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Tidjane Salaün's career-night offers hope for the Hornets' future

The 19-year-old rookie proves his worth, despite loss to Miami Heat.

Austin Leake

Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images
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The Hornets caught a lot of flack when they decided to take the chance on Tidjane Salaün in the 2024 NBA Draft. Salaün was drafted as more of a project player when players like Dalton Knecht, Donovan Clingan, and Matas Buzelis were more NBA-ready.

The Hornets' new ownership absolutely loved the potential that Salaün offered with his size and ability to shoot with his frame, and he seemingly appears to slowly be showing early signs of succession. Before Wednesday's game, Salaün was averaging just 3.7 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting a lackluster 28.8% from the field and 27.5% from three.

However, in three of his previous four games, Salaün had scored more than six points and had made a positive impact on the game on both sides of the basketball in his minutes played. On Wednesday night, Salaün showed the full package as he poured in a career-high 17 points while also adding three steals, four rebounds, two assists, and seven made field goals.

One of the best aspects of his game was his ability to score without the three ball, as he scored four different field goals outside of a three-point make. 0.7 of his 1.1 field goals made are from three-pointers this season. That's yet another positive sign of growth in the rookie's game early on in his playing career.

The confidence from the 19-year-old has never wavered, as he has continued to have a terrific work ethic, confidence in himself, and ability to shoot the ball. The Frenchman is never afraid to shoot when given the opportunity, and it appears that he has made significant strides in adjusting to the NBA level in just the 15 games that he has appeared in.

His confidence was on full display in Wednesday night's game versus Miami, as he knocked down a clutch jump shot with no hesitation in the final minute of regulation to give the Hornets their first lead since the first quarter.

Unfortunately, the Hornets weren't able to close out the win versus Miami, but Salaün showed vast improvement from the beginning of the season to now. With Grant Williams sidelined for the remainder of the season and Miles Bridges without a timetable for return, Salaün will receive a lot of consistent minutes for the foreseeable future.

If anything, Salaün's career-night should be a huge reminder that he is only 19-years-old and that there's plenty of basketball ahead for him. As well, he wasn't even intended to be receiving such important minutes in his career this early on, which is proving that he is ahead of schedule already.
Salaün played a career-high 38 minutes in the loss to Miami.

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Austin Leake
AUSTIN LEAKE

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