Moussa Diabaté Mock Trade: Sending Breakout Hornets Big Man to Knicks

The Charlotte Hornets suddenly have a problem they haven't had for years: too many good big men. For a long time, they've searched for answers down low, and now they have more answers than questions.

It's come at the cost of backcourt depth, but nonetheless, they have a surplus of bigs. Could they trade one or some of them? It's certainly plausible since they still have too many contracts on the roster.

Moussa Diabaté was the breakout star last year for the Hornets, and he would make sense as a possible trade option because the Hornets know what he is. Ryan Kalkbrenner is also an option, but Kalkbrenner is massive and less developed.

Diabaté was 14th in the entire NBA (among those with 1,000 minutes or more) in on/off splits. He was amazing last season, full stop. But he's undersized, which is quickly becoming a problem in the ever-changing modern NBA.

He also cannot shoot and isn't necessarily a prolific scorer. What he does, he does extremely well, and that's rebound and work opposing bigs. He will draw fouls on them and get offensive rebounds like so few others.

Charlotte Hornets forward Moussa Diabaté (14) gets the jump ball over New York Knicks guard Josh Hart | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

But with his limitations, the Hornets are limited. They can't really move him to the four, where his height would fit better, because he can't shoot. They could pair him with Naz Reid, who can shoot, to make up for it, but that gives them two undersized centers on the floor.

The solution isn't necessarily to trade him. That would make the Hornets worse. But if the opportunity presents itself, the Hornets, who are apparently quite happy to move on from good but limited players with immaculate on/off ratings (LaMelo Ball), then Diabaté could be moved, too.

And reportedly, the New York Knicks monitored Diabaté as a Mitchell Robinson replacement before signing Andre Drummond. That shouldn't preclude them from potentially adding Diabaté, though, because he's much better.

There's just one problem. What on earth is Diabaté worth? He is very valuable to the Hornets, and his advanced metrics are really good. But he still can't shoot and is undersized and, like LaMelo Ball, is more valuable to the Hornets than to other teams.

First things first, the Hornets can ask for Miles McBride to match salaries and fill their backup point guard need. They need someone for at least a year to let Christian Anderson Jr. develop, and McBride is a free agent next offseason.

What kind of draft compensation would need to be attached? It won't be a glorious return, but Diabaté is obviously a good player and would fetch a couple of future second-round picks.

Attaching a 2028 second-round pick (via Phoenix) and a 2030 second-round pick (via Philadelphia) to the deal likely gets it done, although Hornets fans would understandably be miffed about trading another piece of the best lineup in the NBA last season for an underwhelming return.

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