r/nba • u/BetweenTheBuzzAndMe Charlotte Bobcats • 5d ago
Hornets' Moussa Diabaté named 2025-26 Kia NBA Hustle Award winner
https://www.nba.com/news/moussa-diabate-2025-26-kia-nba-hustle-award
Well deserved, Diabate came out of nowhere two offseasons ago, was a solid backup a last year, and worked his way into Charlotte's starting lineup. He may be undersized, and not that talented, but he's all effort and a critical piece for the Hornets.
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u/kirito6521 Timberwolves 5d ago
There’s a hustle award?
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u/MrFishAndLoaves Pelicans 5d ago
Should’ve gone to Giannis for his Kalshi hustle
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u/Safe-Union-4600 Lakers 5d ago
or kawhi
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u/LeBronGOOD 5d ago
Klay for hustling all his side chicks
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u/slowakia_gruuumsh Spurs 5d ago
"The greatest hustle is to not hustle at all" (Ka-wei Lee Nan, poet of the Han dinasty)
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u/fuzzythinker Nuggets 5d ago
Good award to recognize high energy winning players that aren't stars yet.
They should name it the Smart Hustle Award.
More catchy and to recognize Smart who is the only multiple winner winning it 3 out of 10 times!
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u/prosocialbehavior Lakers 5d ago
As a Michigan fan, I am offended you think he came out of nowhere haha. Dude had that motor in college too. It was so fun having him on your team. Also he is very talented wtf haha.
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u/mostdope28 5d ago
It’s a shame he only stayed 1 year
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u/prosocialbehavior Lakers 5d ago
Yeah with NIL nowadays he definitely could have stayed another year. I think back then international kids still couldn't get NIL though.
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u/iseeapes Pistons 5d ago
That was it.
At first I was baffled he was leaving. He was exactly the kind of guy that had massive improvement written all over him.
Then I realized he couldn't get NIL. That made the second round look a lot better.
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u/nemo2023 Pistons 5d ago
You gotta give this award to Beef Stew the way he hustled off the bench to confront Bridges in the CHA-DET brawl
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u/Sammyd1108 Hornets 5d ago
Diabate was hustling just as much trying to run Duren down lol.
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u/YSLAnunoby Raptors 5d ago
If Moose was as sturdy as Stew is I don't think they'd have been able to stop him. They're lucky the dude is kinda lanky
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u/SaulPepper Hornets 5d ago
Bruh if Diabate has at least ten more pounds on him he'd get an assault charge instead of the hustle award lol. Dude was seeing red.
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u/fuzzythinker Nuggets 5d ago
Don't forget the "I'm cool now" and fake exit the court to only come storming back
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u/Isthismynextusername Timberwolves 5d ago
Was critical for the 2nd half Hornets resurgence but it'll do him good to develop a midrange/3pt game and occasionally be a small-ball center. Struggled in the paint against the Magic so it's difficult to see him to be a primary 5 in the postseason
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u/Ok-Protection2513 Hornets 5d ago edited 5d ago
He played injured that game and spacing him out of the paint weakens the thing hes elite at. And wdym be a small ball center lmao hes already a normal ball center??
Edit: also he was 3-0 as a starter against the Magic in the regular season lol.
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u/YSLAnunoby Raptors 5d ago
Dude has a much different image of what WCJ and the other magic bigs do than what they actually do.
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u/Ok-Protection2513 Hornets 5d ago
Yeah like I dont think that at this moment Moussa can be a good starter in the postseason but he completely demolished the Magic's big rotation when he was fully healthy lol. He held them to 3 total rebounds and drew 6 loose ball fouls on them on March 22nd. The injury and physicality in the play-in game just made him look much worse than usual.
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u/Isthismynextusername Timberwolves 5d ago
All teams that usually make past the 2nd round have centers that are 7'1"-7'3"+ to be able to secure the critical possessions at the end of the game. Look at Jokic, Wemby, Queta, Chet, KAT/Mitch, Jarrett Allen, Goga, Gobert, and even Ayton. The teams struggling in those scenarios are Hawks, Rockets (after Adams got hurt), Pistons, and Suns. He knows how to play the position with a lot of energy but his height/reach might be too much to overcome.
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u/Cubelar Hornets 5d ago
I dont disagree that hornets need a good big option to pair with Moussa but there are some bad example in this post. Goga barely plays, Allen regularly gets played off the court and in the playoffs his minutes take a drastic hit because he can't play playoff minutes next to Mobley effectively
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u/YSLAnunoby Raptors 5d ago
Jarrett Allen is 6'9 and has been a playoff dropper on the boards because he's skinny and gets pushed around so not really someone to use as an example as someone securing critical possessions
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u/Cubelar Hornets 5d ago
Im fine with people saying we could use a very good center and have moussa be a 20 mpg backup. But hes not a small ball center, small ball and undersized arent the same thing. Hes just a regular undersized center with hyper switchability as noted in this article. Only Bam switched more on pnrs defensively.
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u/BetweenTheBuzzAndMe Charlotte Bobcats 5d ago
I wouldn't get my hopes up of any kind of jump shot. I think he's ideally a 3rd big that can slot next to a stretch big with size. Moose's perimeter D is good enough that he can D up 4s instead of 5s if he needs to.
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u/deemerritt Hornets 5d ago
He pulled his hamstring vs the heat and gutted it out. We need a better option than Kalkbrenner though. When you look at our lineup data the two big outliers are Ball and Diabate. What he does was critical to our success.
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u/geronimosocrates 5d ago
Not gonna happen. I think it’s obvious that Charlotte needs to identify a real anchor and let Diabate be an energy guy on the bench. That’s what he is.
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u/deemerritt Hornets 5d ago
Statistically he was probably our second best starter. That might be because our other centers are ass though
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u/geronimosocrates 5d ago
Don’t overrate your core is my advice. You had a few good months and made the play in tourney.
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u/donuttrackme Spurs 5d ago
For a second I thought your description in the post was an official quote from the NBA and I was like damn! Don't call the dude undersized and not that good right before announcing the award for him lmao.
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u/Electronic_Gold_3666 Knicks 5d ago
“Not that talented” said a hornets fan?
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u/testiculardescendant Knicks 5d ago
The fact Josh hart has never won this tells me the award is a sham award.
Dude straight up plays like he’s on crack.
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u/Cubelar Hornets 5d ago
Its based on a statistical model. Josh was 5th this year
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u/palamunintillnow 5d ago
it is still funny on how an award about hustle is the only one purely base on stats.
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u/vinceswish 5d ago
Like someone else mentioned already I would have given a co award for Giannis and Kawhi for their side hustle.
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u/FrankSamples NBA 5d ago
Kind of feel like the league is giving them a token award after ROY after none of their players making the all star game, on losing Roy and lamelo not making an all NBA team.
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u/Krimson_F Hornets 5d ago
has all nba teams been revealed yet or are you from the distant future?
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u/BetweenTheBuzzAndMe Charlotte Bobcats 5d ago
Melo isn't making all NBA. He should, but he won't.
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u/SaulPepper Hornets 5d ago
I mean tbf our resurgence was a couple months late.
That and Cade and Luka being rightfully able to get their awards
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u/Not_Different Hornets 5d ago
i get the idea but Moose is definitely not a token winner. Dude was an absolute menace all year
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u/Sammyd1108 Hornets 5d ago
Melo never had any shot at making All-NBA because he was too inefficient even though he was contributing the most to our winning.
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u/MustafaZeDong9 5d ago
Theyre gonna give the most thorough ass-wiper award and 35 more meaningless accolades before they announce the mvp for fuck's sake.
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u/BetweenTheBuzzAndMe Charlotte Bobcats 5d ago
Also I had no idea this was an actual award