The Many Iterations of Hunter Sallis
Hunter Sallis chose to return to Wake Forest for a second year, leading to an evolution in his game. How will this new iteration of his game affect his draft stock for the 2025 NBA Draft?
Version 2.0, the next system update, a whole new operating system: upgrades and new iterations are a part of our culture in almost every phase of life. Whether they’re the bane of your existence or an eagerly awaited milestone, new iterations are also present when watching the basketball game and scouting it for the future.
Developmentally, it’s common to refer to a “star leap” a player takes when they elevate their game to the next level. Similarly, when players age out of their prime, they become a new iteration of themselves. Whether that’s becoming a specialist or simply a lesser version of themselves, every basketball player will mold their game as they age and evolve into a new version of themselves.
As a classic example, Lebron James has gone through many different iterations of his game. From a raw athletic marvel to the post-focused Heat dynasty terror to the floor general point guard that he was with the Lakers, James serves as the prototype of a player molding his game and having many different iterations. He’s not the only one, of course, as many draft prospects also go through different versions of their games on the way to their eventual role in the NBA.
With such a prevalent concept in today’s society, I wanted to focus on Hunter Sallis for a few reasons. First, I was ready to place a near-first-round draft grade on him last year before he returned. Second, he’s gone through several different iterations as a player. Finally, as he’s started his second season at Wake Forest, a new iteration of Hunter Sallis has emerged. With an eye toward the past, present, and future, let’s dive into his game to see all the different iterations of Hunter Sallis so far!
Hunter Sallis, 1.0: The Gonzaga Years
Like what seems to be the majority of college basketball players, Hunter Sallis didn’t start his career at Wake Forest. Coming out of high school, Sallis was a five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American from Nebraska, a sentence that isn’t often written. He was the unquestioned star for the Millard North High School Mustangs, scoring almost 2,000 career points and leading the Mustangs to their first state title.
After his illustrious career coming out of a usually high school basketball-bereft state, Sallis chose to attend Gonzaga as one of their most highly-ranked recruits in school history. Alongside Chet Holmgren and Jalen Suggs, Sallis was one of the most touted recruits in school history and was expected to round out a Bulldogs team that lost just one game, the championship game, the year prior.
Unfortunately for Sallis, his time in Spokane was anything but stable. Part of that is simply because these Zags were a deep team chock full of professional talent. Chet Holmgren, Andrew Nembhard, Julian Strawther, Anton Watson, and Drew Timme eventually made it to the NBA, while Rasir Bolton has been a microwave scorer in international basketball.
Since Nembhard, Bolton, and Strawther were ahead of him on the depth chart, Sallis never started a game for Gonzaga and only ranked eighth and seventh in minutes per game in each season. All of the five-star allure he’d had as a player dissipated while playing behind the veteran Zags core, but there were still signs of what Sallis could be with a bigger runway and why he didn’t get a chance to have one with the Bulldogs.
The offense was what held Sallis back the most as a Zag. Without a consistent shot, handle, or creation game at the time, there was little he could do without the ball in his hands on the team. That relegated him to spot minutes off the bench to show his stuff. Per Synergy, that stuff mainly included transition, cutting, and broken plays where he could finish at the rim. As a freshman, Sallis shot 70.3% at the rim on 64 attempts, while his finishing dipped to 56.1% on 66 attempts as a sophomore.
His points per possession ratings also fluctuated wildly during his time at Gonzaga, which speaks to the instability of his role and the limited sample size to skew data. Sallis had a “Very Good” ranking in transition as a freshman that dropped to “Below Average” as a sophomore. He was a “Below Average” cutter shooting efficiency-wise as a freshman but graded out as “Excellent” the next season, showing the instability of his role with the team.
This instability, combined with the film from both years, illuminates the issues Sallis faced as a Zag. While he often skied for massive dunks with his athleticism, most of these chances needed to be self-created and were few and far between. He digit to show off some stutter-rip moves that spoke to his creativity, but his lithe frame held him back as often as his long reach helped him finish around bigger defenders.
Could Sallis’s numbers as a finisher have been better if he had a more consistent role? Maybe, given his later success at Wake Forest, but we’ll never know. What was true was that the early 2020s Gonzaga Bulldogs were a contending roster that had little room for trial-by-fire development. That left Sallis from showcasing the same aggression, speed, and burst as a driver that made him a top recruit in high school.
Besides his finishing, his poor shooting truly held Sallis back from cracking the team’s rotation. Sallis wasn’t known as a shooter coming out of high school, and he upheld that reputation while in Spokane. Per Synergy, when combining his jump shot attempts across both seasons, Sallis shot a paltry 23-of-83, or 27.7%, on jumpers, while more specifically shooting just 16-of-64, or 25.0%, on three-pointers while at Gonzaga.
On tape, Sallis’s shooting issues are apparent: despite his frame and vertical pop, he has a slow release on his shot. All too often, a late closing defender could affect Sallis’s deep shots despite being open enough to get a clean look. He wasn’t particularly balanced on his shots, leaning in different directions and not getting his feet cleanly under himself enough. This led to poor numbers across the board, ultimately sealing Sallis’s fate as a Zag.
Despite the positives of the rest of his game, the lack of shooting simply didn’t offer Sallis a window to playtime. The Zags often played two big lineups with Holmgren, Timme, and Watson, which made shooting a premium. Without it, Sallis was mostly used as a spot-stopper on defense, which, given his length and dogged attitude, contributed most to the team.
Per last year’s NBA Draft Combine’s measurements, Sallis stands at a solid 6’3.5” without shoes, 179 pounds, and a 6’9.75” wingspan. Besides the weight he’s put on over his career to bulk up and absorb punishment, the positional size and stretchy wingspan made Sallis into a frightening perimeter defender. He was almost always in a defensive stance, rarely made poor gambles, and used his hands to swipe away at the rock whenever it was exposed. That led to several heads-up defensive plays, run-out steals for jams, and a steal percentage of over 2.0% each of his years at Gonzaga.
Mark Few utilized Sallis as an occasional bench stopper for the Bulldogs but rarely gave Sallis the chance to develop his on-ball offense. Had he stayed with the Zags, who knows what would have happened with his development. Few has a reputation for developing guards, which likely contributed to Sallis’s decision to attend the school.
Still, the opportunities of the transfer portal were too much to ignore, and Sallis unsurprisingly chose to transfer. At the time, the decision to head to Wake Forest did not register on the college basketball Richter scale, but that changed quickly. After one season with the Demon Deacons, Sallis had not only achieved a whole new iteration of his game, but he had played himself onto NBA radars as a completely different player.
Hunter Sallis, 2.0: Wake Forest
After Danny Manning’s middling tenure as Wake Forest’s coach in the mid-2010s, where he only topped .500 once, the Demon Deacons moved onto Steve Forbes at the helm. In his first four years as head coach, besides a 6-16 campaign interfered with by the COVID pandemic, Forbes has led the team to 19+ wins in seasons, albeit without an NCAA tournament appearance.
Forbes has built his successes through the work of the transfer portal. Tyree Appleby, Alondes Williams, and Jake LaRavia all transferred to play at Wake Forest and saw massive upticks in their production and success on the court. While Appleby is cutting his teeth across the pond in Istanbul, Williams and LaRavia made it to the NBA, with LaRavia going 19th to the Timberwolves before being rerouted to the Grizzlies.
All of this is to say that Sallis’s decision to attend Wake Forest made a ton of sense in retrospect. Forbes also recruited Gonzaga’s Efton Reid and Central Michigan’s Boopie Miller to the team, but given his high, untapped upside, Sallis was the clear prize. All Sallis did in response in his first year with the team was win ACC Newcomer of the Year and make the All-ACC First Team as a whole new version of himself.
Here’s how he did it. The first major change to Sallis’s game was his usage, as he went from a bystander on offense to the main event. Sallis almost quadrupled his shot attempts per game while, per Synergy, taking 3.4 shots at the rim per game. Despite the increased output, Sallis finished at a 64.1% clip, which was graded as “Very Good” on Synergy, and earned the same grade for shooting 42.9% on runners in the lane.
Sallis’s film shows a vastly different player than his time at Gonzaga. His handle is tighter, allowing him to get downhill more often. He was a more patient dribbler who used his body and hesitations to attack and make space. He still showed the same burst and craft on spot-up moves like jab steps and stutter rips, but Sallis bulked up enough to absorb contact and finish through, and not just over, taller and stronger defenders. All that, combined with his massive wingspan, made him one of the more dangerous drivers and finishers in the ACC last season.
His improvement as a rim scorer also made him a much more tangible NBA target. Instead of finishing most of his looks at the basket off fast breaks and cuts, Sallis handled a steady appetite of self-creation to juice Wake Forest’s offense. Even though most NBA teams weren’t looking to hand the keys of their offense to Sallis, his improvement as an on-ball threat made him a viable player to create for himself at the rim and open up space for others.
Finishing wasn’t the most dramatic change in Sallis’s game, however. That came in one of the more eye-popping turnarounds from deep that I’ve seen in my time scouting. During his time at Gonzaga, Hunter Sallis took 64 threes and only made 25.0% of them. Last season at Wake Forest, Sallis took 185 threes, shooting 5.4 a game, and striped them at a scalding 40.5%.
It’s hard to overstate how abrupt of a change it was for Hunter Sallis as a player to be able to shoot in his new iteration. The changes to Sallis's shot are numerous: he had a quicker release, his entire shooting motion was more fluid, and he was much better about staying balanced with his feet under him. Sallis’s willingness to take pull-up three-pointers (51 attempts at 39.2%) and transition long bombs (28 attempts at 42.9%) is a stark change from where he was as a shooter just a year prior.
Even more so than his finishing, Sallis’s shooting development has been the true swing skill in his ascent as a prospect. As a plus finisher and shooter, Sallis would be an actual advantage creator as an off-guard and could put real stress on defenses with his attacking. Given the rapid progression of his offensive abilities, too, last year’s iteration of Hunter Sallis made a real case for his untapped potential that could further improve his game.
Like most players who take on a heavy creation and usage role, Hunter Sallis did see his defense take a slight step back last year. He still posted a 1.8% steal percentage and 1.7% block percentage, the latter of which was a career-high, but his focus had turned to the offensive end. That led to a few more breakdowns or missed rotations, but he was still the handsy on-ball defender who, when fully engaged, gave ACC opponents fits and tantrums.
When accounting for defense, shooting, and finishing, Hunter Sallis 2.0 was a vastly different and improved player compared to who he was at Gonzaga. The progression in his game made him a real two-way player, something that NBA teams increasingly covet and demand from their wings. With his good size for his position, Sallis rightfully popped upon more draft boards.
It shocked many, including the No Ceilings crew, who had him ranked #37 on our Big Board V.7 before the combine, that Sallis chose to return to school. In retrospect, the NIL era has redefined the decisions available for players to stay in college and earn what they deserve. The main factors are excitement about the team and a desire to get the Demon Deacons back to March Madness, but there looks to be a new iteration of Hunter Sallis playing at Wake Forest in his second season with the squad.
Hunter Sallis, 3.0: Wake Forest Year 2
If you’re purely box score watching, it will appear that Hunter Sallis has plateaued or taken a slight step back in his second year at Wake Forest. His scoring numbers are slightly down, alongside his rebounding, steals, and blocks, while he’s averaging an extra turnover per game. He’s still the feature piece for the Demon Deacons, yet it appears he’s had a slightly lessened impact on the game.
The most significant changes for Sallis, both positive and negative, have come in his deep shooting, passing, and foul-drawing numbers. The apparent shooting jump last season appears to have cratered, as Sallis is taking 3.8 threes a game but only hitting 21.1% of them. Passing-wise, Sallis’s assists have gone up to 4.2 a game, although he’s turning it over at a career-high 2.6 times per contest. Finally, after attempting 3.4 free throws per game last year, Sallis has upped that number to 5.6 while hitting them at a career-high 82.1% mark.
As fun as Sallis’s new numbers are to pour over, the tape is more instructive. The most positive part of iteration 3.0 for Hunter Sallis has been his focus on creating for others. The assist numbers are a modest bump up from last year, but Sallis has missed out on just as many assists off of great passes that, had they gone down, would’ve made his numbers look even better.
Sallis’s creations have come from all sorts of spots on the floor: handling the ball in the pick-and-roll, pushing the tempo in transition, or driving and kicking to open shooters, to name a few. He’s tightened his handle just a bit more so that he can fully manipulate the speed of his dribble and bend the defense to his whim, which has led to more lobs, skips, and sharp reads than he has shown before in his college career.
One of my biggest gripes about Hunter Sallis’s offensive arsenal before was its lack of dimensions. By adding a sharper edge to his passing, it’s more reasonable to see Sallis paired with various other guards in future lineups. His improvement in passing has dug him out of the pigeonhole he was in before, which should answer some of the lingering questions NBA evaluators had about how his game could scale to the NBA.
On the other hand, Sallis’s shooting falling off a cliff this year should raise alarm bells about how real last season’s improvement was. It’s not a death knell for his draft stock to be a subpar shooter, but it certainly does close some of the doors his passing seemed to open. Arguably, the most significant separator of NBA rotation guards is their shooting ability, so at least it’s reassuring for Sallis that he’s 11-of-19 on mid-range jumpers this year, all of which are pull-ups.
It’s clear on the film that the quality of Sallis’s looks hasn’t changed, as he’s still taking the same shots he was hitting later with ease. That, combined with his mid-range shooting and career-high free-throw percentage, offers some hope that Sallis is only going through an early shooting slump. However, if the poor percentage doesn’t peter out, Sallis’s ceiling will be lower than it looked last year.
Speaking of free throws, it is a positive development that Sallis has almost doubled his foul line attempts this season. That, combined with a career-high 78.6% mark at the rim, has helped carry him through his early shooting woes and kept Wake Forest afloat against Michigan and USC Upstate. Sallis is older than most lead ball-handling prospects in college, but the new positives with his passing and generating easy points at the line speak to his potential increased utility at the next level.
Like last year, Sallis hasn’t put as much energy into his defense due to his offensive load. He’s tried to work in the team's new additions like Tre’Von Spillers, Omaha Billew, Juke Harris, and Davin Cosby and mitigate an early shooting slump from Parker Friedrichsen. Still, even when tasked with a heavy offensive diet, Sallis makes plays on the defensive end due to his timing and length.
Sallis has a preternatural sense of when to stick his hands in the cookie jar or the passing lanes, which helps to force turnovers for his team. He’s also done a good job switching on the perimeter and staying attached to off-ball screens, though he’s been dying more often on on-ball screens in primary actions. Still, the latent defensive talent that Sallis showed at Gonzaga rears its head while he’s at Wake Forest, even though it’s less often.
When you factor in how slight the drop off has been for his defensive playmking, it’s been less of a regression and more of an adjustment for this new iteration of Hunter Sallis. The lack of deep shooting certainly is concerning, but the passing and foul-drawing flashes are encouraging. It does, however, leave his evaluation in a strange space, as he hasn’t markedly improved despite a team context geared toward his success and another offseason in a familiar setting.
Hunter Sallis 4.0?
After a transcendent first year with Wake Forest, Hunter Sallis appears to have evolved into a new iteration of his game. He’s still taking his deep shots, but due to his inaccuracy, has found different ways to contribute to winning. This version of Sallis, especially the one that shot 9/14 from the field against USC Upstate, looked more like a refined version of his star self.
Given the slight shifts to his game, it’s fair to wonder if this is the final version of Hunter Sallis. He’s already taken meteoric leaps in his shooting, driving, and passing while only losing volume in his defensive prowess. Sallis has also improved his strength in absorbing contact on both ends without sacrificing his slippery burst or vertical pop.
Even with his improvements, he could still grow in a few places. He’s an occasionally lackadaisical passer, leaving some too floaty to be picked off by defenders. He’s also not a consistent shooter yet, which will hold him back most from contributing on offense. On defense, Sallis has a bit of trouble with on-ball screens, leading to his only real on-ball issue.
This all leaves Hunter Sallis in a fascinating position draft-wise. You could argue that his stock will never be as high as last season, even though he wasn’t the passer he is this season. It’s always a harsher spotlight for players who return to college, and stagnation is magnified by NBA scouts much more than deficiencies for freshmen. It also doesn’t help when his biggest swing skill seems to be a bit more suspect.
Having watched the four first Wake Forest games, I don’t see a marked difference in Sallis’s shot form or attempts. That, alongside the aforementioned positive shooting indicators, makes me personally optimistic that it’s a matter of time before Sallis’s percentages start to creep back up toward good. If and when that happens, he’ll rightfully occupy a spot in the teens on most draft boards, as he did by debuting at #19 on the 2025 NBA Draft BIG Board V.1 last week.
In the NBA, Sallis will likely have to change his game to another iteration of itself. He won’t have the ball in his hands as often and will instead have to make some of his current gifts razor-sharp with limited chances. That should allow his defense to shine more, which will keep him on the floor, but it also speaks to why his shooting is so important. If Sallis isn’t getting the on-ball reps in an NBA offense and can’t hit shots from deep, he won’t see the floor often.
I remain bullish and intrigued about what the next iteration of Hunter Sallis will look like. I’ve already enjoyed watching him pick apart defenses this year while remaining a deadly on-ball threat for a Demon Deacons squad that should be good enough to make March Madness for the first time since 2017. Excitingly, Hunter Sallis iteration 3.0 has already been a blast to watch and scout, and I don’t see that changing as the season goes on for him and Wake Forest.
Glad to see someone else love Hunter. He was a true midrange scorer here in the Lincoln-Omaha metro area in high school, and he finally stretched that out to real 3-point shot reaction last season. I feel like so many people underrate his athleticsm just because he is older.