Tidjane Salaün didn’t have the best rookie season, to put it lightly. He was exceptionally inefficient as a scorer, but more notably, he didn’t _look_ like an NBA basketball player. He struggled to simply dribble the ball with any refinement, his decision making was sporadic, and he had far too many plays where he seemed overwhelmed by the NBA game. He was always going to return for summer league, health permitting, and his goals are probably a good bit lower than most returning players, at least from a fan perspective. While he didn’t light the world on fire, he at least looked better.
Salaün is a bit enigmatic as he frequently has good ideas but doesn’t know how to execute them. Like he knows what he’s supposed to do but hasn’t always had the composure to pull it off. For me, that’s what I most wanted to see in the summer league. Was his decision making calmer and more under control? Most of the time, that seemed to be the case. There were some frazzled moments early on, but he showed a better comfort level as the games went on. It wasn’t perfect, but there was something to build off.
His physicality was another positive from his summer league performance. He battled on the glass and made his presence felt even if he wasn’t putting up box score numbers. It felt like he was helping the team play good basketball when he was on the floor.
The scoring efficiency still wasn’t quite where it needs to be. He had moments, like a couple of movement threes deep in the corner in front of the opposing bench, and he made one from like 32 feet just because. Overall, he finished at an okay 33% from behind the arc and a touch over 50% from two. The 2-point percentage still needs to come up, but it was still a significant improvement from the 40% it was at last season.
So all in all, a successful showing for the still-19-year-old Frenchman. He wasn’t dominant likely you typically want out of second year lottery picks, but it was still a pretty notable improvement from what was a very underwhelming rookie season. It doesn’t feel good enough to earn an A, but it was good nonetheless.
**Final Grade: B+**
### _Related_