Eye of the Tiger: The Tidjane Salaun Thread

[fatlever]

And what if he just becomes a dude... sometimes in a rotation sometimes not. Bounces around the league for 8 years. Never averages more than 10 points a game. But he works hard and he has a good attitude so coaches keep him around.

then so be it, hopefully that dude is at least a good culture setter. that description sounds a lot like Marv Williams, Atlanta invested a lot in him for to become a nice role player.

Unless you think we should storm the Spectrum centre and insist on a redo of the 2024 draft as Salaun was a false outcome?

Except Marvin was not just a culture Setter and a guy who played hard and had super high character come up but he was supremely intelligent basketball player. He just never blew up into the guy that was worthy of where he was drafted. but That dude understood hoops, understood where to be at all times. I'm not trying to turn this into... I don't believe in our rookie situation... but his processing of the game on both ends is so far away from where Marvin was at that age. And this is a guy who has spent a decade in the best French basketball academies and grew up in a basketball family. He should have better basketball instincts. I believe in his size I believe in his motor and his energy and his character, I even believe in his shooting stroke. I do not believe in his basketball instincts.

[Diop]

And what if he just becomes a dude... sometimes in a rotation sometimes not. Bounces around the league for 8 years. Never averages more than 10 points a game. But he works hard and he has a good attitude so coaches keep him around.

then so be it, hopefully that dude is at least a good culture setter. that description sounds a lot like Marv Williams, Atlanta invested a lot in him for to become a nice role player.

Unless you think we should storm the Spectrum centre and insist on a redo of the 2024 draft as Salaun was a false outcome?

Except Marvin was not just a culture Setter and a guy who played hard and had super high character come up but he was supremely intelligent basketball player. He just never blew up into the guy that was worthy of where he was drafted. but That dude understood hoops, understood where to be at all times. I'm not trying to turn this into... I don't believe in our rookie situation... but his processing of the game on both ends is so far away from where Marvin was at that age. And this is a guy who has spent a decade in the best French basketball academies and grew up in a basketball family. He should have better basketball instincts. I believe in his size I believe in his motor and his energy and his character, I even believe in his shooting stroke. I do not believe in his basketball instincts.

you could most likely be right, Marv had more smarts but was a crappy ball handler so never got better than a catch n shoot guy for Atlanta. they picked him over Chris Paul and Deron Williams even though they were starting Royal Ivey at point guard.
Yet i dont remember their forum having no where near as much depression and outrage as here.

maybe i need a break

[yosemiteben]

The preemptive angst about Salaun is just confusing to me. Everyone agrees he needs to develop. Some people think he can't. We'll know in a couple years.

[SWedd523]

or we can just all sit back and hope for the best and see how it plans out.

the finger pointing gets really tired, people forget their is no winning arguments on the internet.

Personally I'm well past any sit back and hope for the best stage when it comes to this team.

i guess you could start a petition or something then

Or maybe you can sit back and hope it'll be all rainbows and sunshine and I'll keep complaining about them being braindead failures

Maybe that'll work.

[Diop]

Personally I'm well past any sit back and hope for the best stage when it comes to this team.

i guess you could start a petition or something then

Or maybe you can sit back and hope it'll be all rainbows and sunshine and I'll keep complaining about them being braindead failures

Maybe that'll work.

That’s just it, nothing will work as we’re just spectators.

[Liver_Pooty]

I personally checked out on the forum when people would say players would come here to visit Myrtle beach and smoke meth. **** wild on here

[SWedd523]

I personally checked out on the forum when people would say players would come here to visit Myrtle beach and smoke meth. **** wild on here

Whole team had to have been crashing on Fent in Portland.

[Liver_Pooty]

I personally checked out on the forum when people would say players would come here to visit Myrtle beach and smoke meth. **** wild on here

Whole team had to have been crashing on Fent in Portland.

Just hoping we can lure Luka to Myrtle Beach since he’s not committed to the Lakers.

[Chapelchilla]

My guess is that the teenager improves by the time he is 22 and needs a new deal. How much? No one here knows.

[Diop]

just to be safe, we should take him out the back and shoot him

[Liver_Pooty]

just to be safe, we should take him out the back and shoot him

It’s honestly stupid. MKG was a second pick in a solid draft but people (me included nearly got shot over him ) stuck by him. And he honestly wasn’t good for more than a 5 month period. Can’t give another kid a chance. lol.

[EmpireFalls]

Two games in a row, two comically open missed dunks.

I don’t know what happened but he doesn’t belong on an NBA court right now for his mental health sake. He seriously cannot play with this complete lack of confidence right now, it’s doing real damage to his play. As poor of a player as he is, no way he’s actually this bad. Send him to Greensboro.

[HornetJail]

Two games in a row, two comically open missed dunks.

I don’t know what happened but he doesn’t belong on an NBA court right now for his mental health sake. He seriously cannot play with this complete lack of confidence right now, it’s doing real damage to his play. As poor of a player as he is, no way he’s actually this bad. Send him to Greensboro.

a provision that would let us pause his contract and allow him to play in Europe until he's like... idk 27? ... would be very beneficial to us

[Rich4114]

I think people need to realize that we aren't just talking about a guy who looks the part but is maybe out of position, taking bad shots or just laying bricks like a lot of young players that need to develop do. What could anyone realistically point to on Salaun and go "yeah but he's special because of X"? Like all you gotta do is watch him try to move, run, jump, shoot, etc. There is not a single attribute I can point to that gives me confidence he will become a passable NBA player one day. I would love to be wrong, of course. But it is almost like Jeff picked someone who won a contest to be drafted by an NBA team.

I guess you can say he's got size, which he does and will get bigger being 19. But like, how do you fix his vertical, hand eye coordination, dexterity, instincts, etc.? These are the types of swings you take in the second round not at #6 with a guaranteed salary of like $8m for 3 seasons. It's actually insane and throws the reddest of red flags on Jeff. I'd feel better if we found out he was just not prepared with enough staff, resources, etc. because of the timing and transition. That's still not really excusable, but it would give a glimmer of hope that we won't' see more of this before the Jeff era ends.

[Bassman]

My fears with Salaun relate to his lack of certain physical elements that are largely innate…either you have them or you don’t. The kid has poor hands and low vertical hops. His footwork isn’t the greatest but he is athletic enough to build that up via skill drills. Agree with Fats his awareness of the game (BBIQ) is surprising low for all his previous training and participation in French league play.

From a results standpoint his hideous FG percentage of 30% over a lot of games and minutes is a huge red flag. He takes too many 3’s (27% 3pt percentage which influences his overall) but is weak around the rim also. Yes he hustles, has a strong motor, and wants to be good…all qualities that Peterson was attracted to when scouting him on a wine tasting tour of France (drinking a bit too much perhaps).

As I’ve said I hope he matures into his body, turns up the effectiveness and proves to be a valuable contributor off the bench.

[KembaWalker]

meh, its not even fun to **** on Salaun anymore. the people who deserve it more than him are JP, and the Schnotkin duo who lamely (and obviously quite cheaply) hired their former Atlanta buddies instead of getting us the best available. this whole org sucks

[MasterIchiro]

I think JP put culture over skill, intangibles/effort/motor over talent.

A smart org compares talent before moving on to intangibles. You cannot surrender talent in a draft. The game is too competitive. Take the most talented player. If you have two comparably talented/skilled prospects, think about culture as a divider.

30% FG for a dude with 9 foot 2 inch standing reach is worse than anyone here, including JP, could've possibly forecast.

We have almost a season of data and his numbers have moved laterally. There is no positive trend to cling to here.

[GoBobs]

He needs to just keep shooting 3s and keep hustleing every chance he gets. He isn't that far from playable on offense if he can just hit the catch and shoot 3.

Josh Green shot poorly as a rookie but has a good percentage this year. Salaun could do the same. If he can find a way to add something useful on defense, he might be able to stick around in this league for a little bit.

[Hornet Mania]

I think what JP saw was a combination of:

-Salaun improved dramatically in France last season from the beginning of the year to the final stretch of games. I'd have to dredge up stats from earlier in the thread, but surely JP and Co were expecting/hoping for that trajectory to continue.
-Youngest in the draft, so theoretically the most untapped potential
-Draft sucks, so take a big swing since those other kids are all projected to be 8th-10th men off the bench anyway.

That doesn't totally excuse the decision, or make it the right one, but that clearly seems to have been what they saw based on interviews and a bit of educated guessing.

The draft is a crapshoot, and bad draft classes are even more so. I hope Saluan improves but I don't expect much based on what we've seen. The pick may or may not be proof JP sucks, we'll see. I'm just glad we didn't trade a future 1st for Reed Sheppard at this point. At least if Salaun busts we don't owe anyone future assets.

[Bassman]

The Sheppard thing was strange to me. Yes he shot lights out in college, but the guy was (and is) undersized, plus not the athletic level needed to compete as a pro. He has a place, but agree we’d be even more sick had the Hornets traded up for him. Castle? Man he was the prize in this group.