Chris Porter's Hair wrote:Ignite season ticket holders represent!
That was an incredibly entertaining game. Quick notes:
* In the pregame warmups, Scoot almost exclusively shot midrange jumpers and missed like 90% of them. And I was like, "... this is the big prospect?" And then the game started. Wow. Very versatile, and a force to be reckoned with.
* Wembanyama is incredibly agile for a guy that big. Still quite spindly, so of course the concern that he'll get broken, but he doesn't move like a typical 7'+ guy shambling around the court. That was clear very quickly.
* I don't think Wembanyama is a 60% 3 point shooter, but his shot looks really good. And seriously, if he decides to take a 3, he gets a good look.
* That being said, it wasn't clear to me he (or his team...) uses his size effectively. He gets open 3's with it. But spent very little time in the paint, and when he did, his team often didn't see him. Similarly, when he *did* have the ball near the basket, he often brought the ball down and shot from near his head, leading to contention and difficult shots. If he was playing above his head with his height and athleticism... sheesh. On the bright side, he's 18. I bet he'll figure it out with some coaching.
* His ball handling was also eye opening. He was facing up guys on the perimeter at his height. There was a bit of what I view as the Chris Webber Syndrome ("It is pretty amazing you can do that, but that doesn't mean you SHOULD do that..."). If you're the best 7'3" dribbler around, that still doesn't necessarily mean you should be trying to face up/cross up your defenders. But it was something to see.
* People keep talking about how good Wembanyama's defense was. I wouldn't necessarily overstate that. His *shot blocking* was something. He's just so long, agile, and can cover a ton of ground. I didn't think he was a *bad* defender aside from his shot blocking, but someone here compared him to Draymond, and that I didn't see.
* Scoot is explosive, and has eyes in the back of his head. Swagger for days. I'm really looking forward to getting to watch him all season.
* There was a point where Wembanyama hit a corner 3 by the Ignite bench, turned around, and chirped at the bench. The bench, understandably, cracked up, because at that point the Ignite were up by nearly 20. But that was right about when Wembanyama went on a roll, and it ended up being a really good game.
* Both guys definitely benefited from the level of competition. There are things VW did that wouldn't necessarily fly against NBA competition. Scoot took a dunk right at VW and got spiked through the floor; there are actually a bunch of NBA players who would have sent that one back.
* A fair number of basketball celebs were present. A'Ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray from the Aces. Ariza, CP, Booker, and Damian Lee from the Suns. Boogie Cousins and his adorable kid.
Scoot is the safer pick, and I'm pretty confident he'll be a high quality NBA player. But it would be really hard to pass up on the potential of Wembanyama. They are both *18 years old*. I mean... any NBA team is taking Steeve Ho You Fat over either of them, but two teams will be very excited after next year's draft.
*Sadly, injuries already follow him, but lets hope its not a trend. Nothing serious as of yet.
*VW is most definitely not a good shooter right now. They keep coming at me, and ok, he keeps improving, but as of right now, I am not worried about him taking 3s if I play him. Very good form tho, and as you said, his size means hes basically open every time.
*The biggest gripe I have with VW is that he really insists to be a perimeter player, despite him being 7'5 and not a great shooter. I mean, some guys we call great shooters, are actually just a specialists who can only spot up or catch and shoot. VW obiously shows greater potential in that area, he can pull up, he can shoot of the dribble, fadeaways, step backs, hes just aint hitting it consistently at all as of yet. Last year I think was terrible for him, he was just floating around the perimeter and it took until very last Euroleague games, were he started to look for inside shots. He still the guy who shot under 30% last year and just over 30% this year so far, he is not a real threat if he shoots those shots, I mean its great he hit most of his shots today, but tomorrow he most likely aint. Kid needs to learn to look for a better shot.
*VW can be one of the greatest rim protectors all the time, but he isn't the most swichable guy for sure, not at all. He is defeinitely NOT Draymong. Despite we raving about his mobility and movement, he is still slow compared to perimeter players. I said before, but people can blew pass him, good thing he has insane length, so he can contest and block shots even when he is step behind often, also, his length intimidates some guards after they switch on him, you can run pass him, but you often cant escape his wingspan, you also can pass out, because he has very active hands. Also, worth to know that he is incredibly coordinated for a guy his size. I still think he will be dominant defender and most likely a DPOY, even tho he is not switch all type.
*INGRAM*ALLSTARSEASON* Wemby is HIM
