The New York Knicks will only have one primary goal heading into next season: Win another NBA Championship. But in order to do that, they will need to have a few secondary goals. Among them will be development. They’ll need to develop some of their younger talent, and those guys can help keep the top guys healthy during the regular season. One of those guys is OG Anunoby.
Anunoby has been one of the most important parts of the Knicks’ plans for the past few years, and without him, they wouldn’t have won a title last season. But Anunoby hasn’t exactly had the best health luck over the years, and keeping him healthy will be crucial to New York’s title defense. That’s where Mohamed Diawara comes in.
Developing Diawara as a player will be crucial to the future of the Knicks’ success, and in the short-term, playing him more in the regular season could help keep Anunoby healthy.
Mohamed Diawara can help earn OG Anunoby extra rest
Anunoby is one of the best defensive players in the NBA. And during the playoffs last year, he proved how great he can be on the offensive end, too. He lifted the Knicks up every chance he got.
But even during the most important postseason run of his life, Anunoby dealt with some health issues. He missed a couple of games due to a hamstring problem.
Throughout the course of his career, Anunoby has missed plenty of time due to various injuries, but the Knicks cannot afford for him to miss a ton of games during their title quest (or repeat quest, to be exact).
Diawara is still young. He’s only 21 years old, and last summer, he was one of the final picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. It was more likely that he was out of the league by now than still on a team, yet he managed to earn himself a multi-year extension with the Knicks this summer.
When he was on the court, Diawara was an okay three-point shooter, but his real talent showed up on the defensive end. He was an absolute pest, bothering any player he got lined up against.
He’s nowhere close to Anunoby when it comes to talent on either end of the court, but playing him more minutes this upcoming season would certainly help his development.
And in turn, the Knicks can sneak Anunoby some extra rest. Two birds, one stone. Play Diawara more, help his development, all while giving Anunoby some extra rest.
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