Dalek wrote:I think it is nitpicking when you look at a 18 year-old prospect and say his shot is too slow, or he is too upright on defense. Salaun is not going to be Luka Doncic or Paul George, but he can be a very impactful win. He reminds me of what the Wiz do well with: Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura and most recently Bilal Coulibaly.
Being 6'8 and having a good body and potential for three level scoring is good enough when you are that young. This kid is playing professionally for a while now so I think he will become a special player - kind of a nice player to slot with Barnes playing 3/4 interchangeably.
Him and Pacome Dadiet are going to be around our Pacers pick and both are equally interesting players. I might prefer Salaum because he looks more aggressive and filled out, but these two are so close to each other.
Still gotta be careful with the athletic but raw types too. Too many of them turn out to be busts.
If we look at Precious highlights, he's got everything. A great athlete with potential for 3 level scoring. He's even displayed passing chops and he's a good defender, which massively raises his floor. But he can't quite put it together to be anything more than a hustle role player.
Now imagine Precious, but without the defense and rebounding.
So things like b-ball IQ, feel for the game, footwork, defense all still matter. Shooting is usually on the lower end of concerns (unless you got a terrible form and/or poor FT%) as countless of players have developed their shots after 18. But some of the things you have to determine are things like, will his poor defensive footwork be a huge or minor problem in the NBA? and is it something that is easily fixable?
To me, I would describe Tidjane as a very eager player. Eager to make things happen on both defense and offense, but he doesn't really know how to use his body. If you look at video of him, his feet are always moving, bouncing or shuffling around..but half the time it seems like a ton of wasted/useless movement. It looks awkward and clumsy at times. Not sure if this will be a problem in the NBA, if it needs to be fixed or if it's easily fixable.
Look at this game for example:
There are some good things and bad things, but he looks really far away. If we're comparing him to Bilal, Bilal at least looked more poised and shot 50+% from the floor and already played good D. Tidjane's shooting at 37.7% and has a number of weaknesses that Bilal didn't have.