Victor Wembanyama aka Wemby aka The Extraterrestrial

to discuss the 7'4" french hooper

Victor Wembanyama just dribbled the ball through Reggie Bullock’s legs 🤯pic.twitter.com/uVSh0k5P8F

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 19, 2023

that's mean

la muscade

Kids these days have no respect.

https://x.com/worldwidewob/status/1715555240748232761?s=46&t=XlsbhgknQH65_CH00_uPqw

out here blocking klay threes

i think his defensive ceiling is to become the most impactful defender since bill russell

just caught up on a bunch of highlights on NBA TV, holy cannoli!

he blocked wiggins three times lol

Kinda wild if you think about it. pic.twitter.com/GIzGNlIUT2

— C.J. Holmes 🚀 (@CjHolmes22) October 21, 2023

That whole 90 seconds is lol

Wemby did all this in 90 seconds 👽 pic.twitter.com/LwKec8Nc4j

— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) October 21, 2023

Hot take: he's going to be All-Defense as a rookie.

His 3 point shot is a little shaky but his midrange already looks solid.

curious to see what his offense looks like against full speed nba d, hes def doing some iffy stuff but prob also has some already strong parts to his offense, pop said hes letting him figure it out on his own just letting him do whatever he wants which was surprising but does seem true through the preseason at least, defense is yeah already insane, wouldnt be surprised if he made the allstar game this year, hes a phenomenon

Def interested to see what he looks like once teams start trying and all start to build a scouting report on him.

tbh i think teams have heard of this guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ygGfnFzQc

oh my god

https://x.com/ericsal_7/status/1715916481265799380?s=46&t=XlsbhgknQH65_CH00_uPqw

that looks fake

lol i may have gone to hs with that x poster (according to my friend who insists this is true)

but yeah that picture is bananas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dta2sjy7GRg

TW for those who are afraid of heights.

lol the hand in space

the layup is insane he just…lays it in

They should get him a go pro instead of having him hold his little phone.

He has scored

So "only" 3 blocks in the last game, guys are maybe testing him less now?

he's definitely altering drives and perimeter jumpers even if he isnt getting contact

This guy reached the highest level for his sport on the planet and his highlight reel still looks like when there’s a 5-star recruit in a small high school district https://t.co/kfB8oRY36b

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) November 3, 2023

love how much the announcers are just chuckling at how insane this dude is

making KD look like Mugsy Durant out there

The question now might be how soon does he become the best player in the league.

when theyre running the throw it up where no one else can get it play they could still be throwing it much higher lol no ones brain can process what hes capable of

Kareem is the only near-analog to Victor in terms of instant impact on the whole league, but Kareem arrived in the league aged 22 and already had three NCAA championships under his belt. Wembanyama just needs to add some muscle and show his body can endure the grind of 82 games plus endless playoff series and he'll unquestionably be in the top three or four. Getting enough separation that everyone agrees who is "the best player in the league" is almost impossible these days.

when theyre running the throw it up where no one else can get it play they could still be throwing it much higher

Yeah I noticed that too, I mean where's this kid's (literal) ceiling?

you know who I feel a little bad for is Pop, I mean the guy was fairly vocal about wanting to hang it up someday soon and suddenly this absolute freak just lands in his lap

lol no way, wemby just added like ten years to pops life. hes set

I mean its a good problem to have but I kinda feel like Pop was finally letting himself think about fucking off for a while and spening all day fishing

I assume pop is having the time of his life with this kid

its his karmic payout for being one of the first nba guys to take european basketball players seriously

most nba coaches are overworked type-A nervous wrecks. pop strikes me as about the most mentally healthy coach out there. he'll quit whenever he wants to.

well yeah he seems like the one dude who might like a life outside of basketball

dont get me wrong when the Spurs got the pick the first thing I thought was that I was happy for Pop, I love when coaches like that can go out on a high note

The question now might be how soon does he become the best player in the league.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Friday, November 3, 2023 1:31 PM (two hours ago)

you have guys like jokic, tatum, luka who are still just into or haven't even entered their prime years so i think i'd peg it at like 3 years until victor is indisputably the best player in the league

i think the more interesting question is how much better will he be than the second best player of his wave of guys? like if you put luka, tatum, shai etc to the side -- they're all 24/25 -- and focus just on the 22/23 year olds and under you have guys like: paolo, ant edwards, cade, halliburton, chet, franz, barnes... it feels like victor could be 2x better than them even as most if not all of those guys will be all NBA players

if hes the best player in the league at 22 well boy howdy, not usually how it works but could happen

hard not to get ahead of ourselves here after witnessing last night... but yeah. please just stay healthy

im sure hell have some injuries as his alien body adjusts to earth life, just hopefully nothing too serious

since we're getting ahead of ourselves in this thread after seeing some of those plays last night my reaction wasn't just "he could be the best player in the league in 3 years" but also "they may have to change the rules for this guy"

will this guy even have to box out? he gumbied a pass last night with his arm bent like 90 degrees over the defenders head lol

Need E-40 to say victor wembanyama one time

— no bells (@nobellsblog) November 3, 2023

lmao

haha id be surprised if he wasnt working up a song right now

Mr Wembanyama Mr Vic Wembanyama

I've been singing "Wembanyama Mama" to myself since ums posted that.

Been singing his name to the tune of Mistadobalina myself

genuinely would be terrified if I saw this out in the wild. like my only thought would be "that better fucking be Wemby"

Happy HalloWemby!

📺 Spurs/Suns, 10pm/et on TNT pic.twitter.com/ZCNU1f5oBh

— NBA (@NBA) October 31, 2023

He's apparently working on a skyhook, if he ever gets that down RIP NBA.

Sorry but kool Keith

Chilling with wembanyama
Stroking llamas

hey his album earlier this year has a song about old Supersonics players so anything is possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krorxO_fHEI

I love it when he raps about basketball. The Baldwin hills spacemen would be my fantasy basketball team name if I played

def periodically new people or words appear that make me think i want to hear kool keith say that

It's like he's doing this on an 8-foot rim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiLbtU_GTSM

nerf rim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgkxajrQArJ

Let's try that again.

is pop cooked?

i didn’t think so until this year

like im really starting to wince watching them play, i get that they wanted to experiment to see how everyone fits with wemby, but i feel like the experiment has lost the plot when you lose 12 games in a row. sochan is never gonna be pre-playoff freakout ben simmons and i worry that pop will break him trying to make it happen. giving wemby no direction means he plays like a 19-year-old, no shit he's gonna try to do too much and get a bunch of turnovers. this team feels rudderless without competent point guard play and their defensive woes are compounded by the turnovers and missed shots. tre jones isnt a world-beater but he's a capable pg whose on-off numbers and netrtg with wemby are fuckin good. they should experiment with winning even at the expense of some theoretical all-switching all-the-time defensive lineup.

im not terribly worried in the long run bc its not like pop was given a loaded roster to begin with. there are several good pg prospects in this draft (i like collier and topic rn but who knows) and some servicable bigs that can upgrade charles bassey pretty quickly.

the approach they’re taking may have worked more 10 or 15 years ago….the overall talent in the league means that there aren’t any easy games early in the season. so if you’re openly fucking around while everyone else is trying to win the results are going to hurt.

i also wonder if, even for a player as unique as wemby, a more traditional development approach where you ask him to focus on a few fundamentals and gradually expand his responsibilities over time, just works better.

cant help but think theyre just tanking

if you were just running jones-wemby pick and rolls all game you might win too much

meanwhile letting wemby and sochan get some reps doing whatever prob has some value, its like everyone else is playing basketball and youre playing 21 lol

idk Pop taking the mic to tell people not to boo Kawhi kinda made me feel like his heart isn't really in it anymore. its just a weird thing for a coach to do and I think maybe Pop just can't suppress his inner human anymore the way being a head coach requires you to do. but I dunno maybe they are just tanking.

i would tank if i were them, go back to the well one more time

you can tank and be better is the thing

what why

would they be winning that many more games if they were actually trying to play sound basketball? not many but probably a few, and this particular nba season has some fierce competition for being crappy, lotta crappy teams. not so easy to get those ping pong balls. otoh even once you pick up another couple pieces, how much are you setting wemby's timeline back playing like this now

i dont think youre setting him back particularly, at this stage in career letting him try stuff might even be the best choice, and of course if its a tough tanking year then tanking harder is of great benefit, i dont know that its a tough tanking year but regardless yeah tanking harder will produce better results if youre tanking lol

one problem with sucking this year is that it's supposed to a weak draft, top pick might not have any value

fwiw:

The men’s college basketball season is upon us, which means it’s time to update my NBA mock draft. So far, we’ve already received quite a bit of information on college players, as well as a lot of tape on prospects playing overseas.

What does that intel say? That this class is as wide open for players to emerge into as any iteration I’ve come across since I began covering the NBA Draft over the last decade. While this mock draft is supposed to provide a snapshot of where league and team sources generally stand on the prospects at this exact moment, it’s hard to get a read on where scouts sit on this class and even how interested many of the key players are in participating in this draft at all. There are a significant number of polarizing players this season. That starts at the top, even if scouts believe this class could potentially offer some intriguing depth.

It’s worth laying out how questionable the top of this class is. While we are still in the early stages of identifying prospects with the potential to be the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, I do not currently have a player rated as a Tier One or Tier Two prospect.

I wouldn’t say I’m especially stingy with such grades. Over the last four drafts, I have listed the following players in either of those categories:

2020: LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards.
2021: Cade Cunningham, Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green.
2022: Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith Jr., Paolo Banchero, Jaden Ivey.
2023: Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, Cam Whitmore, Amen Thompson.
That’s 15 players in four classes. Some of those players have hit, and some of them look like misses, so I’m far from perfect. No evaluator is. But 14 of those 15 players were taken in the top five, with only Whitmore falling to 20th last season due to myriad factors.

As of now, I have not yet seen a player in this class with the look of a typical top-three pick in an NBA Draft. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone in this class who looks like an average top-five selection.

https://theathletic.com/5009208/2023/11/13/nba-mock-draft-2024-alexandre-sarr/

i mean obvs youd like the draft to be "stronger" but this is the year that makes sense for them to tank, tankers cant be choosers

spurs dont need to hit a homerun in this draft imo and there are plenty of pg's who would be at minimum solid starters to complement wemby. they have their own pick and toronto's if it stays out of the top 6 (and charlotte if they somehow make the playoffs). 2025 gets fun bc they own the hawks picks for 3 years and they get a bulls 1st rounder (probably, unless they go nuclear tanking for 3 years)

the other thing i need to remember is that this team that won 22 games last year had some actual nba rotation players in jakob poeltl and josh richardson for most of the year, so take the leftovers of that team and add wemby and put sochan in the hardest position that he's never played and...12 game losing streak makes sense

yeah it's just that finishing bottom 3 might not be much better draftwise than finishing bottom 10

maybe finishing 15th will be the best lol

?pic.twitter.com/CVrzswHcAm

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 5, 2024

my god Wemby pic.twitter.com/D4UwJKwuoQ

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 5, 2024

thats the stuff

haha what the fuck

i was CACKLING when i saw it, i couldnt believe he made that dunk

Wow this game!

that block on giannis was completely absurd

ah they got a perfect look

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA BLOCKS GIANNIS.

pic.twitter.com/6Z8At9cJm9

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 5, 2024

a little early for "new sheriff in town" comments, but that was a sweet block and giannis is now on notice for the remainder of their respective careers.

betcha he's gonna be the 5th guy to record a quadruple double

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEZAwNgWoAARId3?format=jpg&name=large

what

like im really starting to wince watching them play, i get that they wanted to experiment to see how everyone fits with wemby, but i feel like the experiment has lost the plot when you lose 12 games in a row. sochan is never gonna be pre-playoff freakout ben simmons and i worry that pop will break him trying to make it happen. giving wemby no direction means he plays like a 19-year-old, no shit he's gonna try to do too much and get a bunch of turnovers. this team feels rudderless without competent point guard play and their defensive woes are compounded by the turnovers and missed shots. tre jones isnt a world-beater but he's a capable pg whose on-off numbers and netrtg with wemby are fuckin good. they should experiment with winning even at the expense of some theoretical all-switching all-the-time defensive lineup.

im not terribly worried in the long run bc its not like pop was given a loaded roster to begin with. there are several good pg prospects in this draft (i like collier and topic rn but who knows) and some servicable bigs that can upgrade charles bassey pretty quickly.

― oatly carmichael (m bison), Monday, November 27, 2023 6:33 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

so spurs are 3-6 since trae young took over as starting pg. along with some better rotation decisions (julian champagnie takes over for keldon as starting wing bc hes a better 3pt shooter and defender, sochan moves to pf, branham minutes getting replaced by sudenly playable blake wesley) and now they look like a real nba team. only one of those 6 losses was a blowout and that was boston. the wins are against fellow bottom-feeders, but they will have a much more promising second half of the year, esp if vassell can get his 3pt consistency back.

the thing that would bother me watching this team every game, aside from all the losing obvs, is they play so fn soft, it was bothering me when they played the celtics, i was like whatre you doing you gotta throw a shoulder into someone get out there and squabble

so spurs are 3-6 since trae young took over as starting pg.

― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Sunday, January 21, 2024 7:56 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i mustve missed this

lmao TRE JONES shit

too many short guys named "trey"

three many short guys named trey

the thing about the spurs, and I haven’t watched enough of their games to really be an authority on this or anything, is that it seems like pop has a plan for how the team should be constructed — something I’ve noticed is that they’re first in the league in assist percentage and have been the whole season pretty much, so I feel like they’re punting on putting the best possible offense out there for now and planning for the future when they have a more winnable roster

Could be an all time great matchup for many years to come

Chet and Wemby really went to war in the fourth quarter of their matchup 🔥 pic.twitter.com/jMqDCkbGL2

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) January 25, 2024

yeah, there was a lot of fun stuff happening even though the game was already decided

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcRjJ1PDYJs

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFihGYUW4AAtUgQ?format=jpg&name=small

jesus christ

being slightly colorblind i hate graphics like this

graph roughly says that wemby is perfect

DARKO D-DPM?? Wemby rocking the triple D!!

Wemby's stats over his last 5 games are more ridiculous than this dunk!

24.2 PTS, 11.2 REB, 5.6 BLK, 4.8 AST, 2.8 STL, 1.8 3PT while playing just 29.1 MINSpic.twitter.com/bdhd93LXtl

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 26, 2024

could see him putting up olajuwon-like numbers of 6+ stocks per season (dream did it five times, only done twice outside of that: eaton and d robinson)

might even be able to push 7 a few times.... maybe 8?

whats the limit of what this guy can do lol

Wemby what the f*** pic.twitter.com/OMZjSmOtyX

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 28, 2024

lol yeah I've seen dads try to do that during 3rd grade basketball practice

Bruh 😭 pic.twitter.com/rtOn2Nik5L

— BrickMuse (@BrickMuse) February 28, 2024

it's wild how much he is living up to the hype and how terrible of a basketball team they are

the only players i feel sorta confident will be here in two years with wemby are vassell and sochan. they have so many guys that can best be described as draft projects (wesley, branham) or reclamation projects (collins, champagnie, osman maybe). keldon johnson gets a bunch of minutes but lost his starting job to a guy who was just starting summer league bc he’s the odd man out. he’s the heart and soul but that kind of guy is only valuable on winning teams.

tre jones has held his own but he is the quintessential backup PG and not good enough a shooter or stout enough a defender to be a starting lead guard in the nba. wemby desperately needs shooting, and while sochan is passable as a low volume wide open guy, tre is a minus in that regard. it’s why if the spurs hit the lottery again risacher might be their guy as a big wing who can shoot.

What do you see as the highest priorities this offseason? Hoping they get a high lottery pick to pair another young star w/Wemby.

they have their own pick which is likely to be at least top 7 or 8, plus they might get torontos pick if it falls out of the top 6. so a pretty good shot at two top 10 picks with one in the top 5.

atp they need to draft for fit with wemby which i think makes sarr an awkward fit. they could use a wing shooter to pair with vassell (a la risacher), they could use a lead guard who can set up the offense and spread the floor, they can use a backup big with actual defensive ability, they could use rotation players who can reliably knock down open jumpers. they just don’t have a functional team because they’ve traded away anyone another team would want to pile up draft assets and all that’s left were a bunch of brian wright’s “best player available” draft selections and contract fodder that wasn’t diverted elsewhere

I’ve only seen a handful of spurs games but it seems to me things are going according to plan. they can let the young guys play pop’s preferred style (first in the league in assists% by a decent margin) and make mistakes, figure out who the keepers are, and dip back into the draft. don’t think it really matters if they win 18 or 30 games, they just don’t have the talent yet

considering how good webmy is already youd like them to have a more in place now

naw what’s the rush man

i mean for my personal rooting interests itd be fine if the spurs took their time, but from their pov the better wemby is the harder it is for them to build via the draft

which i suspect informed some of their odder coaching decisions in the first half of the season

there are just not many guys who are title contending players super early in their careers, and the guys who won young usually played with hall of fame big men (timmy with drob, kobe and wade with shaq). otherwise it takes ~7 years for most era-defining title-winners to arrive. that said, wemby might just be built different and i think he could be an all-nba first teamer before his rookie contract runs out (assuming some decline from jokic and embiid by 2026-7).

wemby being maybe the best defender in the league already and a walking 20-10 on any given night doesnt necessarily mean they have to cash in all their assets and put the best possible team around him right now, but i do think they should try to get a lot better a lot faster than what they probably initially planned. they need to start figuring out the archetypes that best fit around him that actually win games, but theyre not gonna learn anything new throwing out the same lineup plus a 19-year-old or two from the 2024 draft.

i dont know how much truth there was to the spurs' interest in trae young, but it's a gamble i think that's worth taking. he has 3 years left on his deal which would give them a comfortable couple of season to asses his fit with wemby/pop before needing to decide to extend or trade him. he's only 5 years older than vic. if anyone can compensate for trae's defensive shortcomings, it's vic, and if anyone can complement vic as a playmaker and floor-spreader, it's trae (ok luka and shai too but i dont think they're going anywhere anytime soon).

guys who are title contending players super early in their careers, and the guys who won young usually played with hall of fame big men

Or, in the case of HOFer big man Kareem, he got to play with the Big O in his second season.

wemby-trae would also be good from the pov of pairing the biggest guy and the littlest guy

Trae would average 15 assists playing with wemby

it might be good but at what cost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOZzFXolGJc

Other than that how was the game, Mr. Lincoln?pic.twitter.com/hkt590bCD6

— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) March 1, 2024

hahahhahaha this game was incredible

typical wemby line 28-13-7-5 blks-2 stls, 5/7 from 3

Victor Wembayama during his on-court interview after the win “I missed this shit” pic.twitter.com/GBQQw3A4xO

— Noah Magaro-George (@N_Magaro) March 1, 2024

i cannot express how much ppl in sa love this young man

lol that block got the ball before it left his hands

him vs. Chet has been really fun to watch

its crazy how good they both are

he said NOOOOOO! pic.twitter.com/5IYmqu4E9B

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 1, 2024

Wemby on his penchant for live-TV bleeps:

“I’m still not used to the, uh, standards here. I’m adjusting.” https://t.co/QyDaJYSUEP

— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) March 1, 2024

wemby is currently -10000 to win ROY

I mean what can you say really

pic.twitter.com/kM97Vzcp64

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 23, 2024

not only did he not jump on that block he was off balance going backwards with one leg off the ground

important to learn from your mistakes

Wemby got players making a lot of business decisions pic.twitter.com/uHNHMbpgVw

— Lang Whitaker (@langwhitaker) March 23, 2024

I think there’s going to be an extremely compelling case for third team all-NBA by the time the season’s over. and it’s hard to envision a world where he’s not the best player in the league by the middle of the 2026 season. maybe even sooner

Is he not a top ten player right *now*?

if hes a top ten player then the rest of the spurs are insanely maybe even impossibly bad

his shooting percentages arent good he doesnt score a ton offensively hes not close to a star right now

tho if they just ran pick and rolls with him every play it would be interesting to see what happened

That block and dunk are insane, but the running the floor like a giant deer/Magic Johnson is what makes him so unique.

will be interesting to see how his game develops what kind of player he ends up being right now seems like hes just doing whatever

if his shooting never comes around then maybe he plays a giannis sort of game except less power more being eight feet tall, does he have giannises handle is it possible with those longest limbs, tho tbf giannis also has very long limbs, wemby also never going to be that strong which makes dribbling operating in tight spaces harder because you get bumped off yr spots

when you watch him the talent is so insane its easy to assume hes just gonna be able to do everything good, and honestly maybe he will but its not guaranteed, feel very comfortable saying hell be the best defender in the game and maybe the best defender ever, offensively i think hell find a way to score a ton of points but im not sure what itll look like and if its like all time great scorer or more all star level scorer

can little scooty guys not just blow past him?

even if theyre by him he can still block their shots lol but regardless thats just a normal big man problem

if he has good floater range touch i guess they could just put him in the post and let him shoot over people, even if he gets pushed out a little being inherently wide open all the time is a strong advantage

Every time this thread gets bumped I think of the guy I used to talk hoops with who really bought into the "he's just tall" "take," and that all a defender had to do against Wemby was to put a hand in his face to make him miss jumpers. I really wish I asked him if he thought if KD would be a good as he's been if he were 6' 4" instead.

being tall in basketball is good

if hes a top ten player then the rest of the spurs are insanely maybe even impossibly bad

― lag∞n, Saturday, March 23, 2024 10:39 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don’t think he’s top 10 but he’s obviously top 25 and really that’s just the average of the whole year, he’s rising fast. to your question specifically there was this chyron I can’t find now that was like team net ratings with their best player off the floor and iirc the spurs were 30th

I mean let’s not be silly just look at the guy he’s very close to being all the way there

his offense just isnt that good, defense is insane but prob unsound in some ways

like the spurs are very bad and he’s a positive in raw +/- since january or something, there’s no sense denying reality he’s taking over very soon

when you watch him the talent is so insane its easy to assume hes just gonna be able to do everything good, and honestly maybe he will but its not guaranteed, feel very comfortable saying hell be the best defender in the game and maybe the best defender ever, offensively i think hell find a way to score a ton of points but im not sure what itll look like and if its like all time great scorer or more all star level scorer

― lag∞n, Saturday, March 23, 2024 10:56 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I agree with all of this but imagine what best defender of all time plus all star level scorer is going to look like!

yeah with that youre in the running for best player ever

people do tend to underestimate how long it takes for young players to develop tho, almost every player who has a popular rookie season has a disappointing second year

if you look at seasonal averages, it really obfuscates how good wemby has been since they changed the starting lineup bc the sochan (pg) and collins (c) were just so bad and dysfunctional. moving sochan to pf, collins to the bench, and tre jones to the starting lineup gave them something useful. the spurs are so bad bc outside of wemby and vassell (and probably tre jones and sochan and keldon), they just don't have players who'd be at minimum rotation guys on good teams. they are very young and make lots of young dumb mistakes in close games. they get thrashed when the bench plays typically.

vassell looks like at least a middleton type scorer who can play some decent d. champagnie is not gonna be the starter forever, but he at least provides some reliable floor-spreading. the rest of the lineup is truly atrocious, just such a huge drop off going from wemby to collins who is an absolute turnstile on D and not enough of a 3pt threat to do much meaningfully on offense. the rest of rotation: project players (branham, wesley, and barlow who've shown some strides of growth but are not impactful players right now); keldon who i love but is a non-entity on defense and is more of a heart and soul microwave guy now; and cedi osman (ok).

they traded nearly everyone who could help you win games in order to get wemby, but i didnt expect they'd lose this many games this year. i have to wonder a little if the issue is down to their scouting taking a dive or if pop has maybe fallen behind the times last few years after being out of playoff contention for so long.

vic's splits before and after the collins benching:

before: (19 games) 18.9/9.7/2.5 with 2.6b and 1.3spg on .432/.265/.817
after: (43 games) 21.7/10.8/4.0 with 3.9b and 1.3spg on .478/.344/.791

should note that the spurs are the worst 3pt shooting team, a little bit of that is vic falling too much in love with that shot, but other part is the rest of the rotation ranges from above average-at-best (vassell, osman, champagnie all ~37%) to truly awful (wesley .135, collins .307). jones and sochan have shot almost respectably (34 and 32% respectively) but need to be wide open to be that accurate.

they traded nearly everyone who could help you win games in order to get wemby, but i didnt expect they'd lose this many games this year. i have to wonder a little if the issue is down to their scouting taking a dive or if pop has maybe fallen behind the times last few years after being out of playoff contention for so long.

― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Saturday, March 23, 2024 2:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’ve mentioned this before, and you’ve definitely watched more games than me, but I feel like there’s a very intentional process here: play spurs basketball (first in assist rate in the league!), let wemby play his way through the different lineup iterations, see what sticks, then reload via the draft next year. the west is just too stacked to have any real expectations. the team has been god-awful over the course of the year but they’ve been merely bad the past several weeks (most of which is probably attributable to wemby evolving). god willing he’s got 15-20 years in the league, who cares if they suck this year

4 assists a game for a 19 year old 7-4 guy is insane. we’re not ready

here's a pretty incredible passer too, like not jokic obv but hes got vision

xp i think thats mostly true, it was an experimental year to see who fits around wemby and how they would fit best, but i think i'm still disappointed in how inconsistently some of these guys look like ball players. i dont know how collins has disappointed me bc i had p low expectations for him, but his play last year post-poeltl trade suggested that he'd at least be a good stretch 5, and hes been shitty! i was mad that the spurs drafted two combo guards in branham and wesley bc they already had a bunch of those, but branham's things was that he was at least a good shooter and he has also been shitty! wesley is becoming a point-of-attack defender but he can't shoot to save his life. keldon isnt exactly regressing, but his development feels like it's stalled out.

A lot of the best free agents are likely to receive max deals and are in pretty good situations. I'm curious who they'll be able to add. I'm sure there are one or two who would take less to play with wemby... probably a vet like derozan or maybe klay thompson? bruce brown?

I don't think paul george wants to move to san antone

i loved demar when he played here, and i think he would work as a game-closer/6th man at the end of his career and help them rack up a few regular season wins. the spurs will need 3pt shooters around wemby, though. klay is the archetype of guy they need on the wing, but he's already 34. i can't see them doing anything more than 1-year mle type deals with vets that deep into their careers. bruce is a good rotation guy, but they can't afford to flesh out the bench when the starting lineup has such glaring holes. also bruce belongs in denver.

its gonna have to be a draft-built team just as it was with duncan (and the warriors with curry mostly). thankfully they've got a lot to build with there, but it does mean they'll need to land an all-star (assuming vassell is what he is right now as a borderline all-star on a 60-win team type player).

just get four more wembys, what i would do

sarr incoming

The total eclipse has just begun. 🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑 pic.twitter.com/ihGr5mFzai

— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) April 8, 2024

The Shammgod. 😱
The Spin. 🌪️
Prime Wemby. 👽 https://t.co/8XcAkJxSLo pic.twitter.com/EPdbIiEWfv

— NBA (@NBA) April 10, 2024

even though they havent won a lot this year, wemby has been a joy to watch every night

that’s such a casually sick move

hes improving at a crazy rate

7-5 guy who can do high level dribbling in traffic ok

lol at Nike using the classic 90s alien, they need to put a joint in his mouth and recreate the "take me to your dealer" poster

shd do a 90s rave flyer aesthetic for all of wembys stuff

KG is so funny pic.twitter.com/Hga5CrUnQA

— Dom2K 🎅 (@Dom_2k) April 12, 2024

WEMBY 17 PTS IN 3 MIN 😱 pic.twitter.com/ig4dvRxNn8

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 13, 2024

in a stunning turn of events wemby has won the rookie of the year award

thats my guy who i like

scoot was robbed

otm. scoot was the victim of more than a few steals this season

congrats wemby!

https://i.postimg.cc/5NygxHC7/leader.jpg

A student at St. Mary’s Hall High snagged the ball after Wembanyama’s exuberant heave. A Spurs staffer was sent to retrieve it from the youth with a promise of a ticket to another game. That contest turned out to be that big win over the Nuggets. Aware of the ultimate fate of the ball he had tossed into the stands, Wembanyama autographed another ball to be presented to the St. Mary’s Hall student. On it, he wrote in all caps: SORRY YOU COULDN’T KEEP THE OTHER BALL. HOPE THIS WORKS TOO.

lmao kid goes to smh he gets enough breaks in life already sheesh

smh high

kid shouldve taken off with the ball try to get out of the stadium thats a challenge

attn frogbs:

Just overheard Victor Wembanyama, he's picking up cards for RogSi lol wtf pic.twitter.com/jH8ULjTS10

— eddie (@1edddddddddddie) May 22, 2024

the shop he was at is like a 5 min drive from my son's school

btw wemby is a totally hopeless dork and hes absolutely perfect for our lame city

btw2:
ROY
2nd in DPOY, all-nba defensive first team
blocks champ
finishes 20th in all-nba voting

pretty good rookie season for the 20 year old center from fwonce

i predict hes gonna get a lot of blocks in his career just have a feeling about it

god can you imagine having to play against this guy. like you're trying to see a couple turns ahead in your mind but sitting across from you is a man wih the most insane body proportions youve ever seen in your life

Wemby x Chris Paul 👀

(via @nateryansports) pic.twitter.com/w7rIcwdPNz

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 30, 2024

More cool moves like this for the dunk vs step back logo threes please victor

Victor Wembanyama put the MOVES on Naz Reid 😅
pic.twitter.com/U5jf7gPRFK

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 3, 2024

hes still shooting too many 3s for someone who is not good at them, but the difference between him and zach collins is like the difference between zach collins and me

what does his best offense look like now

if the spurs were hyperfocused on getting wemby his best looks, theyd be at the rim constantly (and playing fewer minutes with sochan who occupies that space currently). but it sounds like pop wants him to shoot a bunch of perimeter j's this year to develop that part of his game. theyre not tanking, but they are experimenting still.

like pick and roll, post, face up iso, all of that?

yeah, just having the center of the court open with shooters/slashers on the wing, right now sochan is the guy getting most of those looks (and doing pretty well! 17+ ppg on career-best efficiency) and wemby's efficiency is awful bc he's shooting 22% from 3 on 7 attempts a game. he's 81% from within 3 feet but less than a quarter of his attempts are that close.

the good news is that the sochan+wemby defensive pairing is smothering, their d is borderline elite. they can both switch on anyone and make life difficult. steph castle looks incredible for a rookie there too even tho his shooting is brick city rn.

its interesting obvs long term you want him to be able to hit threes just from a scheme flexibility standpoint but even if hes shooting them decently do you want him taking that many i think you want him near the basket mostly

yeah i kinda dont care if he ever becomes a 40% 3 point shooter if he can get 70% of his 2s and get fouled all the time, but it does mean they need to get more shooting around him (brian wright: impossible!!)