Not putting THAT much stock into Wemby's defense: what am I missing? (Plz read)

[Castle Black]

He had a 10 Block Triple-Double tonight. The scorekeepers robbed him of 1 of those Blocks for whatever reason, but hopefully the Spurs file a complaint tomorrow so the NBA can go back and officially correct that error cause he earned that Triple-Double.

[NO-KG-AI]

He is literally the quickest and most mobile player EVER at his height.

You can't put him in P&R and let guards abuse him on the perimeter because he's too quick. You can't post him up and get a quality look because of his size & length. Finishing at the rim against him is a nightmare, and he doesn't need to leave his feet to block shots.

Teams just haven't adjusted to how they'll have to attack Vic yet. He's quick, but it's absolutely foolish to say you can't put him in ball screen action and guards can't take advantage. Sure you might not be able to do it with a basic, deliberate PnR. But if you repeatedly chain multiple ballscreens in quick succession and throw in multiple different wrinkles (go to Spain action directly into a secondary dribble handoff into immediately rejecting the screen and go immediately into zoom handoffs or something), you will get Wemby in a position that he gets caught up/cannot recover to. He's 7'5", he can move exceptionally for his size, but he is still 7'5" and all the negatives that come with that inherently. His hips and center of gravity are exceedingly high up, if you have offensive players really focused on setting screens with the intent to knock someone off balance, they can 100% take advantage of that with him. Teams HAVE to be setting brick wall screens that utterly smash Wemby's hips 60+ times a game. If an offense doesn't knock him off his feet at least twice a game with hard screens they just aren't competing hard enough. Beat the hell out of his legs every game AND make him run around the perimeter. Take advantage of his frame, take advantage of that center of gravity, take advantage of the fact that EVERY TALL PLAYER EVER GETS HUNG UP ON SCREENS.

Teams won't do this on a nightly basis, but to act like Wemby is utterly impregnable as a defender is silly.

They will find ways to attack him, especially as teams get more tape and more game time against him. If you can drag him to the perimeter and have him guard much quicker guys, that’s still a win vs letting him lay in wait and attack the ball in the air.

That said, he’s also going to get stronger, smarter, and learn to process the game quicker. He won’t be impenetrable, but I find it hadd to believe anyone is going to come alpng that is a consistently more dominant defender than what he’s going to be for the forseeable future.

[Statlanta]

I want to see more teams go at his chest. Zion tried but he does not have enough experience to pin him inside the paint. You can negate his length if you let the rim do some of the work for you.

[G R E Y]

I want to see more teams go at his chest. Zion tried but he does not have enough experience to pin him inside the paint. You can negate his length if you let the rim do some of the work for you.

Like with their heads or something?

[Daddy 801]

In modern day terms he is Gobert and Durant/Giannis combined. In old school terms he is a Kareem/Chamberlin and I dont know who to even say on the offense big side because bigs didn’t do what he is doing.

In reality he is all of those players minus a skyhook. So….like the best of all the tall and athletic players who have ever existed. He isn’t like LeBron who is the most athletic driver to the rim who has ever existed, and he isn’t like Jordan who is the most beautiful bucket getter of all time.

But he is Kareem, Giannis, Chamberlin, Durant, and Giannis combined and better than all of them…..if he can stay healthy.


So….he is pretty amazing. If he gets hurt, it’s by far the greatest what if already. And I am constantly hyping the what if guys like Brandon Roy who could have gone on to challenge the status quo of greats we know.

[dballislife]

at 25 years old he will get you 15 reb and 5 blk with 30-35 pts

[Johnny Firpo]

I don't know what you expect from him, running around the perimeter, locking up smalls like KG? KG wouldn't/couldn't do that today, it's a different era, my man. Payton Pritchard is a genius ball handler and offensive player, and he is like 4th rate today, skill-wise. So is McConnell. There are amazing ball handlers on every team, no to mention the average increase in ball handling and creativity skills in SGs, SFs and even PFs. Wemby is going to be a GOAT-level rim protector and a good, probably not totally elite rebounder, and and okay help defender with his long arms, he could average steals too, and that's all you need. Probably all you need for him to win a couple of DPOYs, and all you need from him on defense, because how great he is overall, in this era, is mostly going to be decided on the offensive end.

[prime1time]

I want to see more teams go at his chest. Zion tried but he does not have enough experience to pin him inside the paint. You can negate his length if you let the rim do some of the work for you.

How many players in the NBA really have the ability/skill/strength to do this? And then what about everyone else on the team? This is what people are missing on these threads. Yes some players will score but your missing the forest for the trees. Other than the stars or elite scorers on your team, no one else has a chance to finish around the rim with Wemby in the game. So what are normally easy points are now gone. Luka and LBJ will get there's against Wemby. But what about everyone else?

[Ssj16]

I find it interesting when people try to tear down an athletes greatness rather than accept it for what it is and not take it for granted.

I really don't get the point OP is trying to make. But I was a Lebron hater back in my days when I was riding with Kobe and looking back, I had a lot of immature takes.

Read my two posts again, I am not denying a bit of Wemby's awesomeness.

Your post is about diminishing his defense which seems to be contrarian when by all accounts Wemby has shown to be a top tier defensive player.

[Rust_Cohle]

He erased Zion with 4-5 blocks on him without even jumping. It was absurd

[badpotato]

He erased Zion with 4-5 blocks on him without even jumping. It was absurd

Zion was flexing so much this game that I was worried he will pull a muscle at some point

[Rubios]

I find it interesting when people try to tear down an athletes greatness rather than accept it for what it is and not take it for granted.

I really don't get the point OP is trying to make. But I was a Lebron hater back in my days when I was riding with Kobe and looking back, I had a lot of immature takes.

Read my two posts again, I am not denying a bit of Wemby's awesomeness.

Your post is about diminishing his defense which seems to be contrarian when by all accounts Wemby has shown to be a top tier defensive player.

I just said that this height and frame come at a cost.
Because of physics.
It's still a blessing, of course, and his level of coordination/balance/agility/mobility shows both talent and impecable work ethic.

As it comes at a cost (his coordination/(...) will always be followed with "...for someone that tall") teams will try to exploit it in the playoffs.
I agree on that, in RS, teams won't plan a whole new offense around Wemby (that's the magnitude of a player I consider him to be). But we'll see some trial&error experiments after the All Star from the teams most likely to face the Spurs in a series.

And that would be very interesting.
The H2H vs the players running for MVP (Jokic, Luka, SGA, Giannis) will be nuts, too.