How Hornets center Moussa Diabaté plans to make huge leap for 2026-27 NBA season
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- Moussa Diabaté was presented the NBA's 2025-26 Kia Hustle Award.
- Diabaté plans to gain weight and become more comfortable offensively this offseason.
- Coach Charles Lee praised Diabaté's humility and steady support for teammates.
On a dais inside the atrium of Spectrum Center’s main entrance, Moussa Diabaté recalled a conversation that made him chuckle.
The Charlotte Hornets’ big man remembered chatting with a college teammate at the University of Michigan, about the idea of playing in the NBA. Diabaté pondered how the crowd could acknowledge him in a personal manner, figuring it would be a relatively easy slam dunk because of the first syllable that rolls off the tongue when formally greeting him.
“One day, that would be dope,” Diabaté said Wednesday. “I get in the league, and whenever they call my name, just have everybody just saying my name ‘Moose.’ That would be dope. And for it to finally happen, it’s dope.
“I’m very happy and it’s a blessing. I just want to, again, thank everyone for everything.”
Flanked by coach Charles Lee to his right, and Jeff Peterson, the Hornets’ president of basketball operations, to his left, Diabaté was looking in a mirror in a sense. More than 100 people — including teammates Kon Knueppel, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Liam McNeeley — were there to celebrate Diabaté officially being presented with the NBA’s 2025-26 Kia Hustle Award.
The award highlights someone who makes effort plays that don’t appear in traditional box scores, but still foster team success. It’s been presented annually since 2016-17, and the recipient is determined by a statistical formula incorporating the metrics of deflections, loose balls recovered, charges drawn, screen assists, contested shots and box outs.
To Lee, Diabaté exhibits all that and more.
“The thing that I love — there’s a humility, there’s a sense of gratitude that he brings to our locker room,” Lee said. “Early in the year he’s not starting and a lot of guys in that position, knowing how good they are and how he contributed the year before, he could have decided to be toxic or to be upset or to find ways just to bring our group down.
“And all he did was support Ryan in that moment when he was starting. He stayed patient, he was always ready for any opportunity he had. He had an open mind when I said I wanted to start different ways and have a versatility to us. When you have a guy that has that type of humility and a sense of gratitude in what it means to be an NBA player, it’s just so refreshing.”
Peterson was well aware of Diabaté long before they ended up in Charlotte together, initially scouting him when the Wolverines played at Rutgers during his lone season at Michigan. That’s when Peterson worked for the Brooklyn Nets as an assistant general manager, so a trip to the other side of the Hudson River was an easy trek.
“You remember that game?” Peterson said.
Like an elephant, apparently.
“I hit a couple of 3s,” Diabaté said, eliciting laughs.
“You did, actually,” Peterson said. “The thing that always attracted me to Moussa was his energy and how hard he pays on a nightly basis. … He was humble enough to accept a two-way contract with us and the minute he stepped in the gym, we knew that we could have a piece there.”
Leading up to his honor, the Charlotte Observer got the opportunity to chat with Diabaté about several things, including what he intends on working on this offseason and how much he’s motivated to show he’s not a complacent individual:
Roderick Boone: How much are you motivated by how the season ended against Orlando?
Moussa Diabate: Oh, very much so. I think I’m very much so focused. I’m really trying to be intentional about my work, especially now that I definitely have roots in the NBA now. Not saying that I didn’t do that before, but that’s technically my first run where it’s like, ‘Ok, go out there and let’s see what you got going on. I’m very excited. I’m very excited about all of the future. Like I said, I’m going to keep on working and I’m very, very, very motivated for sure.
RB: What do you plan to do this offseason? How will you make yourself better next year?
MD: Obviously, always be great at what I do already. I think that’s a no-brainer. But definitely just gaining some weight, being able to absorb contact better. I think that’s going to be a big thing, but also me being more comfortable offensively. I want to obviously be even more of a threat.
Not saying that at the end of the day, I want to (have) a pull-up jumper and all this, but being a threat offensively is going to make me even better, and it’s going to help my teammate. So for me, definitely being comfortable with the ball more. Whether it’s me pushing it on the break or just on my handoffs or anything like that, me driving to the basket. Just really expand my game.
RB: You mentioned expanding your game and the offensive part. How do you go about doing that? Is that working with coaches, watching film?
MD: Really both. From working on your game, on the aspect of the game that you know that you don’t have the chance to really work on during the season. And obviously watching film. Watching the plays that maybe you feel like you could emulate in sense or shape or form, and trying to really like, understand where you could fit in that. Whether that’s from the elbow, from the top of the key, the corner, whatever it is. Just understanding where the situation is going to be and what you can do from there.
RB: You’ve been really good with the starting unit alongside Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges. What do you think was the biggest reason you were able to win so many games as a starting five?
MD: I think it’s just our pace. I think our pace has been very big. I don’t think people realize how much we run. We really be out there just pushing the ball, whether (it’s on) misses or makes. I think the pressure that we apply to that rim — and what I mean by applying pressure to that rim, it’s not forced like, ‘Oh, yeah, getting into the paint.’
But it’s just us being relentless and getting a good shot. I think that’s the most important thing. Sometimes as a team, you can get passive. As time goes on, and you get tired, you can get more and more passive. And that’s where you can very much shift, but when you apply that pressure consistently whether you’re losing or winning, it gives a whole different facet to the team and to the game.
RB: How much do you still have that drive to show people that you are not complacent and can be a better player for years to come?
MD: Oh, yeah. For sure. Like I said, I ain’t signed nothing. Right now, ain’t nothing so, shoot, I would have no right to get complacent. I don’t think that’s how you should be. But whatever happens for me, like I said it never changes. I think that’s the best way to go about it. Always give everything I have and trust my work. After that, I try to not put too much pressure on myself. I trust my work and that God is going to take care of everything.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How Hornets center Moussa Diabaté plans to make huge leap for 2026-27 NBA season."
