Mohamed Diawara Scouting Report
Wing ball handlers with the combination of great athleticism and playmaking skills will draw attention from NBA scouts. But there's more to his game. Here are 3K+ words on his role and potential:
Mohamed Diawara — Cholet Basket (France)
6’8” — Small Forward/Power Forward
Date of Birth: Apr 29, 2005 (19 years old)
Introduction
After representing France at the U16, U17, U19, and U20 levels, Diawara made a name for himself on the international circuit. The bulky point forward played a limited role where he showed flashes of his on-ball potential as someone who made plays out of closeouts while also serving as a play-finisher. However, Diawara can also create for himself by hunting mismatches.
As one of Paris Basketball’s bright talents, Diawara changed sides and joined Cholet Basket, where he had more opportunities to find play minutes in both the French league and the Europe Cup, the continent's fourth-tier international league. Positives such as taking care of the ball stand out, but there are areas to work on if he wants to carve out a feasible role at the next level. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-8, Diawara has good positional size to play the three but is undersized to play the four consistently, which is the current position. However, his great athleticism combined, with good handles and ball skills makes it feasible he can change his role in the NBA. There is no official measurement, but his wingspan should be around 7-foot-1 or 7-foot-2.
Diawara has big hands with good coordination. His core strength immediately stands out as he’s good at absorbing contact while having fluid hips to support his mobility. Diawara has decent verticality with enough room to continue to fill his frame at the next level, considering the broad shoulders. There is no official weight listing available, but he should be around 210-215 pounds.
Offense
Catch-and-drive
Making plays out of closeouts should be Diawara’s bread and butter in the NBA. However, there are some areas to clean up on that end. He’s often not pivoting well before elevating his burst. On top of that, he’s not taking the right angles when attacking the basket. It’s as if he’s following a script of always attacking the weak side and/or baseline instead of trusting his instincts.
We see an example in the first play below. The opponent didn’t balance out the closeout well instead of using a hesitation move or jab step to attack the strong side to collapse and force help defense to ensure open shooters, Diawara attacked the weak side, dribbling right into his defender and thus left being forced to attempt a tough stepback three from the corner.
However, when not over-rushing his decisions, Diawara shows decent footwork before his drives. The athletic play in the second possession is a simple execution, but it shows his aggressiveness in trying to dunk it home when he’s at the rim rather than laying it in. In the third play below, the angles were closed, and Diawara tested if he’d create an angle on the strong side with jab steps with his right. His quick trigger as a shooter gives him an extra weapon when he doesn’t get the right angles against closeout defenders.
The most vital part of his scoring prowess comes through his physicality. Diawara does well by using his craft, handles, and strong upper body to attack the defender’s chest when he cannot blow by his opponents. In the fourth play below, he’s attacking the closeout at a bad angle, but his aggressiveness to unbalance his opponent while forcing him to react at the same time led to him creating a scoring angle in the mid-post area where he’s using his length and coordination well to execute the unblockable lay-in. That’s an example of his improving touch around the basket.
Catch-and-shoot
Despite shooting 31.9% on 2.2 attempts this season, Diawara has a translatable shot for the NBA. His footwork while setting his feet quickly is a combination that’ll serve him well against faster closeout defenders. He has an incredibly high-arcing release, which makes it nearly impossible to block, considering his excellent length. By smoothly elevating his jumper, Diawara shows the right process to develop into a volume shooter at the next level.
He’s an active communicator, not afraid to demand the ball when he’s open despite playing among much older teammates. Diawara’s positioning is excellent, changing his motion to ensure he’s at 180 degrees from the basket while positioning his body well. He sets his feet quickly in the first play below to smoothly power up for his high-arcing jumper. As the graph above shows, he’s most comfortable shooting from the corners, making it an increasing fit when considering his projected low-usage role with fewer ball touches.
In the second play, Diawara had a wide-open lane to cut to the rim and dunk home the two points after the extra pass. However, he remained positioned in the corner to shoot the three. NBA games are won by the margins, and better decision-making like that will increase the margins. I like Diawara’s confidence in trusting his shot, but a wide-open backdoor cut like that has to be utilized at all times. However, the confidence will always be there. You hear Diawara shouting for the ball in the third play below before drilling the elbow three. The shot process makes sense and can be scaled up to more volume. However, the shot selection at times needs to improve.
Screen-off shooting
Diawara’s active cutting is another area where he’ll fit into the motion-based NBA game. He’s comfortable with his position in the corner but often looks to respond to defenders reacting around him to put himself in the best position to create angles for ball handlers. Whether he comes off screens or camps the weak side, Diawara has a good feel for how to get to his spots. Now that we see fewer zone defenses played in the NBA, that’s the type of off-ball movement NBA scouts seek for their low-usage role players.
Making sure he’s in clear sight of his teammates is the focus. In the first play below, we see an example. Diawara doesn’t attempt the backdoor, considering the pressure on the rim from the roll man. Instead, he makes sure to be in the right position for the corner three. At times, Diawara gets rid of his habit of sticking to the corner, as shown in the second play below. He has to get more comfortable in attacking the rim. In this sequence, he shows his ball security, where he gets two feet inside the paint with long strides, trusting his footwork.
In the third play below, Diawara hits the hard cut to the rim after coming off the curl. His habit of keeping the ball high brings him success, as he’ll be less actively hacked, considering his free-throw shooting of under 55%. His active cutting and recognizing angles, combined with his court vision, make it easy for Diawara to spot the gaps in the defense. In the fourth play below, he’s using the flat screen in the middle. His fundamentally sound game makes it easy for him to spot easy baskets and thus support a team’s offensive rating even when his jumpers aren’t falling.
Pick-and-roll
Diawara’s skill as a 6-foot-8 ball handler will earn him sequences in the pick-and-roll later in his career. He has good handles for his size despite prioritizing his right hand most of the time. His feel for angles while using his strong body to get downhill makes Diawara a skilled, finesse-based scorer rather than him fully utilizing his athleticism. Despite slower lateral quickness, Diawara has a decent first step where his M.O. is to immediately attack his defender’s chest. However, he should continue to play with the same aggressiveness when he gets downhill. Despite the ability to create scoring angles, Diawara struggles to earn himself trips to the charity stripe, averaging under two attempts per game.
In the first play, Diawara forces the switch after utilizing the ball screen. Hereafter, he’s smartly relocating slightly to the right to ensure two options here: attacking the closeout or taking the NBA-ranged three off the dribble. His willingness to shoot over his opponent is translatable for the NBA level. However, at times, he’s forcing the offense rather than making the extra pass to avoid bad misses and giving up transition opportunities to his opponents. In the second possession, Diawara drove into the help defender, taking out his balance, whereafter he had to pick up his dribble in the mid-post area. He still found a scoring angle with his good footwork, but passing out of full coverage was the best option here.
For the NBA, his untapped potential as a foul-drawer is worth the investment. Diawara doesn’t make a good decision in the third play below by attacking the strong side, but he’s good at attacking his defender in the chest area, forcing him to make a decision. But despite drawing the foul, Diawara should work on finding ways to draw fouls during his scoring motion rather than getting fouled before his shot. But for the next few years, Diawara’s feet and long strides will help him get downhill at will. In the fourth possession, he rejects the incoming ball screen to attack the straight-line lane on the weak side, where he takes two long strides to fully open up the scoring angle. Despite below-average numbers at the rim, Diawara shows a good touch around the basket.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Defensively, Diawara’s excellent screen navigation and awareness form the base as a pick-and-roll defender. He actively tags opponents while focusing on staying at 180 degrees of his opponent. The lack of lateral quickness leads to him struggling against quicker ball handlers, but that’s the other side of the coin. Regardless, opposing teams will be less flexible in their switches as Diawara has the intangibles and the physicality to match the intensity against bigger and stronger ball handlers.
The first play below shows his struggles defending in space against the smaller, quicker guard. At 1.9 personal fouls in 20 minutes per game, Diawara shows he can play in control and thus can afford to take more risks to foul rather than giving away the two points at the rim. We see an example of this in the second possession. However, when switched to guards, Diawara’s physicality often leads to him getting cheap foul calls. That’s where the context of an NBA game with more athleticism around him will benefit him. Regardless, despite losing his assignment via the ball screen, Diawara’s tag on his opponent somewhat kept him in control.
But the intriguing part for NBA scouts is how well Diawara slides his feet and tags screeners. His awareness is top-notch for a 19-year-old looking to earn his stripes on the professional reigns in Europe. In the third play, Diawara doesn’t allow the handoff to occur and completely takes away the ball handler utilizing the screen at the top of the key. His footwork is advanced on that end, where the details are that Diawara attacks the ball handler’s feet to make it more likely they’ll pick up their dribble or take the shots Diawara wants to give up, as the pull-up three from the elbow was a shot every coach can live with.
However, Diawara should be more cautious with the angles he gives up. In the fourth play, the opponent left the weak side open, leaving a completely wide-open lane the ball handler refused to utilize. In the NBA, that’s an instant two points at the rim.
Catch-and-drive
When defending against closeout attackers, Diawara is well aware of his positioning but struggles to execute it at times. On top of that, his last step often isn’t fully balanced out. Despite sliding his feet well, Diawara struggles to plant his last step while it’s clear he’s looking to close driving angles. He’s playing the right way, but executing-wise, he needs more consistency.
In the first play below, he needs an extra step with his right to balance out himself. However, he gave away the driving lane on the weak side. If Diawara wants to push a ball handler in a certain direction, he should always prioritize the strong side so he can use the help defenders in the lane as insurance if he gets beaten off the dribble. In the second possession, the ball reversal got Diawara off guard, as he closed out yet again via the strong side, leaving the wide-open baseline drive. His closeouts are all tied to his habits. Developing the habit of closing out where, at worst, the strong side is taken is the M.O. of the better wing defenders in the NBA. Diawara can get to that level, but he has to make better decisions when closing out.
The struggle with his last step is shown in the third play below, where he didn’t pivot well with his left foot and thus got burned. But at least it was on the strong side, and thus, he could rely on the interior paint-presence to take over his assignment. The feasible part of future development being imminent is Diawara reads the game well. His details of attacking a ball handler’s feet are shown in the fourth play below. He’s attacking the left foot, thus leaning in his body to adjust and pick him up when he drives right. That didn’t happen, but for NBA scouts, that’s an area they should test more off when Diawara comes over stateside for workouts with teams.
Catch-and-shoot
When defending against spot-up shooters, Diawara's struggles mainly consist of him not positioning himself well. He often has two feet inside the paint or gets caught ball-watching and unconsciously drops further inside the paint. Compared to the NBA, there's a smaller floor in FIBA-organized games. He gets away with it as the distance to close out is much smaller with slower execution. But in the NBA, that’s a recipe where opposing teams are likely to find more open threes when they keep the ball moving.
In the first play, Diawara keeps dropping back as he reacts to the action on the strong side elbow. However, his lack of good positioning here bails the ICED ball handler out, as he can hit the elbow shooter on the opposite elbow. Hereafter, Diawara did well to quickly close out but had to close a much bigger gap than when staying put and kept defending the zone rather than dropping deep into the paint. In the second possession, we see a much stronger play. He first closes the passing opportunity by locking the potential cutter in the middle in his back. Hereafter, he’s again responding quickly to the kickout pass by sliding his feet and forcing the above-the-break three.
As a help defender, it’s often give and take. In the third play, he did the right thing by reacting to the dribble penetration as the help-side defender, trusting his teammate to take over the assignment. Despite the open three, that’s the level of aggressiveness Diawara has to show in the NBA as well. The same happens in the fourth play below, where Diawara plays as the team’s five underneath the basket. His quick feet to close out after seeing the ball hitting the strong corner was impressive. His switchability while closing out is the strength of his defensive profile. However, cleaning up some positioning issues is the primary focus for the next few years.
Post-up defense
Diawara’s defensive profile holds the most value when he can play as the team’s four or even five in smaller shooting-heavy lineups. Therefore, his defense against post-up is a good feasibility test to see how his strong upper body reacts when defending against stronger opponents. Despite fewer post-up plays in the NBA, the physicality aspect of interior scoring amongst centers is always a good reference point to test a forward's physicality.
In the first play below, Diawara does well to remain reactive with his actions but dominant with his chest in the post-up. He uses his feet very well to close the angles. Hereafter, he knew the spin move was being followed up with the layup, fully preparing to effectively contest the shot and force the miss. His success continues in the third possession. Despite giving up a lot of space, Diawara holds onto his ground more actively when entering the paint with one foot. That forced the fadeaway jumper from the midrange, where Diawara could fully bank on his length to contest the shot.
His length is the main disruptor in the last play below as well. When giving up angles underneath the basket, Diawara can always rely on his size and length to bother post scorers by closing angles. This is a good solution, as passing out such bad positioning underneath the basket is difficult and makes it easier for teammates to throw in doubles or force opponents to step on the line. Looking at how physically imposing Diawara is in the French league, it becomes more feasible he can defend out of his position and help teams as an interior presence when they play in smaller shooting-heavy lineups.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Mohamed Diawara to be a draftable prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft. He’s an under-discussed prospect, but basketball continuing in April and May after the season ends in the US, we often see European prospects generate more buzz. Diawara should be a known commodity among NBA front office personnel already, whereas his closing part of the season with Cholet Basket should continue to give them a better sample size of scouting material.
I expect Diawara to have workouts with teams in the summer and keep his name in the draft. He’s a projected late second-round pick where teams can use his rights to keep him in Europe for one or two seasons more or develop him in the G League with a two-way contract. The positional versatility on defense, ball handling, and playmaking, on top of his low-usage role as a shooter and closeout attacker, puts him in a much-wanted archetype among wings.