With Tidjane having his first DNP by Coaches Decision of the season the other night I wanted to know where everyone thinks the future is heading for our 2024 first round pick.
He's definitely showing improvement in his Sophomore season, and coming back from his G League stint he looked especially sharp. BUT the past few games he's seemed to regress into rookie TJ. I swear his confidence took a major hit during the OKC game where he had some awful decision making. Been hoping for a bounce back since then but sadly haven't seen it. And now with Grant Williams and Kalkbrenner back there's even less room for him in the rotation.
My best case scenario for him was to keep building on that improvement he's shown, staying productive off the bench, and by next season be a legit backup PF on a playoff level hornets team. Maybe I'm overly negative but that doesn't seem realistic anymore and I wonder what role he'll have on the team going forward.
Will Tidjane ride the bench until injury opens up play time for him? Will he again be sent down to the G League? Will a potential Miles trade open up opportunities for him? Is there a chance the front office gives up on him entirely by the end of this season? What do you guys think?
I expected his role to diminish when Grant came back. Because Grant is just objectively better right now. I wouldn’t mind sending Salaun down to the G League again for a while, and just calling him up if there’s any front court injuries
Wouldn't be shocked if they want to give Grant a major role to audition him for a trade to a competitor ahead of the trade deadline, in case we aren't trending towards making the play-in.
This hypothesis makes a lot of sense, but damn I’ll be so sad if we trade him. Grant is so Hornets.
Idk about that he really fits the culture we’re trying to build and he wants to be here which is a big plus there’s a ton of alignment with him and the FO that it doesn’t make much sense to trade him IMO
He’s likely getting TJ’s minutes because he’s simply better
He is a raw prospect who is a week younger than Kon Kneuppel. And we have all established that Kneuppel is an anomaly when it comes to age, skill, and competence. He needs more time, and a G League stint may do him some good.
Pros: his shot form is good, he has better lateral movement and anticipation from this year compared to last year, he has plus athleticism, his dribbling is much improved over last year, he moves much more on offense than his rookie season and doesn't just camp in the corner, his motor is above average, he has a desire to improve, takes coaching well, and is confident
Cons: while improved, his dribbling is below average, he's not comfortable using all of his physical tools to his advantage, he avoids contact when driving the ball, he is not as physically strong as he need to be and can get pushed off his spot by even smaller players on both ends of the court, his defensive instincts are a tick slow (you can tell by his contests on drives that he's a fraction of a second late quite frequently), his positioning is improved, but he still gets lost on the floor more often than you would like to see.
There's a vision for him to be a solid rotation player. He has shown flashes this year of potentially being a spot starter at the 4 with improvement. I don't think he'll ever be an All-Star, but he can be a good player that was drafted in a weak draft.
I don't disagree with this analysis.
A detailed and fair assessment.
Only quibble I have - he has average motor? To my eyes, he has the highest motor since MKG, only drag is his processing time.
I said his motor is above average, it's definitely not average.
If the vision for him is to be a solid rotation player why didn't we just draft one at 6th over all?
You have to recall the Hornets roster at that time. Mark Williams was your starting center, and from the moves made prior to the season, I don't think the plan at that point was to move on him. So that takes the center options like Clingan and Eddy. Castle and Sarr had already been taken, Ware had critiques in regards to motor and motivation.
The Hornets were obviously in a cultural shift mode, and wanted to have those blue collar go to work type of players. You can tell that with the Grant Williams, Jeff Green pickups as well as Sexton. Looking back at the draft, if health stops being a concern, McCain would be the obvious miss by multiple teams in that draft. However, I can understand a team shooting for potential when the draft is as weak as it seems like it was. There was an argument for Buzelis, but he hasn't shown much improvement this season after a solid rookie campaign.
Salaun's ceiling if everything clicks is All-Defense and All-Star due to his shooting stroke and defensive measurements (length, lateral speed, athleticism). I think that is where the front office hoped he could be. I don't expect him to get there, potential is an alluring temptress. Rotation player is what I expect him to be, which isn't bad considering the draft class.
If you can get a starter at the 4 and build around Kneuppel, Miller, and Ball, that's very solid. His length gives him versatility and he could be used in the future as a small ball 5 or a bigger 3 (because of the shooting potential).
He's always been a project player. Give him more time.
I wouldn't say he's regressed back to rookie Tidjane personally, he's been playing poorly but he's still way more comfortable with the ball in his hands and he's making the right decision as far as when to drive vs. shoot, whereas he used to shoot it no matter what because he rightly didn't trust his handle the slightest bit. He's also been pretty decent defensively and his shot looks good too.
He needs to spend a lot of time in the G League which has been true since day 1 and was only not the case because of the amount of injuries we had. He should spend most of the second half of the season there, with short stints in the first team from time to time.
Overall this season has still been a big positive for him. He went from looking like a lost cause at the beginning of the year to actually showing flashes that make it at least imaginable for him to become a good player over time. It might never happen, but he's given us enough hope for us to be patient imo.
No shot they give up on him. His improvement is consistent and noticeable. They signed up for the project, and the project is going to plan. It would be silly to not ride it out
We already know how I feel about our boy but to be fair hes way ahead of schedule considering how raw he is. I legitimately see his best case scenario floor as an all-star player and his legitimate ceiling is to the point where I cant actually see how high it goes because he is that raw but increasing at a ridiculous rate.
He wont get as many minutes right now with Grant back but he should be down with the swarm getting all the chances to try and dominate them down there with Liam until we figure out what to do with Collin on the roster.
He needed to work on his handle last year and thats already much better so juat keep doing that and work on being more physical when finishing at the rim/getting stronger in general and that will be the next step I would personally put him on so he can avoid getting bullied and also be able to bully people at the same time.
As far as the Toronto game recently is concerned I was seeing his eyes as he tried to do certain things but his skill physically just doesnt match yet what his mind is seeing, he legitimately is much further ahead mentally than he is skillset wise and thats legitimately terrifying because last year he wasnt there until probably march. He has an outstandingly bright future if we use the swarm correctly for his and Liams development both because Liam is legit too after watching him play live as well.
Agree with you that he’s seemed to have regressed back to rookie TJ form the past few games. I’d say stick him in the G for the remainder of the season barring any injuries or trades that opens up space for him. Right now he’s young enough that we can give him the rest of this year in the G and decide during the off season what we want to do with him. I’d say he has next to zero trade value right now, so no use in moving him now.
To be fair, he had like two bad games one against OKC, which I do not blame anyone for struggling against, and then Toronto, which was a bad game. After that, he fell out of the rotation, which I think was pretty unfair.
Young players struggle, look at Dylan Harper. He was great at the beginning of the season, but he has fallen off hard lately. It happens. I think Tidjane losing minutes for 2 bad games after a great month of play sucks.
But I think it’s a great excuse to send him to the G League, with a focus on driving the basketball this time, so he knows how to read defenses better on drives and not get stuck in the air or pick up his dribble so often.
He is still well ahead of schedule.
He didnt fall out its just Grant is still a better player and with Kalk coming back the minutes are naturally going to decrease. Hes still a definitive part of our future and that wont change anytime soon.
Based on what is he a "definitive" part of the future?
Dylan Harper and Tidjane are 2 totally different cases.
"Falling off hard" for a couple weeks is not a huge deal. Especially for a player that's playing regular minutes on one of the best teams in the league.
Tidjane is not even getting mins on one of the worst teams in the league.
He's not ahead of schedule. No idea how you could possibly say that or what you would be using to measure that.
Tidjane just got DNPs because a player came back from an injury, not because he played himself out the lineup.
Tidjane was not projected to give contributing minutes in his sophomore season, that was never the plan. The fact he just did that for an entire month puts him ahead of schedule.
I'm not talking about him playing or not playing in the last week.
He was a lottery pick in the the draft. The only reason he wasn't projected to contribute is because he's not very good. Being forced to play because of your team's misfortune doesn't mean you're "ahead of schedule".
Well no, he was drafted as a lottery pick to develop over the next 3-4 years. if he is in year 2 and playing impactful minutes that is factually ahead of schedule.
He's NOT playing impactful minutes tho! This season has been the same as his first season. He's not in the rotation. And you can blame that on whatever you want. He's not "factually" ahead of schedule. He started 10 games last year!
We can just agree to disagree. I saw him outperform Miles Bridges in the second half of the NYK game, I saw him drop 21 against Toronto, I saw him consistently outperform the Bucks every time he stepped on the floor. His performances against Orlando, Washington, Brooklyn etc were good. I know what I saw this year, and it is definitely not “the same as his first season.”
There's probably also multiple random dudes in the G League that can have a great 2nd half of a game and outperform Miles. And even have a stretch of games where they play well if given the opportunity.
I'm not saying he hasn't had solid moments or that he hasn't improved any aspect of his game whatsoever. I'd sure fkn hope he's improved.
Every player in the NBA can have good moments. He's been mostly irrelevant to the team this season outside of a handful of games.
But he didn’t just have a good moment, he shot 50/50 for a month, rebounded well and played solid defense and then had 2 bad games and got dropped out the rotation
I’d guess we end up trading one or both of Bridges and Grant before the deadline, which would open up more minutes at his position. So maybe we send him back to Greensboro for the sake of playing time until then?
For sure he has shown improvement, he’s been a playable and positive NBA player, which is huge. Never selling my Tidjane stock
Bridges pls
He could still one day be a reliable starter somewhere but for now this pick is looking like solid D rating. Yes he’s young, yes he it’s only his second year and yes he has great physical tools. The thing is we drafted him at 6 and while it was relatively weak draft there were plenty of solid role players. The fact a number 6 pick isn’t finding playing time in his second year screams bust. He could very well spend the rest of his career in the G League for all we know
I’d like to see tidjane spend some more time in the G league this season as our frontcourt continues to stay healthy. Then I’d like the team to draft a stud PF and essentially have Tidjane compete with whoever we pick for minutes. I think that level of competition would really light a fire under him and really push him to improve. Given the kind of player and person Tidjane is I think internal competition would be the best possible thing for him
Kid is 20 give him time. He is improving and in 2 years he could be starting. He has good length and an outside shot just has more to learn.
I just want him to get minutes. I think he’ll be sent back down to the GLeague when the team returns from their road trip.
If you're struggling to find mins and effectiveness on this team, the outlook is not good.
He was always gonna struggle to find mins when grant came back, He needs to sit in the g league for a whole season not just some games
I don't think the GL is super beneficial to these guys. Especially for prolonged periods of time. Guys go down to the GL and drop absurd stats but it rarely translates to the NBA. Sitting on the bench not playing/rarely practicing doesn't help either - but alot of the work that needs to be done will have to be done in the summer.
Is that true? He's essentially a rookie and Grant Williams is a solid vet, if he was taking Grant's minutes already I'd be very impressed
Yeah, it's true. Grant has been out the entire year and Tidjane has barely played - even with multiple players injured in the last year.
Tidjane was a productive rotation player for a good stretch of games
Most NBA players can have a stretch of games where they're productive. That's a pretty low bar to have. Tidjane is in the NBA, he has talent. But there's a difference between being talented and being a good NBA player that's contributing on the regular.