Eye of the Tiger: The Tidjane Salaun Thread

[JMAC3]

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Obviously just 1 game, but I think this is the vision for Salaun.
I just tend to trust the shot longterm given his form, age and work ethic.

[Chapelchilla]

Judging teenagers as if they are a finished product seems kinda crazy. That write up about Tobias Harris and the one about his draft prospects all point to there being a reason why not to do that. He may end up good in 2 years. Guess we will have see if he grows into his body, refines his skills and learns the NBA game. He probably needs another year of training and development after this one.
Patience will be needed and hopefully rewarded.

[FarBeyondDriven]

I wish fans were more patient with their young players. What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right. It goes both ways of course. We have fans convinced Keegan Murray is special and you cannot talk them out of it. He's supposedly untouchable. I always suggest fans wait until about the 1/2 way point of their 2nd seasons. The offseason before will be the first time they'll have a whole summer dedicated to improving while working with professional coaches/trainers and not having the pre-draft/combine, draft, moving, Summer League, etc taking away from that. If by this December you aren't seeing that Salaun has shown improvement you can begin to panic. Not full blown but legit cause for concern. But a 19 y/o rookie? It's just way too soon.

[Liver_Pooty]

I wish fans were more patient with their young players. What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right. It goes both ways of course. We have fans convinced Keegan Murray is special and you cannot talk them out of it. He's supposedly untouchable. I always suggest fans wait until about the 1/2 way point of their 2nd seasons. The offseason before will be the first time they'll have a whole summer dedicated to improving while working with professional coaches/trainers and not having the pre-draft/combine, draft, moving, Summer League, etc taking away from that. If by this December you aren't seeing that Salaun has shown improvement you can begin to panic. Not full blown but legit cause for concern. But a 19 y/o rookie? It's just way too soon.

I’ve always been a third year kind of guy myself. But I agree.

[MPM]

What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right.

Our world in a nutshell. I'm moving to the Undying Lands.

[Liver_Pooty]

What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right.

Our world in a nutshell. I'm moving to the Undying Lands.

People struggle admitting they were wrong. Not only a board issue but obviously a real life world issue as well lol.

[MPM]

What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right.

Our world in a nutshell. I'm moving to the Undying Lands.

People struggle admitting they were wrong. Not only a board issue but obviously a real life world issue as well lol.

100%. Part and parcel of the a-hole worship culture we seem to be globally embracing at the moment.

(And, I'll be giving Salaun until midseason this year before forming any real impression).

[KembaWalker]

I wish fans were more patient with their young players. What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right.

This has literally never happened before lol. It didn’t happen when Kemba sucked his first year because people can relatively accurately judge the different between talent and production.

Theres nothing wrong with saying today, for example, that Kon would be an embarrassingly bad pick and nobody would care if I did so because he’s not on our team. But if we draft him and then say he was an embarrassingly bad pick in June 2026 you’ll have your collection of people saying you need to wait 5 years or whatever to decide. Thats dumb.

I didn’t really have an opinion on Tidjane cause I never heard of him till we drafted him but I certainly have one now after watching him play and move around the floor for dozens of games of pro ball. And he simply doesn’t have anything interesting going on. His best case is a guy that stands around and shoots 3s

[HornetJail]

I wish fans were more patient with their young players. What ends up happening is you start a narrative that the player sucks and then even if they make the necessary improvements you're married to your take so you remain negative and end up almost rooting against the kid and your team in your quest to be right. It goes both ways of course. We have fans convinced Keegan Murray is special and you cannot talk them out of it. He's supposedly untouchable. I always suggest fans wait until about the 1/2 way point of their 2nd seasons. The offseason before will be the first time they'll have a whole summer dedicated to improving while working with professional coaches/trainers and not having the pre-draft/combine, draft, moving, Summer League, etc taking away from that. If by this December you aren't seeing that Salaun has shown improvement you can begin to panic. Not full blown but legit cause for concern. But a 19 y/o rookie? It's just way too soon.

I am the one that's usually patient with young players, often to a fault. I held onto hope for players like Monk, Vonleh, etc long after they were out of Charlotte. Sometimes I'm right sometimes I'm not, but I usually give the benefit of the doubt to the young players. But you have to show something.

Tidjane has gotten one of the longest leashes a Charlotte rookie has ever received due to frontcourt injuries and lack of depth on this roster. And he has shown nothing. I'm sorry but I don't care how young a player is. You don't have to be anywhere near perfect, or even contribute. Just show something, anything, to prove you are worth waiting on.

Malik Monk had his moments of explosive scoring his rookie year. Vonleh had more brief moments of defensive prowess and he hardly played at all as a rookie before getting shipped off for Batum. Zeller could hustle and had some really athletic and smart plays and wasn't a total liability in his bench minutes. Even Adam Morrison, as outmatched as he was athletically and physically, had his moments as a solid scorer. MKG was a great defender from the jump. Biz as raw as he was, had the size and strength to protect the rim as a rookie. Kemba was (at the time) one of the least efficient qualifying scorers in league history, but clearly had the talent to score. Even Kai Jones, playing out of position, was a complete mess of a basketball player, and yet had the potential to be something due to freaky athleticism at his size.

Salaun has been a liability in every single area of both offense and defense, and just doesn't have anything you can point to. If we squint hard enough, his rebounding is decent, and his willingness to take open 3s at a 28% clip bodes well for if he ever develops that shot well enough to hit at 38%. His one good sequence of defensive plays against Cleveland stands out in my memory, but he did that one time in like 70 games. Salaun is effectively Kai Jones with no vertical. He isn't worth caring about.

Salaun is more likely to go the way of Kevin Knox or Anthony Bennett than any other outcome. He doesn't need to be cut immediately or anything, but I hope the team isn't going to make personnel decisions with him in mind. We shouldn't turn down a free agent or trade acquisition, or a draft pick because they would impede Salaun's progress.

[Diop]

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[KingCat]

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I do love seeing this. Hopefully a few years from now, the fanbase can look back and laugh about how wrong we were about the two of them

[fatlever]

Glad to see they're working on his finishing through contact. I think the one thing that really surprised me about his game in a negative way was his God awful touch and finishing around the basket.

[KembaWalker]

I’m no NBA coach so I’ll have to take their word for it that practicing against a couch cushion is somehow better training than the actual pro basketball players with arms that you pay to practice defense

[MPM]

Glad to see they're working on his finishing through contact. I think the one thing that really surprised me about his game in a negative way was his God awful touch and finishing around the basket.

This is one area where I saw some small improvement across last season - out of the gate, he was abysmal at finishing through contact - rather than exploding into it, as soon as a defender met him, he would just stop and shrink. Toward the end of the year, you could tell he'd been working on it - his to the basket game was a bit stronger and more sure.

[EmpireFalls]

He looks awful in that drill

[JustBuzzin]

He has no feel for the game. At best we can hope for is a high energy hustle guy. We screwed up the pick that's why they are working with him.

[Liver_Pooty]

He has no feel for the game. At best we can hope for is a high energy hustle guy. We screwed up the pick that's why they are working with him.

Or one could say they are working with him because that’s their job.

[JMAC3]

I still am holding my stock on this kid, underrated how big he is and how well he moves laterally for a guy his size.

[MasterIchiro]

I think Thor could defend Tiddy in the paint and shut him down ruthlessly.

[Chapelchilla]

Draft project - give up on project while he is still a teenager?

I don't know if TS is going to eventually be good enough to get a productive spot in the line up or not but it's odd to rule it out after his freshman year basically.
Hopefully he gets it done.