Eye of the Tiger: The Tidjane Salaun Thread

[yosemiteben]

He's a developmental prospect, so if you're analyzing him game to game halfway through his rookie season you're probably not gonna see a big change. Maybe check in in 2 months and see if there are discernible trends?

Or just keep saying the same thing over and over, I guess.

[Snidely FC]

The difference is those 3 (Holland/Sarr/Castle) were known bad shooters. We talked about 2 of them on here, Holland and Castle. Castle was meant to be some kind of PG/SG hybrid, which seems to be the case. Holland was an athletic defender/slasher type.

Saluan was drafted, like Peterson said, as a shooting piece. And... he isn't a good shooter either.

He's just so raw on offense that even if he can figure out how to shoot 3's, his overall offense is still going to be pretty mediocre.

These types of players just very very rarely turn out to be good. If he was an above average athlete, I'd more more optimistic. But he's below average there too.

His highest upside is a 4/5 energy big, bruiser, hustler etc. that can make open 3's and run in transition.

So, like Naz Reid who just won 6th Man of the Year?

We can also add #3 pick Reed Sheppard who everyone wanted for his shooting but is at 3pt% 27.4%. Don't rookies struggle from 3 because of the speed of the game?

Look, I don't really want to be the one to defend Salon I didn't want him either (I wanted Castle (gone), Holland (gone) and Cody Williams, who btw is shooting 23% from 3) but my point is Salon is 19. This relentless mantra that he cannot possibly improve

What were y'all doing when you were 19? I'm sure it has been all downhill since?

[yosemiteben]

What were y'all doing when you were 19? I'm sure it has been all downhill since?

To be fair, there's probably some truth to that for me

[KembaWalker]

i definitely didn't add to my vertical leap or become physically more coordinated after 19, no. I think that stuff was pretty locked in. I also hadn't been playing basketball under a professional organizations developmental program for 4 years already at that age either

[Walt Cronkite]

Look, I don't really want to be the one to defend Salon I didn't want him either (I wanted Castle (gone), Holland (gone) and Cody Williams, who btw is shooting 23% from 3) but my point is Salon is 19. This relentless mantra that he cannot possibly improve

This is very relatable. My initial posts were "This would not inspire confidence at 6" pre-selection and then the best I could muster afterwards was "fun development challenge", but to not write off the developmental project before the all-star break as an abject failure-bust has put me into a camp of long-time suffering fans with Stockholm Syndrome and embracing the role of board optimist. So anyway, I appreciate your ability to have some patience and a "wait and see" attitude even if he wasn't "your guy" instead of logging each rookie mistake and airball.

[EmpireFalls]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

[JMAC3]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

Yes, he is the current flavor the week.

[Walt Cronkite]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

Yes, he is the current flavor the week.

To be fair, when you can draft a Kryptonian it should be a no-brainer.

[EmpireFalls]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

Yes, he is the current flavor the week.

I’d like to see Salaun even get on the menu first. I can point to like 3 decent games.

[SWedd523]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

Ah yes, the Hindsight Games.

You won't see me defending Tiddy but this is always a lazy argument.

I hope it's okay to say "lazy"

[JMAC3]

Kel’El Ware looks absolutely amazing in Miami.

Another counter example to the “this draft sucked, there was no talent available” argument that people use to excuse this horrible pick.

Yes, he is the current flavor the week.

I’d like to see Salaun even get on the menu first. I can point to like 3 decent games.

You know who is wayyyyyyyyyyy better than Tidjane?

The combined best performances of Knecht, Ware, Edey, Clingan, Dillingham etc... as long as we just only look at each of their best 2-3 game stretches it feels like we are constantly missing out on someone great, but when you actually look at just 1 player in their entirety, no matter who it is out of this bunch, and compare them to Tidjane it looks pretty similar is my point.

I am sure when Tidjane pieced together these 3 games in a 4 game span someone was probably pointing to being sad they missed out him too.

17 pts/ 4 boards/ 3 steals
14 pts/8 boards
10 pts/10 boards/ 2 steals

Last 10 game averages for
Edey 5.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg
Knecht 6.7 ppg
Ware 13 ppg/ 8.2 rpg

Should the Grizzlies now feel like idiots for passing on Ware for Edey?

[KembaWalker]

bottom line to me is that we should have punted and taken that Spurs trade. Unprotected 2031 1st and a swap from a perennial cheap loser team that doesn't even have an official owner is a gamble you take over the gamble we took on Salaun learning how to play basketball, all day every day.

[MPM]

If Peterson drafted Ware at 6, this board would have gone into full meltdown, particularly the Clingan boy-crushers. The annual Monday-morning QB'ing is beyond 'dumb.'

[JMAC3]

bottom line to me is that we should have punted and taken that Spurs trade. Unprotected 2031 1st and a swap from a perennial cheap loser team that doesn't even have an official owner is a gamble you take over the gamble we took on Salaun learning how to play basketball, all day every day.

Yeah hard pass on this even knowing what we know now about this class underperforming. I think losing the 4th most games last year and trading the draft pick for a pick 7 years from now would have lost a lot of the fans and we don't even have a lot as it is. Maybe Tidjane will end up being a bust and we regret it, but I would rather go down swinging then fold my cards for another 7 years hoping for some big payoff.

[SWedd523]

bottom line to me is that we should have punted and taken that Spurs trade. Unprotected 2031 1st and a swap from a perennial cheap loser team that doesn't even have an official owner is a gamble you take over the gamble we took on Salaun learning how to play basketball, all day every day.

Imagine coming in as a new ownership, GM, and Coach and your first move is to trade your #6 pick. Folks would be in here lambasting them for that ****

[KembaWalker]

bottom line to me is that we should have punted and taken that Spurs trade. Unprotected 2031 1st and a swap from a perennial cheap loser team that doesn't even have an official owner is a gamble you take over the gamble we took on Salaun learning how to play basketball, all day every day.

Yeah hard pass on this even knowing what we know now about this class underperforming. I think losing the 4th most games last year and trading the draft pick for a pick 7 years from now would have lost a lot of the fans and we don't even have a lot as it is. Maybe Tidjane will end up being a bust and we regret it, but I would rather go down swinging then fold my cards for another 7 years hoping for some big payoff.

just because the pick is 7 years away doesnt mean you are forced to wait that long to do anything with it
its an asset thats going to at worst hold value, with a chance of going up. you punt the obviously garbage draft, tank this season anyway like we apparently were always planning to do according to people here, proceed with your core and in 2 years you have an extra pick and swap to trade for an impact piece. i'd rather have been salty for a summer not having a rookie to watch in SL or this year and have future unprotected pick than 4 years of Salaun/Buzelis/Knecht replacement tier prospects

[HornetJail]

yeah its not like he's some otherwise well rounded prospect or freak athlete where the shooting piece finally comes around and might have a player on your hands. his awful 3pt shooting right now is his best current offensive skill. he's even more deficient on literally everything else.

Yeah that's the thing. I can excuse a swing on a raw prospect if they are insanely athletic (Kai Jones) or just extremely big (in which case you just go Clingan or even Edey) and then you can teach them to play and hope they become dominant. But they've gotta be like > 90th percentile in athleticism or size for that to be a viable swing with a lottery pick even in a trash draft.

Salaun is none of that, maybe a 75th percentile PF in terms of his frame if we're being generous, and he moves his feet pretty well, but not a vertical athlete at all, doesn't seem very well coordinated and is just totally lost with the ball in his hands. There's just nothing. He's a shooter that can't shoot, and just tries hard. You could get 100 D-League guys to do his job as well or better tomorrow.

I'm not mad at Salaun, I doubt even he was going into the draft process expecting to be a top 10 pick. I'm just mad confused by what Peterson/our scout team saw in him, and it's entirely fair to be a little concerned about them handling future drafts.

After watching Bryce Young on the Panthers the last two years turning things around after looking like one of the worst NFL QBs of this century, I'm not gonna advocate cutting Salaun or anything, but the guy is up there with Anthony Bennett as one of the worst lottery picks I've ever seen. He'll get his third year option for the sole reason he's Peterson's first real player move as GM but I have my doubts that the Hornets will ever see any benefits from this pick. I expect he'll be out of the league by 2028, develop in Europe some and then if he's lucky come back like Yabusele in his later 20s

[KembaWalker]

bottom line to me is that we should have punted and taken that Spurs trade. Unprotected 2031 1st and a swap from a perennial cheap loser team that doesn't even have an official owner is a gamble you take over the gamble we took on Salaun learning how to play basketball, all day every day.

Imagine coming in as a new ownership, GM, and Coach and your first move is to trade your #6 pick. Folks would be in here lambasting them for that ****

i dunno, im being told here every day that we are focused on long term sustainability so stop expecting anything ever good to happen

long term sustainable would have been punting for 2 assets that will hold and maintain value for years. we instead happily drove the obvious known lemon right off the lot full of obvious known lemons with a no return policy

[fatlever]

I think part of the problem with him this year has been circumstances outside of his control. I think most of us can agree that the plan for him was to spend the majority of the first half of his season in Greensboro if not all of his season in greensboro. I don't think there was any world where the staff wanted to throw him into the rotation right away. Two things happen that kind of changed that. One, was obviously injuries up and down the roster that kind of forced him into the rotation way before he was ready and we saw him under the magnifying glass. And two he had that red hot preseason where he actually looked pretty good and probably gave everyone, front office coaching staff fans, a little bit of false hope that he was closer to being ready than he actually was. I think this would be a completely different conversation had he been stashed in Greensboro all year like he should have been. Doug had a good comment the other day on the podcast. Basically just said we need to forget he exists for the rest of this year and maybe next year and by year three then maybe remember that he's on the roster. Honestly if he's in the rotation again next year it just means this team isn't trying to win.

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[yosemiteben]

i dunno, im being told here every day that we are focused on long term sustainability so stop expecting anything ever good to happen

Ah yes, I forgot all those times where you've been told to "stop expecting anything ever good to happen"