Hornets Guarantee Diabate’s Contract

The Hornets have guaranteed Moussa Diabate’s contract for next season, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk tweets.

It’s not a surprise, given that Diabate has proved to be one of the league’s biggest bargains. He’s due to make $2,461,462 next season, a pittance for a rotation player who started 47 of 73 games this season.

Diabate had a non-guaranteed deal that was guaranteed for $250K if he made the opening night roster and would have been fully guaranteed if he was still on the team beyond Jan. 10.

Diabate won the NBA Hustle Award this past season.,Among qualified players, Diabate ranked first on a per-minute basis in offensive box outs, fourth in screen assists, eighth in offensive loose balls recovered, 10th in contested two-point shots, and 11th in defensive box outs and contested three-point shots.

Diabate provided some stability at the five for a Hornets team whose center position looked like a major question mark entering the season following the offseason trades of Mark Williams and Jusuf Nurkic. Among his counting stats, he averaged 7.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks per game.

He’s slated to be an unrestricted free agent after next season if he doesn’t reach an extension agreement with the Hornets. He vowed in a recent interview to continue to improve.

“Not saying that at the end of the day, I want to (have) a pull-up jumper and all this, but being a threat offensively is going to make me even better, and it’s going to help my teammates,” Diabate said. “So for me, definitely being comfortable with the ball more. Whether it’s me pushing it on the break or just on my handoffs or anything like that, me driving to the basket. Just really expand my game.”