OT: Thoughts on Wembanyama?

[Kingsway_fan]

If he can remain healthy, he’s the one player who can legitimately put himself in the GOAT convo and possibly become THE goat. But obviously he’s going to need the RESULTS to support it.

But he’s the most absurd prospect EVER.

Sidenote, it’s crazy how a true generational talent always seems to appear just as the last one is fading out.

"Most absurd prospect ever" ???? Lol he's great, of that there is no doubt... but only if your vision of "all time" is the last 10 - 20 years ...

...Wilt Chamberlain rookie season:
averaged 38 points , 27 rebs , likely 10+ blocks per game. first rookie to win MVP of NBA
led the league as rookie in rebounding and scoring.... owns more All nba records than Jordan , lebron, Kobe, and next top 5 combined... his records will never be touched... they had to change the rules against him, he was that dominant...
Efficiency Rating Adjusted 34-36
Estimated Defensive Rating 90
Several games with 20+ blocks....

[tsherkin]

If he can remain healthy, he’s the one player who can legitimately put himself in the GOAT convo and possibly become THE goat. But obviously he’s going to need the RESULTS to support it.

But he’s the most absurd prospect EVER.

Sidenote, it’s crazy how a true generational talent always seems to appear just as the last one is fading out.

"Most absurd prospect ever" ???? Lol he's great, of that there is no doubt... but only if your vision of "all time is last 10 - 20 years

...Wilt Chamberlain rookie season...
averaged 38 points , 27 rebs , likely 10+ blocks per game. first rookie to win MVP of NBA.... led the league in rebounding and scoring.... owns more all nba records than Jordan , lebron , and next top 5 combined... his records will never be touched... they had to change the rules against him, he was that dominant...

Quoting stats without context isn't really a viable tactic here.

Wilt played in a very different league. It was almost 70 years ago. Narrower key, no 3pt line, very different pool of draftees and competition. He was, of course, a magnificent physical specimen and an incredible player no doubt... but they were playing at like 125 possessions per game with a lot more and many shorter rebounds which were much more available to the bigs. Particularly in the narrower key. And that's even before you look at how many more minutes per game players were playing in the 60s and 70s, on average, or the average FG% of the time compared to today's game (look at 2FG%).

You can't really look at pure box score averages and glean too much compared to the league nearly 70 years later. Wilt was hella dominant, but he did it in a very different environment.

EDIT: And on top of that, it doesn't really address how wild Wemby is as a prospect, in terms of potential. Keep in mind that Wemby NOW in his 3rd season is still a year younger than Wilt was as a rookie.

[Kingsway_fan]

Wemby is amazing.. but can he endure?... too soon to say...

[Appostis]

If he stays healthy he may of broken the league.

[Appostis]

Will always haunt me that Masai decided to trade for Poeltl and go for the play-in over tanking for this dude. It doesnt mean we would have gotten him but more so of the logic at the time

How many teams that tanked for Cooper missed out?

How many players tanked for Wemby and misses out?

It's still a small shot in the dark no matter what he did.

[Hottie McShotty]

He has the moves of a PG in a 7'5 body... Incredible and unstoppable.

[Rust_Cohle]

I was at the game where he had 10 blocks against us. For a team like the Raptors that can't shoot the 3, I have no idea how we'll score when he's on the court.

Or how we'll stop him. I'm happy we drafted CMB, but I wanted Maluach specifically to try and counter Wemby. I guess it made sense for a Western Conference team to draft him.

I was at that game too! 10 blocks was an all timer

[Rust_Cohle]

OP do me a favor and tell me if my takes aged well

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2290430&p=106278938#p106279241

Props on Day 1 DPOY potential because rookie year wemby had like 8 to 1 odds of leading the league in blocks when he entered the league and now it feels like foregone conclusion every season. Well done! You were ahead of the curve

[Rust_Cohle]

I thought I was seeing things because it felt like he drags or switches his pivot foot on like every single up and under move but never gets called for it.

That's part of it, but it's the blatant 3- and 4-step drives which really get me, heh. It's just all pretty rough. He's young and a lot of this is comparatively new, so I hope he tightens it up. He's been working with Olajuwon, which is kind of cool, and appropriate from a style POV. He had good concepts in what he wanted FROM Olajuwon, which was even better.

So we'll see how things play out going forward.

I feel like his footwork in the post has improved tremendously, but when he tries to dribble through traffic in the lane he can be turnover prone. My favorite stat from that Dallas game was the zero turnovers.

I feel like he just takes very very long strides as opposed to to 3-4 steps but I’m sure there are plenty of examples of him forcing that extra step.

I feel like there will be a lot of videos this year of his step through and if it’s a travel or not.

[Prestige]

He's excellent.

His footwork is atrocious, though, and he gets away with travels on like every other play. But he's got great touch, he moves well without the ball, he's a solid give-and-go guy (underrated passer in general) and he's clearly focusing more on the mid-post this year (as most people were screaming for), which is EXCELLENT to see. He also has a handle, which is terrifying at his size, and he doesn't really have to jump in order to flush it with two hands, which is insane. Like one of the first plays in that video was a give and go with a weak pass and he just turned and barely elevated at all but still smashed a 2-hand rim-rattler.

He's a lot of fun to watch.

I thought I was going crazy. He’s amazing but those travels bother me. Nobody made any comment on it in the youtube comments or anywhere else. I know travelling has become a bit hazy and he has superstar calls now but it’s too much to ignore. He needs to clean that up.

[Nature]

Will always haunt me that Masai decided to trade for Poeltl and go for the play-in over tanking for this dude. It doesnt mean we would have gotten him but more so of the logic at the time

The beginning of the end right there. It made 0 sense at the time and 85% of the fanbase knew it.

[Rust_Cohle]

He's excellent.

His footwork is atrocious, though, and he gets away with travels on like every other play. But he's got great touch, he moves well without the ball, he's a solid give-and-go guy (underrated passer in general) and he's clearly focusing more on the mid-post this year (as most people were screaming for), which is EXCELLENT to see. He also has a handle, which is terrifying at his size, and he doesn't really have to jump in order to flush it with two hands, which is insane. Like one of the first plays in that video was a give and go with a weak pass and he just turned and barely elevated at all but still smashed a 2-hand rim-rattler.

He's a lot of fun to watch.

I thought I was going crazy. He’s amazing but those travels bother me. Nobody made any comment on it in the youtube comments or anywhere else. I know travelling has become a bit hazy and he has superstar calls now but it’s too much to ignore. He needs to clean that up.

Many people confuse this for travelling but it isn’t

Watch on YouTube

[anj]

He's excellent.

His footwork is atrocious, though, and he gets away with travels on like every other play. But he's got great touch, he moves well without the ball, he's a solid give-and-go guy (underrated passer in general) and he's clearly focusing more on the mid-post this year (as most people were screaming for), which is EXCELLENT to see. He also has a handle, which is terrifying at his size, and he doesn't really have to jump in order to flush it with two hands, which is insane. Like one of the first plays in that video was a give and go with a weak pass and he just turned and barely elevated at all but still smashed a 2-hand rim-rattler.

He's a lot of fun to watch.

I would argue that his footwork is exceptional and he's simply exploiting the way NBA refs currently call the game. Yeah, Wemby travels, but so does the entire league. His legs just happen to look like drainpipes, so you notice it even more. He played soccer and practiced judo. He's an athlete. It looks weird when a guy of his size does what he's doing.

[WuTang_CMB]

If spurs dont win multiple chips its a fail
Wemby will win multiple mvp’s

[manjusaka]

He is going to be unstoppable like KD, and there is no LBJ and Curry to challenge him. Dynasty talent.

[hyper316]

Cheat code

Only thing stopping him is his knees

[OakleyDokely]

Allows ESPN to slowly transition from a 24 hour Lebron station to a 24 hour Wemby station.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

The problem is, he's still growing.

[dTox]

I know this may sound like a hot take, but it shouldn't, if Spurs end up with a top 3 record in the West, he can win the MVP, which is insane to think for a 21 year old. He is that good.

[Psubs]

He could score 101 points. I think he definitely breaks 81 in the next 5 seasons. He's like Wilt 2.0.

Right now you have to play him like Giannis. He shot 35% from 3 last year. You have to back off and let him shoot 10+ 3's. If he shoots over 39% then you have to guard him out there and send help on the drive.