The Charlotte Hornets surprised everyone when they selected Tidjane Salaun using the No. 6 overall pick of the NBA Draft earlier this summer, especially with guys like Donovan Clingan, Zach Edey , Rob Dillingham, Kel’el Ware, Dalton Knecht, and Matas Buzelis still available at the time.
Since Salaun isn’t as known as most of his draft batchmates, many thought the Charlotte Hornets botched the pick. But the franchise’s new head of basketball operations Jeff Peterson believes otherwise.
Peterson recently spoke to The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov to explain why they picked the 18-year-old power forward out of France.
“The guy loves being in the gym, loves to get better, and loves the process,” Peterson said. “So, again, we can sleep at night knowing that he has those qualities, and then, not to mention, he has some skill to him, too. He can rebound and push. He can make his shot. So, we’re just really excited about, more than anything, his mindset and his approach to how we’re going to progress and build this thing out.”
Tidjane Salaun played for Cholet Basket in France last season, averaging 9.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.0 steals in 23.2 minutes across 49 games. He also represented France in the 2023 FIBA U-18 European Championship last summer, where he was their leading scorer, averaging 12.9 points per game.
Charlotte Hornets now have a young core to build on
ESPN analyst Zach Lowe recently said that the Charlotte Hornets are one of the NBA’s “sleeping giants” because of the moves they’ve made in the past few months, including hiring Charles Lee to become their next head coach and re-signing Miles Bridges to a new three-year deal.
As things stand, the Charlotte Hornets have one of the youngest rosters in the league. Of course, there will be some growing pains, but they have slowly built a good foundation with LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Mark Williams, Grant Williams, and Josh Green leading the way.
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