I haven’t watched much lately. We’ve hit the portion of the season a while ago that we’re not really learning much of anything about the team. With so many injured and guys getting minutes that probably shouldn’t be in the league, I don’t know how many conclusions or learnings there are to gather.
I do think Miles Bridges has taken a small step forward this year actually, but I didn’t want him back. I just don’t see him moving the needle much and wanted to build this year instead of watch Miles do much of the same that we’ve already seen.
I mean, who on this team right now does anyone here have an active interest in watching their development?
I mean, is there any interesting project? No, there’s not. That’s because miles bridges doing the same old thing and the waisted draft pick in Tidjane Salaun. Sure, the injuries suck. I would personally be interested in the trajectory of Tre Mann.
And duh, Brandon miller. But that goes without saying.
The funny part is that they probably drafted Salaun as a potential bridges replacement, and that looks like a (predictable) spectacular failure.
Bridges, after 2 years in college playing for and developing under a HOF coach Izzo with more minutes played, Better team with better veteran supporting cast. Salaun getting acclimated coming from another country, youngest player in the league. Bridges has become a really good player and there’s absolutely no reason to say Salaun can’t become one as well. To call him a spectacular failure at this point in my opinion is… nonsense.
I’m having a very hard time seeing the excitement about Salaun. I wish I shared your enthusiasm for a guy shooting 32.4% from the field. At one point, it was 31%, which rated him dead last in the nba in terms of shooting percentage out of any players who had taken 100 or more shots. That was two months ago, but he’s up to 32% or so now.
I said Salaun “looks” like a draft failure. Time will tell to see if he amounts to anything. But it’s not looking good. The most perplexing thing is his three point stroke. Mechanically it seems fine, but it’s often not dropping. I really do wonder if it’s an eyesight issue.
I’m hoping I’m wrong. Would love to be wrong on Tidjane. Because I do like the kid’s passion and character from everything I can tell. If he does shape up, I can see him being a low minutes, high energy bench guy who comes in, runs around like a fucking maniac, hustles like a pest, and can occasionally hit a three.
“In six games since March 2nd, Tidjane has averaged 7.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists, while shooting 53.8% from the field and 52.9% from three.”
Even though he shoots a lousy percentage from both 2 and 3, he still (barely) has more overall points than field goal attempts.
How is this? Simply put, he GETS FOULED.
He goes to the line a good bit in relation to his number of FG attempts.
The link below is a list of the league leaders in free throw attempts per field goal attempts. Among players on pace to play 58+ games this season, Salaun is 87th in the league. Before we poo poo that, look at some of the names he is ahead of on the list. And keep in mind that Tidjane is a young rookie who’s not going to get calls. Also, he shoots his fair share of threes, so it’s not like he’s just hanging around the basket getting fouled.
Salaun misses shots, but, perhaps for some, he still passes the eye test as an NBA player. No doubt, his body and activity help.
(Side note: Moussa is ranked very high in this stat! I think Moussa and Tidjane are the only Hornets on the list, partially because so few Hornets are on pace to play 58 games.)
Edit: I found another REMOTELY encouraging stat. 559 players have played in the NBA this season. Salaun is ranked number 157 out of 559 in rebounds per possession played, even though he’s not an interior big at this point. Accordingly, he is 169 out of 559 in rebounding %(percentage of missed shots that a player rebounds while he is on the floor). Physically, he belongs out there.
Crazy fact: In March, playing 133 minutes, Salaun’s “true shooting percentage” is .677. Over the course of this entire season, that would be good for fourth in the league behind Jarret Allen, Jalen Duren, and Rudy Gobert.
As Hornets fans, player development is typically a sore subject.
NSJ has shown an incredible amount of growth this year. And call me foolish - but I’m pretty excited about what Salaun has shown & what I think he will become. To me both are firm untouchables as we get ramped up this offseason. They are 19 & 20 - and thats a big bright light in this dumpster fire of a season. Before his latest g-league stint Salaun had tied together 2 great games - and he shows clutch potential (see both Spurs & Lakers wins - which are also our 2 best showings/wins this season in my opinion).
NSJ should aim to become what Malik Monk is. The problem is NSJ is not a secondary creator like Malik has become. He can spot up and create his own shot, but he really struggles creating for others right now.
It is what it is with Salaun - the fact they tried to get Knecht tells me what I need to know. I think he’s still 2 years away from being in the rotation consistently. Appreciate his efforts and hard work though.
TJ is the absolute perfect pick for a team in the hunt for a great draft pick this year and a hell of an investment in future years. To me, TJ is ahead of schedule.
We should have just kept Malik Monk to become what Malik Monk is. I feel we’ve been trying to replace him since we let him go.. with Booknight and now Nick Smith. I will keep my profile photo as Malik, until the day he comes back. lol
Yeah - I think Nick is still working through his confidence - but his assists are slowly increasing as the season has progressed. He just needs to raise his floor. Plus to his credit he’s out there with bully ball Miles as our main scoring option 1/2 the games - so how many opportunities is he truly getting to create?
19 & 20 years old. There are likely lottery picks this year (Queen) that are older.
My hope for Salaun is the he will diversify his offense outside of three point shooting. That would be reason for hope. I really do hope things are starting to slow down for him. Salaun doing things to get fouled is a good start.
Ah, here’s a good comp for Tidjane. Could he be a more athletic Kyle Anderson? Both players are in the 6’9 range and have viable three point shots. Anderson has always been viable three point shooter and decent defender. Of course, he’s a little older and the defense has gone down a little. But still. May not be a bad player comp.
