Victor Wembanyama: Hasn't Played in 2 Months, Still Leads NBA in Total Blocks

[Bornstellar]

By a pretty sizeable margin too Last game played was on 2/12


1. Victor Wembanyama: 176 blocks (48 games)
2. Brook Lopez: 145 blocks (79 games)
3. Myles Turner: 143 blocks (71 games)


I know, I know...he's 8 feet tall. But still, pretty impressive to have such a massive lead at this point considering he has missed the last 28 games and no one is even close to him

[SlimShady83]

[tsherkin]

He's the best shot blocker we've seen in a quite some time.

Only nine times since and including the 99-00 season have we seen a player-season of 40+ games and 3.5+ blocks. Wemby has two of them already. Only Ratliff has done it twice besides him. Most recently, Hassan Whiteside in 2017. Serge Ibaka before that in 2012. Camby in 08. Ratliff in 04 and 01. Big Ben in 02 and Mourning in 2000.

That's it. A quarter century of play and it's been done 9 times over 7 players. And no one but Wemby has done it since 2017.

Pretty impressive stuff.

[ryan in Maine]

Dhalsim

[Bornstellar]

He's the best shot blocker we've seen in a quite some time.

Only nine times since and including the 99-00 season have we seen a player-season of 40+ games and 3.5+ blocks. Wemby has two of them already. Only Ratliff has done it twice besides him. Most recently, Hassan Whiteside in 2017. Serge Ibaka before that in 2012. Camby in 08. Ratliff in 04 and 01. Big Ben in 02 and Mourning in 2000.

That's it. A quarter century of play and it's been done 9 times over 7 players. And no one but Wemby has done it since 2017.

Pretty impressive stuff.

And I have a feeling he's going to be regularly doing it for awhile, health permitting

Then again, I sometimes think his high blocks, while reflective of him being a great defensive player and freakishly tall/mobile, are partly because our perimeter D stinks so badly that Wemby is constantly having to clean up everyone's mistakes. Perhaps once the Spurs have a set of competent defenders around Victor, those numbers might taper off. Still, feels like he can 3 blocks in his sleep

[LAvision]

His defense alone would put him in the hall of fame.

[tsherkin]

And I have a feeling he's going to be regularly doing it for awhile, health permitting

No reason to think otherwise, for sure.

Then again, I sometimes think his high blocks, while reflective of him being a great defensive player and freakishly tall/mobile, are partly because our perimeter D stinks so badly that Wemby is constantly having to clean up everyone's mistakes. Perhaps once the Spurs have a set of competent defenders around Victor, those numbers might taper off. Still, feels like he can 3 blocks in his sleep

The Spurs definitely aren't an arrangement of high-end defenders around him, but I don't think it much matters. Even with a good team, he's gonna be a high-efficacy rim defender and he has extra abilities to make life hell for guys from 3. I watched him block a 3... from the circle. It was insane. He's a demon.

[HotelVitale]

I know, I know...he's 8 feet tall. But still, pretty impressive to have such a massive lead at this point considering he has missed the last 28 games and no one is even close to him

Propaganda machine at it again. He's 7'10 at MOST.

[Damkac]

Please come back healthy big fella

[BruttoNostra]

I know, I know...he's 8 feet tall. But still, pretty impressive to have such a massive lead at this point considering he has missed the last 28 games and no one is even close to him

Propaganda machine at it again. He's 7'10 at MOST.

He's 7'10 in France.
On US soil he is 8'0 after tariffs.

[Ssj16]

I can only "lol" at this stat.

[Mr Puddles]

Reminds me of Dennis Rodman. In '94/'95 Dennis also missed two months of basketball and ended up having more total rebounds than anyone else that season - despite only starting 26 games.

Truly remarble when you factor in that he was going up against an amazing era of bigmen.

[Loneshot]

I missed watching Wemby immediately after he went down for the season.

[NO-KG-AI]

He's the best shot blocker we've seen in a quite some time.

Only nine times since and including the 99-00 season have we seen a player-season of 40+ games and 3.5+ blocks. Wemby has two of them already. Only Ratliff has done it twice besides him. Most recently, Hassan Whiteside in 2017. Serge Ibaka before that in 2012. Camby in 08. Ratliff in 04 and 01. Big Ben in 02 and Mourning in 2000.

That's it. A quarter century of play and it's been done 9 times over 7 players. And no one but Wemby has done it since 2017.

Pretty impressive stuff.

He’s particularly tantalizing because of all the true giants who could just swat 4-5 a game in his sleep, he’s the first one with the mobility to really blow up the game horizontally as well…

He might change the ceiling on how much impact we can expect from one defender. I remember it wasn’t all that long ago people thought his kind of block totals was impossible in today’s spaced out, perimeter oriented game.

[sp6r=underrated]

He's the best shot blocker we've seen in a quite some time.

Only nine times since and including the 99-00 season have we seen a player-season of 40+ games and 3.5+ blocks. Wemby has two of them already. Only Ratliff has done it twice besides him. Most recently, Hassan Whiteside in 2017. Serge Ibaka before that in 2012. Camby in 08. Ratliff in 04 and 01. Big Ben in 02 and Mourning in 2000.

That's it. A quarter century of play and it's been done 9 times over 7 players. And no one but Wemby has done it since 2017.

Pretty impressive stuff.

He’s particularly tantalizing because of all the true giants who could just swat 4-5 a game in his sleep, he’s the first one with the mobility to really blow up the game horizontally as well…

He might change the ceiling on how much impact we can expect from one defender. I remember it wasn’t all that long ago people thought his kind of block totals was impossible in today’s spaced out, perimeter oriented game.

Exactly, we've seen vertical blockers who are lethal in their area of the court. Gobert is a brutal shotblocker if you're near him. Deke was absurd. But neither could come close to covering the court the way Wemby could.

[tsherkin]

He’s particularly tantalizing because of all the true giants who could just swat 4-5 a game in his sleep, he’s the first one with the mobility to really blow up the game horizontally as well…

Yeah, his lateral mobility is pretty impressive relative to his size. It opens up a whole variety of potential on D.

He might change the ceiling on how much impact we can expect from one defender. I remember it wasn’t all that long ago people thought his kind of block totals was impossible in today’s spaced out, perimeter oriented game.

Yeah. But part of that is that the player archetype who traditionally blocks a ton of shots has been off the floor a bunch. Some of that is due to spacing, some of it is due to mobility concerns. I looked at things from another angle, too. 40+ games, 20+ mpg and 9%+ BLK% from 2018 onward gives you Mitchell Robinson in 2019, JJJ in 2023, Wemby and Walker Kessler last year and Wemby this year. If you open that up to 8%, you get Nerlens Noels, more Robinson, Hassan Whiteside and 4 seasons from Myles Turner, though. At 7%, you start seeing guys like Daniel Gafford, Brook Lopez, Javale McGee, Nic Claxton and more of the extant guys.

Shot blocking has been there, but guys just haven't been able to stay on the court enough in most cases. It's worth remembering that a lot of those huge seasons back in the day were at 38+ mpg, too. Olajuwon peaked at 7% BLK and had a 4-year stretch of 6%+, but averaged 5.4% BLK on his career. D-Rob averaged 5.7%, peaked at 7.4% and only averaged 6%+ in two seasos. Ewing made 6% only once before 99 (which was a 38-game season for him at age 36). Alonzo Mourning was at 7.7% to 7.8% from 99-01, then went BONKERS in limited minutes from 05-08 (8.3% in 37 games, 10.2% in 65 games, 9.0% in 77 games, 8.6% in 25 games... in 19, 20, 20.4 and 15.6 mpg. Mutombo had no real offensive responsibility, so he averaged 6.3% and hit 8.8% in 96 with Denver, with 4 straight seasons over 7% and 6 straight of 6%+. Ben Wallace averaged 5.0%.

So even the big shot blockers we remember were generally speaking not crushing immense block rates so much as big minutes. There ARE four guys in the league averaging 6%+ BLK this season, and an additional 4 averaging 5%+. So that actually hasn't changed, but the guys who do it mostly don't play a ton of minutes. And Wemby is, of course, out at the obscene, extreme edge of shotblocking because of his unique physical tools and timing.

He's something else to watch, man.

Exactly, we've seen vertical blockers who are lethal in their area of the court. Gobert is a brutal shotblocker if you're near him. Deke was absurd. But neither could come close to covering the court the way Wemby could.

Yeah, none of those guys had the same level of lateral mobility. And honestly, none of them had the quickness to accelerate forward and challenge shots the way Wemby does out on the perimeter even when he's moving in a straight north-south motion. Like, Deke wasn't far different in height from Wemby, but if he was standing in the top of the circle, you could get a 3. You might get stuffed if it's Wemby, he's done it several times these past two seasons.

[7seventynine9]

If a player leads the league in a total number of something, they should also lead the league in per game.

There is no reason Wemby shouldn't lead the league in blocks per game when he leads the league in blocks. Just add 19 games to his game total if you have to.

[DwayneSchintzus]

give him all zeroes for the games he missed and give him the DPOY anyway.

[Blame Rasho]

He's the best shot blocker we've seen in a quite some time.

Only nine times since and including the 99-00 season have we seen a player-season of 40+ games and 3.5+ blocks. Wemby has two of them already. Only Ratliff has done it twice besides him. Most recently, Hassan Whiteside in 2017. Serge Ibaka before that in 2012. Camby in 08. Ratliff in 04 and 01. Big Ben in 02 and Mourning in 2000.

That's it. A quarter century of play and it's been done 9 times over 7 players. And no one but Wemby has done it since 2017.

Pretty impressive stuff.

I doubted that he would be as good as he has been but I want to point out something. The spurs are god awful when it comes to actually, defending the perimeter and basically anyone can blow by their man defender and thus I would venture to say there is significant more opportunities to get blocks. There is a difference between funneling your man to the help the defender. Yeah… that isn’t it. They just overwhelmingly can’t stop the point of attack in a pick and role and can’t hedge correctly. I will say this, which is beyond amazing, he has a crap ton of blocks outside the painted area. Would not be surprised if is the most in recorded history. So I think the number is a combo of those two things.

[tsherkin]

I doubted that he would be as good as he has been but I want to point out something. The spurs are god awful when it comes to actually, defending the perimeter and basically anyone can blow by their man defender and thus I would venture to say there is significant more opportunities to get blocks. There is a difference between funneling your man to the help the defender. Yeah… that isn’t it. They just overwhelmingly can’t stop the point of attack in a pick and role and can’t hedge correctly. I will say this, which is beyond amazing, he has a crap ton of blocks outside the painted area. Would not be surprised if is the most in recorded history. So I think the number is a combo of those two things.

The Spurs aren't very good, to be sure, but he's gonna do what he's gonna do and when his team starts to get better, we'll see how much of it scales, right? Either way, he's wild to watch.