Wembanyama. I'm concerned

[Pachinko_]

Who said Victor was a great shooter coming in? I feel like this is just a lack of knowledge clouding your judgement. Here are his numbers last season, he took a lot of bad shots then and he's taking a lot of bad shots now: https://www.basketball-reference.com/international/players/victor-wembanyama-1.html

Victor is a prospect. His generational skill is his mobility at his size. He has a nice shooting form and decent handles for a guy that large, but neither have been hyped to be generational. I suspect you'll see a pretty big change in efficiency once Pop starts giving him a shot profile to be held accountable to. This season is just for them to find out what that profile could be and develop in that direction.

Don't even try, it doesn't register. Someone on ESPN said he's a taller KD and that was that, it got implanted in peoples' brains and now you need a brain surgeon to get it out.

[Snakebites]

It takes time. There’s plenty of great players with range who had inefficient first seasons. He’s shown lots of promise.

But hey, if the Spurs are worried the Pistons will get in line with the other 28 teams to inquire about attaining his services.

Too early for concern.

[pr0wler]

The comparison to Durant on offense isn't super accurate imo. KD shot 87% from the FT line as a rookie, and was adjusting from a very short college 3-pt line to the NBA. KD is also a smoother athlete, Wemby is a step slower and doesn't really have much burst. I'm not convinced he can be a solid #1 or maybe even #2 on offense on a good team in the future.

That's great that he has all these skills for a 7'5'' guy, but he has a very small frame and I'm not quite sure what role he fits on offense. I'm seeing a glorified Porzingis/Gobert in his prime, which is def a great player but maybe a bit less than a lot us were expecting.

[zimpy27]

The comparisons to Durant are silly.. He's very unlikely going to be as good of a shooter Durant. He's very unlikely to shoot as well as Dirk either.

Durant had a poor rookie season but he shot 40% from 3 in college. Wemby shot 27.5% from 3 last year.

Wemby has being playing professional leagues like Luka did before he entered the NBA, he's more prepared for this rookie season than Durant was. Victor will likely be a career 30-34% 3 shooter.

This whole focus on his offense is taking away from his elite defense. And I feel like he's already going to be a disappointment to many of you because of ridiculous expectations.

Wasn't the 3 point line back then significantly closer to the basket than FIBA? Like 3 feet closer...

Yeah it was 2 feet closer and that's why college players struggled to hit 3s as rookies. They were adapted to a shorter distance.

[Bob Ross]

Strong agree. Trade him to the Knicks before his value falls off a cliff

[ThunderBolt]

Didn’t realize concerned and impatient were synonyms.

[TimDunkin]

The comparisons to Durant are silly.. He's very unlikely going to be as good of a shooter Durant. He's very unlikely to shoot as well as Dirk either.

Durant had a poor rookie season but he shot 40% from 3 in college. Wemby shot 27.5% from 3 last year.

Wemby has being playing professional leagues like Luka did before he entered the NBA, he's more prepared for this rookie season than Durant was. Victor will likely be a career 30-34% 3 shooter.

This whole focus on his offense is taking away from his elite defense. And I feel like he's already going to be a disappointment to many of you because of ridiculous expectations.

Wasn't the 3 point line back then significantly closer to the basket than FIBA? Like 3 feet closer...

Yeah it was 2 feet closer and that's why college players struggled to hit 3s as rookies. They were adapted to a shorter distance.

I'm pretty sure it didn't move to 20' 9" in NCAA until after Durant. He was shooting threes in college from 19' 9". Seems odd to say we knew he could be a great three point shooter because he hit 40% from that range but we know Wemby won't be because he hit 27.5% from 22'. Not really an apples to apples comparison.

[NYPiston]

He's a rookie on a **** team not even a quarter into the season. There are going to be ups and downs.
This is the definition of a reactionary thread to him slumping as of late. He's shown some ridiculously elite flashes already, he's going to be a force when he figures it out.

[BrianFitz]

This is not supposed to be a reactionary thread. I understand that we are not even one quarter into the season but nonetheless there are quite a few concerning observations about Wemby's actual ceiling.
Let's look at his numbers over the last six games following his 38-point game against the Suns. 38/100 (38%) from the field, 9/35 (26%) from three. I understand that San Antonio has a bad team, a PG that is not a PG (i.e. Sochan), and overall his teammates don't give him the ball in good spots as much as they should.
However, I was told Wemby was a great shooter for his length but he demonstrately is not. While his three-point shot may look good, his percentages are just abysmal. I don t think he will ever become a great shooter if he can t shoot even 30% from the three-point line.
Second, from watching the game, I think his handles are very suspect. He gets stripped a lot and his movement with the ball is very clunky at times making it easy for good defenders to strip the ball away from.
I don t think Wemby will be a bust. He can become an elite defender but offensively right now he just looks like a taller Porzingis.
Please don t hate me.

Why take what is already a small sample size of 11 games and make it even smaller?

Because the dude has an agenda. He started the OP by saying "this is not a reactionary post" ... and then proceeded with nothing but reactionary responses the entire thread.

People point out that Durant shot worse his rookie season. But, well, that doesn't count cuz it was a few years ago

He can't bulk at all and get better physically because that will cause him to get injured. Cuz we all know strength training is no good for an athlete.

He says his handles are no good. Because we've all seen so many other guys his size handle the ball better.

People pointing out that having the right teammates in place can help a rookie, but nah, the first few games of his rookie season prove his trajectory going forward.

[Tor_Raps]

LOL wtf is this thread man. It's like someone watching basketball for the first time and thinking a 19 year old will remain the same. Only if we had a history of players that age who have improved lol.

[picko]

Cannot say I'm particularly concerned.

The Spurs themselves are awful and Wemby is working with perhaps the league's worst starting PG. While I think that Wemby is putting up too many threes and taking some ill-advised shots, I think we underestimate how important quality guard play is to helping a young big settle in.

With young players, I'm less focused on the averages and more interested in what their best games look like. Wemby had a monster game against the Suns, when he was arguably the best player on the floor in the presence of both Durant and Booker. He also had a huge game against the Gobert / KAT frontline, which also in my opinion bodes well for his future.

We've also seen games where perhaps he started poorly but then made some big plays later in the game and had a real impact. That's a sign of mental resiliency and it's something that you love to see from young player.

I can understand the impatience that some people have. When you see a guy hyped as a generational prospect you might naturally expect that guy to also be a generational rookie. But I would urge more patience - I still think he has all the tools to become an MVP / DPOY guy. And hopefully the Spurs can put some better players around him in the future to facilitate that.

[NBA4Lyfe]

wemby will be fine. If this was the earlier 2000's era under david stern then yes i would be concerned with his nba career

[zimpy27]

Who cares if he never has a decent outside shot...

I don't know why it would concern you that a 7'5 dude isn't hitting 3s at a great %

[tcheco]

Growing pains, a experiment with sochan as PG, tre jones didn’t play the blowout loss to OKC with an already limited roster. He is fine

[Miami_Lux]

This is not supposed to be a reactionary thread. I understand that we are not even one quarter into the season but nonetheless there are quite a few concerning observations about Wemby's actual ceiling.
Let's look at his numbers over the last six games following his 38-point game against the Suns. 38/100 (38%) from the field, 9/35 (26%) from three. I understand that San Antonio has a bad team, a PG that is not a PG (i.e. Sochan), and overall his teammates don't give him the ball in good spots as much as they should.
However, I was told Wemby was a great shooter for his length but he demonstrately is not. While his three-point shot may look good, his percentages are just abysmal. I don t think he will ever become a great shooter if he can t shoot even 30% from the three-point line.
Second, from watching the game, I think his handles are very suspect. He gets stripped a lot and his movement with the ball is very clunky at times making it easy for good defenders to strip the ball away from.
I don t think Wemby will be a bust. He can become an elite defender but offensively right now he just looks like a taller Porzingis.
Please don t hate me.

Why take what is already a small sample size of 11 games and make it even smaller?

Because the dude has an agenda. He started the OP by saying "this is not a reactionary post" ... and then proceeded with nothing but reactionary responses the entire thread.

People point out that Durant shot worse his rookie season. But, well, that doesn't count cuz it was a few years ago

He can't bulk at all and get better physically because that will cause him to get injured. Cuz we all know strength training is no good for an athlete.

He says his handles are no good. Because we've all seen so many other guys his size handle the ball better.

People pointing out that having the right teammates in place can help a rookie, but nah, the first few games of his rookie season prove his trajectory going forward.

What a remarkable feat misrepresenting almost my arguments.

Durants rookie season was 16 years ago. We might have different definitions of "a few years ago". Also, I didn t bring up the Durant argument. People keep pointing to Durant's poor 3-point % in his rookie season when this seems to be the exception rather than the norm for great offensive players

I didn t say Wemby can t bulk up or can t get physically better nor that strength training is bad for athletes. I said that at his size adding mass would significantly increase his injury risks

Yes his handles are not good. He was advertised and praised as a 7 4 phenomenon with exceptional ball-handling abilities. He is not a good ball handler.

Yes the right teammates can help a rookie but two things can be true at the same time. His teammates are bad but so is Wemby's shot selection and shooting percentage.

[bwgood77]

I think he'll still end up pretty good. Good chance he is very good. But there are often over the top expectations for players. Zion, for example.

Dirk shot 40% from the field though and 20% from 3 as a rookie, and ended up one of, if not the best big men shooters ever.

I do think Wemby should not shoot so many outside shots, but they are a rebuilding team, so there really isn't a huge need for concern.

[DwayneSchintzus]

Just think, in 20 years when someone mentions the name Wembanyama, you’ll be able to say, “I was concerned about him after just 11 games.”

I bet the other person is going to say, “wow, what a brilliant basketball mind you have.”

[jbk1234]

This is why being a prisoner to stats is dumb.

[BigGargamel]

LOL. He's 19 and he's played ten games. Lordy.

If you expected him to be an MVP candidate right away that's on you for being a prisoner of the moment and buying into the media hype.

[sikma42]

I don’t understand how anyone can watch his form, movement, body control, handles, defensive abilities, physical tools, and be concerned.

This. I don’t have any concerns at all, he’s actually more impressive than I could have imagined. It’s all there, he is just on a weird team with no pg and bunch of non passing wings.


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