 11.26 / 3.47

if claxton is big enough to be a center, so is moose. have faith moose continues to improve. he's 2 years younger than claxton. they arent that different if you look at per 36 moose vs claxton after 3rd yrs.

[HornetJail]

Claxton has better hands but in general I think he poses the same issues as Moose offensively, which is why I don't understand why a bunch of people are so eager to trade assets for him. Moose probably can become that caliber of player, but I honestly don't think it's that high of a bar to clear. Don't think he's above the Dalton Line of starting centers anyway.

He's the kind of center you'd love to have on the cheap when you're paying max contracts to three wings and have only scraps left for a big man, but you don't settle for that kind of player if you have resources to do better.

[amcoolio]

Fuse Plumlee's offense with Moussa's defense

(We've been having this conversation since 2004 and Okafor, all of our centers were only good on one side of the ball)

[HornetJail]

Fuse Plumlee's offense with Moussa's defense

(We've been having this conversation since 2004 and Okafor, all of our centers were only good on one side of the ball)

you get Moussa with a little passing ability and the occasional reverse dunk

I want to fuse Moussa's defense, rebounding, and leaping ability into Kalkbrenner's body

[wilson115]

Cody Zeller wasn't much of a shooter but was irreplaceable in the Kemba-led offense just from setting great screens and handling the ball on the perimeter reliably. (Or at least just long enough to hand it off to Kemba or a shooter.) Shouldn't be out of reach for Moose, right?

[Walt Cronkite]

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401705300
Feb 7 SAS @ CHA: post the Mark Williams trade but pre-rescension is the game that provided the Moussa as starting center "aha moment". Maybe not so much the box score, but if you watch a replay or at least the condensed possessions, Im confident some of the skeptics would better understand where those of not worried about the Diabate part of the center situation are coming from. Depleted Hornets vs full strength Spurs, for those too lazy to click the link. It's only one game, but I don't think there are a ton of instances post deadline where LaMelo and Moussa both played and it's the penultimate game where Moussa gets 30+ mins before having to make room to showcase Mark.

[EmpireFalls]

Cody Zeller wasn't much of a shooter but was irreplaceable in the Kemba-led offense just from setting great screens and handling the ball on the perimeter reliably. (Or at least just long enough to hand it off to Kemba or a shooter.) Shouldn't be out of reach for Moose, right?

Moussa’s screening is nowhere near that level. He’s 6’9” and maybe 220 lbs soaking wet; and he just doesn’t take guys out of the play the way Zeller could.

A screen and roll with Diabate gets switched most of the time and he can’t punish smaller players in the post. His screen and roll game is just not good enough. We can still like him as a player but you cannot build an offense around Diabate PnRs, it’s absolute malpractice.

Diabate is quickly going to get guarded by a team’s wing defender and he’ll just switch onto LaMelo in the PnR. That’s a very easy way to guard us.

[wilson115]

Moussa’s screening is nowhere near that level. He’s 6’9” and maybe 220 lbs soaking wet; and he just doesn’t take guys out of the play the way Zeller could.

A screen and roll with Diabate gets switched most of the time and he can’t punish smaller players in the post. His screen and roll game is just not good enough. We can still like him as a player but you cannot build an offense around Diabate PnRs, it’s absolute malpractice.

Diabate is quickly going to get guarded by a team’s wing defender and he’ll just switch onto LaMelo in the PnR. That’s a very easy way to guard us.

Cody wasn't exactly Steven Adams himself but his mobility and skill made up for that. Moose has the mobility at least, can't he improve like he improved his rebounding when he came over from the Clippers? And this year he's going to have plenty more PnR partners than he's ever had with Tre back and Sexton and Kon aboard, wouldn't that help too? Not saying we couldn't use more help up front but I just don't feel like writing off someone who's shown so much growth so far.

[yosemiteben]

It is pretty wild that Kon weighed more at the combine than Diabate did at his.

[GoBobs]

There were some games near the end of last season where moose just tried to dunk every time he touched the ball. I felt like he took a step. He absolutely needs to go from 60% to like 75% ft rate to be a solid player.

[Bassman]

With the offseason now in the doldrums, it’s ever more likely there is NO more help coming. They’ve bet this season on having a center by committee; the rookie, the oldie, and a guy in Moose they hope will amazingly blossom. I sure hope he does, and quickly. I am concerned he’s not enough of a shot blocker to impact elite lane penetration; concerned his poor shooting from any distance stunts the offense. Slightly concerned his weight/strength won’t be adequate against the large bigs trend. Perhaps rotating Moose, Kalk and the Plumber can somehow hold the fort.