The New York Knicks seem to have legitimately struck gold with the 51st pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, landing 20-year-old French rookie Mohamed Diawara. The forward has impressed immensely thus far in his rookie campaign, having made appearances in 45 games and recently winning the team's "Defensive Player of the Game" designation for his work on All-Star starter Jaylen Brown before the break. Mike Brown confirmed after practice on Wednesday that because of the team's signing of Jeremy Sochan, Diawara is about to lose his minutes – despite doing nothing wrong himself.
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It's a brutal reality of the NBA, and professional sports in general, that a vast majority of individuals are replaceable. The machine will continue to churn on after unfortunate injuries or off-court incidents, which has historically left some talented players behind developmentally or out of careers entirely.
Sometimes, though, young players lose their opportunities without doing anything wrong at all. That's going to be the case for Knicks rookie Mo Diawara, who Brown told reporters on Wednesday is going to be replaced by Sochan in the rotation.
“I want to see what we got with Jeremy before the playoffs,” Mike Brown told reporters in Tarrytown according to Stefan Bondy on Twitter.
Brown has time to finalize his playoff plans
There certainly still is a possibility that Diawara ends up being part of the team's playoff rotation. There is even a possibility that both Diawara and Sochan get postseason burn, and not just at the ends of games that have already been decided.
But with both young forwards providing value because defense is their calling card, and neither one being a necessarily proven 3-point shooter at the NBA level, they could definitely be redundant as part of the same bench unit as offensive rebounding guru Mitchell Robinson.
Experimentation, with the goal of taking a full understanding of the team's personnel and how to best deploy those players into the postseason, has been fundamental to Brown's methods from day one with the Knicks. Given that Sochan is joining the roster so late in the season, it makes perfect sense that Brown would want to prioritize getting him reps with the rest of the team as soon as possible.
It does sting a bit that it will come at the cost of Diawara's minutes, given the joy that it brought fans to see another second-round steal impact games in orange and blue. Especially with how much draft capital the team has traded in recent years, making the most of the picks they do have is important. Diawara reminded fans that this front office is the same one that found Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes with the 25th overall picks in their respective drafts.
Hopefully for fans and Knicks players alike, Diawara is either back in the rotation soon or there's no need for him because Sochan has been so impactful. Either way, what matters most is making sure New York has the best playoff roster possible. That's why Brown was hired.