The Charlotte Hornets are the most improved team in the NBA, winners of nine consecutive games and 15-1 since Moussa Diabate entered the starting lineup. Dubbed as "The Moose" by Hornet fans, Diabate has been a central figure in the Charlotte turnaround and today we'll take a deep dive into Moussa's meteoric rise from Clipper castoff to one of the premier role players in the National Basketball Association.
Impact + Return Value
With Moussa a fixture with the starters, the Hornets now have the best 5-man lineup in the NBA at +30.6 NET(!) in 230 minutes. The advanced metrics also agree, with BBall Index tabbing the Ball/Knueppel/Miller/Bridges/Diabate group the NBA's best lineup in terms of Stable Net Rating.
Digging a bit deeper, the 4-man grouping Ball/Knueppel/Bridges/Miller + Ryan Kalkbrenner is +2.5 NET. In short, swapping Moussa for Kalkbrenner makes the Hornets less efficient by roughly 28 NET points. And it's not isolated to one end of the court, as Charlotte is significantly better offensively and defensively when Diabate is playing. The aforementioned starting lineup (with Moussa) boasts a 139.6 ORtg. For context, the Denver Nuggets sport the best teamwide ORtg in the league at 121. The first unit for the Hornets has a 109.1 DRtg, which would place that group as the third best in the NBA (OKC is #1 at 105.9).
Moussa's salary comes in at 2.3 million for this season, but he's currently providing 22.4 million in on-court value per Steph Noh's model based on DARKO (catch-all impact metric). He's one of the best return value players in the world right now. Charlotte will undoubtedly exercise their team option for Diabate next season (2.5 million), but it's very likely they work on an extension that gets Moussa's compensation in line with the production/impact.
Offense
The biggest uptick in Moussa's scoring package is finishing at the rim. As a rookie he converted just 56.3% of his restricted area attempts, but The Moose is now shooting 71% on rim attempts this season with a 6% increase in terms of volume. He's developed into a really solid roll-man that can finish with either hand. Diabate is putting up 1.28ppp on roll-man attempts, good for 85th percentile in the NBA this season.
But it's not just point blank looks, as Moussa has improved his touch with the floater. And as a somewhat undersized Center at the NBA level (measured at 6'9.25 without shoes at the combine), that has a ton of utility in an era where true bigs are once again fashionable.
While finishing is the primary job for The Moose, he's coming on as a playmaker. Charlotte uses him a lot as the trigger-man in their Delay action and he's done well for himself as a passer. Diabate has also really developed as a short-roll playmaker in ballscreen action, showing good processing time and finding corner shooters with precision passes. The Hornets have seen a massive uptick in corner 3 efficiency since Moussa entered the starting lineup.
The motor has always ran high for Moussa and that is paying dividends on the glass, where he is now one of the NBA's best offensive rebounders. The Moose grabs 2.8 contested offensive rebounds per game, good for sixth best across the league.
I'm not going to sell you on Diabate being a primary offensive option in half-court settings, as that will likely never happen. What I will say is that Moussa is starting to flash some self-creation that may lead to an increased role with continued development.
Defense
The inspiration for this piece originated from the Hornets/Spurs contest in late January, where I watched Moussa Diabate outplay............Victor Wembanyama. The Moose had Wemby in hell, and that is no exaggeration.
Clutch time and The Moose is defending Wemby on an island. Victor creates a bit of space with the jab-step, but look how quickly Moussa flips the hips to recover and beat Wembanyama to the spot at the FT line. Diabate then walls-up and eats shoulder contact to force an off-balance attempt and generate a critical stop.
Again, Moussa's agility and contact balance on full display here. Diabate beats Wemby to the spot going left before Victor tries to create space on the drop-step + elbow to the chest. The Moose holds firm, gets in a great vertical contest and is the first guy off the ground for the rebound to generate a stop.
Spurs try something different here as they get Wemby the ball on the move. He has a step on Moussa when he receives the ball, but look how quickly Diabate closes the gap before nearly blocking a 7'4 Wembanyama. Do you understand how difficult that is to do?
The agility from The Moose really bothered Wemby all game, he just couldn't create any space. Moussa was in his chest every step of the way and that can be demoralizing for a guy that is accustomed to being the best athlete at his position on a nightly basis.
It's impossible to truly capture defensive impact from a quantitative perspective. But the impact metrics like Moussa, with the LEBRON metric ranking The Moose as the #36 defender in the NBA while DARKO has him inside their top-100 across the league. RAPM estimates Diabate to have a +1.6 Defensive RAPM impact, good for #67.
Functionally, Moussa's best attribute on the defensive end is sheer agility. He moves better than nearly any big he's tasked with defending, while being switchable on wings and some guards. Just a really good utility defender in that sense.
And while he's a bit too small to be an elite rim protector, Diabate is a respectable deterrent at 1 block per game and a 3.6 block percentage. Beyond the basic numbers, opponents shoot 2% less at the rim when The Moose contests. Not world-beating by any means, but firmly positive.