2025 NBA Draft Prospect – Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Staying in the Carolinas, after dropping my first draft file on sophomore forward Collin Murray-Boyles of the South Carolina Gamecocks, I am following that up by turning my attention to senior guard Hunter Sallis of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. As a senior, Sallis is going to have a hard time cracking the 1st round in the 2025 NBA Draft, which is a much deeper draft this past one. That said, he does not turn 22-years-old until next March and has all the tools to be a player that one day is viewed as a last 1st to 2nd round steal.

Like my breakdown of Murray-Boyles, I want to look at film to help formulate an opinion. As someone that also does film breakdown for the Pittsburgh Panthers, I saw Sallis play multiple times last season. A First Team All-ACC performer in his first year in the conference – previously a Gonzaga Bulldog – he follows in the footsteps of Tyree Appleby (2023) and Alondes Williams (2022), both transfer that managed to earn the First Team distinction under Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes.

I watched Sallis play against Pitt three times last season and he was progressively less effective. What the highlight tape above speaks to and having watched a few more full games of his is that he is impactful with the ball in his hands when looking to score but does not hurt you in as many ways if his shot is not falling.

Sallis was as talented a scorer as you will find at the collegiate level with good size (6’5”) for a guard, but only flashed his playmaking skills. While NBA teams will certainly welcome his ability to put the ball in the basket, whether he gets drafted might come down to how confident they feel in him as a playmaker moving to the next level.

The video opens with two sequences that highlight Sallis’ speed with a live dribble and athleticism. The next three sequences showcase his ability to score at all three levels and how dangerous he is in transition. Last year, Sallis scored 117 points in 100 possessions (1.170 PPP), per Synergy. That was supported by a very efficient 62% effective field goal percentage as he converted 31-51 (60.8%) of his two-point shots and 12-28 (42.9%) of his three-pointers. Even though transition does not represent a large portion of the game, with the NBA a freer flowing environment, this is certainly something that Sallis will bring to the table from day one.

Starting at the :39 mark, we see him pull-up for a triple against drop coverage after exiting from an inside ball screen. An important shot given how popular drop coverage is in the NBA. Sallis makes a nice jump pass out of a screen-and-flare with teammate Andrew Carr at the :46 mark as both defenders go with him. This is not an advanced read, but it does show that he is not selfish and understands basic playmaking concepts in pick-and-roll situations. Continuing with Sallis being able to work in ball screen situations, we see some good off-ball movement prior to receiving the pass. That is followed by a hesitation dribble that leads to a stop-and-pop jumper in the paint starting at the 1:04 mark.

Regarding his handle, he is more north-to-south than east-to-west and gets downhill in a hurry with a good first step and a hesitation move that renders his defender flat-footed before he uses an explosive forward burst to get by them. Sallis is not overly creative in the lane, but he does not have to be. He has very good spatial awareness, protects the ball well, and his length allows him to finish over taller defenders with enough strength to absorb and play through some amount of contact.

As a defender, Sallis is attentive but does not stand out. His length and lateral speed aid in him in recording steals, per the :54 mark, and helps him stay in front of his assignment, per the 1:49 mark. This is certainly an area that can be improved upon and some of it will naturally occur as Sallis will not have to shoulder the offensive load to the same degree in the NBA as he does for the Demon Deacons.

This video features a steady dose of his stop-and-pop shooting and finishing craft at the rim in the first minute. Regarding Sallis’ ability and comfort working off the ball, he went 43-107 (40.2%) on spot-up attempts from beyond the arc last season. Examples of that begin at the :32, 1:31, 1:51, and 1:58 marks.

Per Hoop-Math, last year, he took 23.7% of his attempts at the rim, converting 63.3% of them. Two-point jumpers represented 36.1% of Sallis’ attempts, which he made 48.2% of them. Lastly, 40.2% of his total attempts were three-pointers and he splashed 40.5% of them. Those are strong marks for a player that was at the very top of opposing scouting reports all season.

Two videos in and we have only seen one assist; Sallis recorded a total of three between both games. Of course, when you are scoring 33 and 29 points in those games, respectively, there may not have been a need to share the ball all that much. However, that does speak to the room he has to grow as a playmaker, specifically how to leverage his scoring gravity to open things up for his teammates.

Sallis became a starter for the first time last year and was the ACC leader in minutes played per game (35.4). But his season-high for assists in a game was five, which he managed to reach that mark in three different games. Sallis shared the backcourt with Kevin Miller (3.5 assists per game), another talented player, but his assists per game numbers (2.5) were lower than players that were also featured in dynamic backcourts.

The North Carolina Tar Heels backcourt featuring Elliott Cadeau (4.1) and RJ Davis (3.5) saw them both average at least 3.5 assists per game. Even the freshman backcourt of the Panthers saw Bub Carrington (4.1) and Jaland Lowe (3.3) average more assists per game and Lowe played nearly 10 less minutes per game (26.4).

Is this the be-all and end-all for him? Of course not. Sallis is far too talented as a scorer for his potential emerging playmaking to drag him out of draft conversation. That said, it is the primary area of growth, that if incrementally improved upon this upcoming season, can firmly plant him in the late 1st to early 2nd round mix.