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What’s going on with Victor Wembanyama? He generated more hype than the NBA’s biggest superstars in the first few games. But with 20% of the season now being played, not only has the buzz died down, but some NBA fans are actually starting to turn on him.
But why would you turn on a 19 year old rookie who btw is averaging 19 points, 9 and a half rebounds plus a steal and 2 and a half blocks per game. These are monster numbers.
Sure, he’s not shooting well, but Paolo Banchero won rookie of the year with similar offensive numbers last year, and he was nowhere near Victor when it comes to defense.
So what’s going on here? Well, there are 2 guys to blame for what’s going on.
And as shocking as it may sound, 1 is Gregg Popovich, and the other is Chet Holmgren.
Before diving deeper into the weird dynamics of the San Antonio Spurs, we need to address the Chet Holmgren situation.
Both him and Wemby were mentioned in the conversation of the future of the NBA, but it’s clear that Wembanyama got all the shine, and Holmgren was in his shadow at the start.
But being the second best scorer on the second best team in the west, you cannot ignore that, and people are seeing just how good Chet is, and how big of a factor he is to OKC’s explosion.
Comparing the raw numbers side by side, Wembanyama has him beat by an inch, but there is absolutely no comparison when it comes to efficiency. 56 and a half percent from the field for Homlgren and almost 44% from downtown. That is elite.
The pick and pop game with Shai is absolutely deadly, and as a defender you can pick your poison between these 2 guys. But again, we’re talking about a 7 foot center shooting 44% from downtown.
Then you get to his game off the dribble. This kind of fluidity is unbelievable. Look at him going full speed into a spin for the finish. Or what I like even more are these half spins into a fadeaway jumper that’s seemingly money every single time.
So, you know that phrase: underpromise and overdeliver right.
I feel like that is the case with these 2 players. The media underpromised with Holmgren not hyping him up as much so this seems like he over delivered.
At the same time because all the attention was on Wembanyama, it’s almost like people expected him to be a 28 point per game scorer right out the gate. So the 19 per game on not so great shooting percentages almost looks kind of disappointing.
If you’re a Spurs fan I bet that you don’t like this shift in narrative, but I’m sure that Gregg Popovich is more than ok with it. And this is how we get to him. Why did I say that he can be blamed for why people are turning on Victor.
Well, if you’ve watched a few San Antonio games, you know that the starting point guard for this team is Jeremy Sochan. And while he’s a nice hustle player there’s no way why he should be the starting point guard for a generational talent like Wemby.
Sochan is a forward first of all, but then, he’s slow and doesn’t have the instincts nor the ball handling required for a point guard.
Sometimes it looks like he’s even struggling to just bring the ball up the court. The Grizzlies pickpocketed him twice while doing this.
On the fast break here, this is a 2 on 1 with Wembanyama, but he passes out to the three. So then thankfully Tre Jones is a real point guard and he immediately lobs it up to Victor.
But they’ve lost 12 games in a row and Popovich of course sees all of this.
But the thing is, all of this is by design. It’s on purpose.
Sochan will either learn to play the point or if not- they’ll lose a ton of games at least and get another high draft pick to pair him with Wemby. They weren’t going to make the playoffs this year anyways so why not go all out with losing.
Jeremy doesn’t get criticized for his mistakes and that’s the same reason why Wembanyama is shooting badly as well. He’s allowed to take all kinds of shots to find what works best for him, to try things out. This is an experiment both for him and for the Spurs, to see how they can best use him going forward.
So yeah, Wembanyama’s hype died down and if all numbers stay the same he’ll lose the rookie of the year race to Chet.
But guys like Curry, Giannis, Jokic and Tatum, also didn’t win it and are now the face of the league. And as soon as the team around him gets shaped up Victor will play that role as well and will be one of the greats in this league. Along with Chet.
But for now, he has to go through the highs and lows of a superstar. He has to stay focused with all the noise around him. Whether it’s because another rookie is playing great, or because the coach and the organization want to set him up for the future and not for the present.
38 Comments
Maybe they already know France will beat Team USA in a few years because of Wemby 🤣🤣🤣
Great content but what no one can explain to me is WHY Pop keeps Sochan at PG and all the other experiments? What is the team gaining by wasting year 1 of Victor and losing all games? More drafts? What for? I don't know.
And please don't tell me "Pop has a plan", my question is what is his plan?
I think wemby is still good, he needs more nba games to mature in playing. Durant fg percentage in his rookie season is also very bad at 3pt
Generational dissappointment lol
Chet is reminding me of a young Dirk with better defense. He's got that hard to defend, step-back jumper while also being willing to drive to the basket. Dirk used to do that way more in his early years with Nash in Dallas, but became primarily a jump shooter later on.
He's even more efficient shooting from 3 though, so the sky is the limit with him.
Paolo by far Better than both chet and wemby
So explain to me how this is the league turning on wemby? If anything, he doing really well doing really well for a rookie despite the losses. And you made the point that pop is planning for the future. So, please explain your thesis for the title of this video.
the "Basketball World" is just casual stat watchers who will judge players on FG% without watching any games.
It's funny the box stat watchers will hone in on that but ignore Wemby is the ONLY player to lead his team in 4 of the 5 major stats (PPG, RPG, APG, SPG, and BPG)
Chet wasn't drafted this year and shouldn't even be in the running. It's not his fault he got injured, but he doesn't his rookie season on ir
Great video 👍🏾
I might be biased idk, but I dont really get why we are comparing a 21 years old to a 19 years old ?
Chet was litteraly alive for 10% more time than Wemby, has been playing basketball for 20% more time and has been in an NBA environnement for 1 more season. That shit matters for young players.
Chet is a 2nd overall pick and could have been a first pick really, it's not like he is an underdog or something. You all just forgot about him because he wasnt in the headlines for a few month, you all have the memory span of a goldfish.
And dont get me wrong, the Thunder might be my favorite western team, so I'm really glad that Chet is indeed really good.
Dude mad overrated. He's not bad, but he's not nearly close to what some of you guys tried to hype him up to be.
Paolo Banchero has no competition over ROTY. That's why he won lol. The runner up was Mathurin and he was not even a starter
Pop worry about spurs booing Leonard
I agree with this take… Spurs must stop making Sochan as the PG… And to Chet, he is a good player and he also have a great team to begin with so his skills is utilized well not like the Spurs where it seems they are experimenting what to do with Wemby..
Anyways hope they are both healthy to play long NBa games as their potential is high
Nice player but not Kareem; as a rookie he averaged 28.8 pts, 14.5 rebounds and 4 assists on 52% shooting and played all 82 games, just sayin'. Shall we compare Shaq now? SMH…
Who cares about ROTY? The problem is learning to get comfortable with losing, you know the thing that ruined the Philly “process”
I think chet and vic have both had great rookie years
After 15 games and no change. I must admit that Pop wants Wemby learning to fend for himself, take difficult shots and defend against almost everyone 1-5, playing everywhere. The Joker and Giannis said that it's a good thing to learn to play "everywhere" during the rookie year. Sure that when spurs will have a great PG, mama mia !!!
Wemby should have a pg like luka,trae or cp3
Wemby has had ups and downs but man his ups is amazing def my pick for roty so far
Wemby is the real deal, if he can put up these stats at 19, I can only imagine how great he'll be 2 to 3yrs from now. Not bad for a rookie. At such a young age and an NBA Career, he is showing he's got game and that will develop more in time. Let's give him that.
coach pop wants to play to lose so that they can still have 1 more top prospect next year,
this is ironic for me, i did know that coach pop loves to lose games though
This idiot of Shaquille turned on Wemby from the beginning….🤮
I think the basketball world is sick and tired of seeing the spurs on national TV games. And while wemby is not the reason for the losing streak, he is the reason they are always on tv. It was the same in Zion first year when the pelicans were always on TV ( and Zion wasn't even playing). The nba needs a more flexible TV schedule after the first month when they have some idea of who is good and who is absolute ass
Modern version of kg vs tim
when is the last time a star signed with the spurs? No one wants to play for the old grumpy man anymore. Greg is a legend, but the league has moved on from him
Pop is a dk.
Victor is OK,, he's just not as good as all the HYPE around him,, he's not bad, just not super
The Spurs are focused on developing while the Thunder are trying to win. OKC has a much better team, Chet has better players around him. People don’t seem to take that into account
I knew Chet was special when he crossed up Steph Curry at a camp, when he was just a high school teenager.
HORRIBLE TIME WITH ADS
Hopefully that young man learns to ignore the basketball “world” and just play basketball. Trying to please content creators is a lost cause. You’re all leeches.
Pop wants to turn Sochan into Lebron so bad.
Watcding Wemby play is like watching a 7'5" Marcus smart, he is still good but didnt have the imposing threath , yes he can block but on the other end he is a pushover and take poor shot selection, I will still give him 3 more years to improve but CHet looks better
Once you've been around basketball long enough, you don't fall prey to the hype. You watch and wait for sustained results. You also understand when teams are tanking and experimenting. And you pray everyone stays healthy.
Chet is doing better, but he also has a more established team
And 2 months ago, those who said that Wembanyama would be a bust thought that Scoot Henderson would be the best rookie…