Hunter Sallis Scouting Report
After playing in a limited role at Gonzaga for two years, Sallis is ready to take a leap in his first season as an upperclassman. What makes him an NBA prospect? Find out more in the link below.
Player Profile
At 6’5”, Hunter Sallis was one of the best guard prospects of the 2021 class. The combination of his offensive versatility and athleticism were the main building blocks of his profile, but his body control, hip mobility, and feel for the game were the factors that made him a unique prospect and a five-star recruit.
While getting offers from Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina, Sallis chose the Gonzaga Bulldogs, which lost the National Championship months before his arrival on campus.
As a freshman, Sallis struggled to find starter minutes on a team built around Timme and Strawther. His role mostly contained coming off the bench as a versatile defender, ball-mover, and spot-up shooter. Despite playing limited minutes, Sallis was able to show flashes of his high school version with his inside scoring.
His offensive arsenal contains multiple scoring ways at the rim, and even if you take that part of his game away, Sallis always has his floater game to defer to, which set him apart from his peers, like in the clip below, where Sallis puts up the floater after the DHO action and created separation via the push-off.
The opportunity to create his offense was seldom during his first two years in Spokane. However, with the touches he had, Sallis found himself in very selective company in terms of efficiency. The main reason why Coach Few kept him in his reduced role is one of the reasons why I remain high on Sallis as an NBA prospect.
Sallis’ combination of great athleticism and off-ball movement is what kept opponents having to respect his game. Sallis has an active approach to the game, is vocal on the court, and more importantly: he’s staying in motion at all times. He has a gift for getting himself open and forcing the defense to switch. With various screening actions such as staggers or pin downs, the Bulldogs' offense was designed to generate open threes, with Sallis’ off-ball movement as a main weapon.
Here we see the backdoor cut from Sallis after the Zags’ motion offense designed around the Timme screen, which forced the defense to rotate and eventually leave Sallis open. Sallis’ active approach before the launch is what we see often from him, even if he doesn't touch the ball on the offensive end.
On the defensive end, Sallis is one of the best point-of-attack defenders amongst role players in college. His basketball IQ and a great feel for the game come to display, as he’s already learned how to use his gifted athleticism in his favor when guarding opponent ball handlers or wings. He slides his feet very well and uses his strong frame to absorb contact.
During his sophomore season, we’ve seen Sallis gaining more and more strength. His off-season workouts mostly focused on his three-point shooting and hitting the weights. Sallis entered his freshman season at 150 pounds, and as of today, he sits at 185 pounds. But the eye test shows us that he’s already gained a lot more muscle, and I expect Sallis to move towards the 195 pounds line before the end of the upcoming season.
In the play below, Sallis shows how well he’s able to adapt to the incoming screen by using his pivot foot to anticipate the ball handler going left, before sliding towards his pre-set direction and absorbing the contact. His timely reach for the ball results in the steal and transition dunk. This particular aspect is something we’ll likely see Sallis impacting immediately at Wake Forest.
Another aspect of Sallis’ impressive defensive game, is his ability to use his basketball IQ to make the best possible decisions. His long wingspan allows him to deflect passes in bunches, however, what caught my attention is that he barely gambles on defense and the outcomes are mostly determined by well-thought decision-making rather than just the athleticism itself.
In the clip below, Sallis doesn’t get caught ball-watching, maintaining control over his assignment at all times by not allowing the backdoor cutter to launch after the Zags’ defense goes over the screen. This puts the ball-handler in a tough decision, which allows Sallis to reach for the steal. The key element here was him placing his left foot a bit further before moving with his wing, shortening the passing lane the ball-handler could utilize.
Like with any other prospect, Sallis has a few areas of development that’ll impact his value as an NBA prospect, with his three-point shot being the most important one. He shot 23.7% on 59 attempts in his two years at Gonzaga. A low sample size, but the eye test matches the numbers.
What caught my attention in both his high school and college films, is that the amount of power of his shot is partially lost with how he places his elbow before the release. While I expect more of a “V” form, it takes an “L” form. These mechanical issues are fixable, and I know that Sallis is working hard in this offseason to get more comfortable with this shooting stroke as a preparation for, likely, more usage as a three-point shooter, in both movement and off the catch.
When looking at Sallis’ shot diet, it’s mostly at the rim, where he is a 68.3% finisher throughout his two seasons as a Zag. Diversifying his scoring arsenal should be the main goal, with an improved three-point shot being a must.
While we haven’t seen consistent on-ball reps from Sallis, the other elements of his game remain a question mark to determine. However, what I do like is his passing. Sallis’ role will likely consist of playing as a two-guard, rather than a full-time point guard. As a secondary playmaker, Sallis shows the decision-making he has on the defensive end, being translatable for his team’s offense.
He keeps his head on a swivel at all times and is very well of his surroundings with and without the ball in his hands. In this particular play, Sallis does well to hide the ball to his left after utilizing the screen, before feeding the roll man with the bounce pass for the finish at the rim.
With the NBA’s trend of more and more motion offenses where we see the ball moving a lot more than in previous eras, Sallis’ ability to be a ball-mover will also be an important aspect of his game that NBA front offices will evaluate.
On this particular play in the clip below, Sallis’ quick decision-making is again put on display, where he had to opportunity to kick the ball out for the wide-open three. But instead, he went for the dump-off down low, which led to a contested finish. In most cases, the wide-open three was the way to go here. However, evaluating Sallis’ game, I recognized that the lack of minutes he has had often led to inconsistencies like these, which is something we see often in college basketball.
This shows that Sallis has a lot of promise as a playmaker, but needs more opportunity to showcase his talent and untapped potential to NBA decision-makers. With a long season ahead, Sallis has one main goal and that is to take on a larger role at Wake Forest while maintaining his efficiency.
Overall, I remain high on Hunter Sallis’ chances to make it to the NBA. While it’s too early to determine where he could land on draft night, improvements in the above-mentioned areas will definitely put him in NBA conversations.