The Spurs Have Unlocked Victor Wembanyama

The Spurs Have Unlocked Victor Wembanyama

All right boys let’s talk about wemi who has been on a tear lately as he has been playing center now for about a month and a half the Spurs recently started Trey Jones he started the last seven games of course they stopped the soan at point

Card experiment over a month ago now and even while this team is s and 33 and they’ve lost three in a row and they’re two and eight in their last 10 games you can be very excited about what wem’s been doing in the last 10 games wem’s

Averaging about 23 a game on 53 shooting and this is still with him being in like the mid to high 20s and minutes per game and before we say a bunch of nice things about the offense I would actually like to start with the defense in the last 15

Games whenever wmy is on the court the Spurs have the equivalent of about a top five defense which is pretty insane right uh specifically a 112 defensive rating with him in the game and then when he’s not in the game they’ve got a 118 which is equivalent to like the 26th

Best defense again last 15 games and he’s pretty much in drop he’s guarding the center as you would expect and of course there’s the blocks of course there’s like you know the recent one against Atlanta where he tips a number of lobs from try that were meant to go

To like capella or Kong or whatever in the Pistons game you’ve got plays where wem’s like waiting for Marcus Sasser in the paint but he’s reaching at him anyway with his huge wingspan and then sass got to like pass it out to Ivy for a three or something a lot of bigs will

Do like a little swipe at the ball handler when they’re in drop on pick and rolles right wemi because his wingspan is insane I feel like it actually does have a little more Effectiveness to it where he can do that and still be just a force surr around the paint with the

Largest example being probably the Hornets game recently where man I I tell you between like Terry Rosier floaters or lamelo sort of dribbling around the paint but not shooting a layup right at wmy or Brandon Miller with pullup twos like there was so many possessions where

It’s like and the Hornets just want no part of this guy around the basket I think lamelo really only tried him like twice in the game funny enough he was actually able to get a couple foul calls out of it one on W one on I think Trey

Jones Now teams have thrown some things at him I mean in the Celtics game like Tatum got him one time on a hesitation dribble on a pick and roll where Wy was a little higher up he was able to freeze him on that one uh Jaylen went right at

Him and actually finished over him which is not happening very often for guys right now in the Cavs game the Cavs ran some like double screen actions to sort of not allow him to just be and drop comfortably you know it did feel like he

Was higher up on a lot of screens in the Cavs game just anyway and I thought he did a good job although there was one time when he was very high up and then Tristan Thompson got a wide open dunk because there was no rotation on the

Back end he also did fall down once when guarding kada in the Celtics game kada just put a shoulder into him but yeah look to quote the uh nba.com Rim protection numbers which I think is the best sort of Defense shot chart thing that we have it’s still not going to be

Perfect but I think it’s the best we got uh when wmi is the closest Defender at The Rim opponents are shooting 45% in the last 15 games which is an insane number and that also does not account for the amount of like pull-ups and like free throw line jumpers that guys are

Going to take and stuff now if you were to look at San Antonio as a whole you know the shots that they are giving up in the last 15 games even with this happening with wemi they’re still giving up a lot of shots at the rim and stuff I

Would guess some of that is like transition obviously some of that is when wmi is not in the game to give you a small example and their recent one against the Pistons so Jaden Ivy made like five shots in the paint in that game however all of them were either

Transition or it was like wemi on somebody else or wemi not in the game but when wemi was just positioned in front of the rim in the half court Ivy was either taking pull-ups or floaters and he also took a couple of Threes with Wy switched onto him and he missed those

Ones as well I would guess long term that with wemi just playing Center and all that we will eventually see the Spurs defensive shot chart resemble what it was with like the buen or bucks for a long time you know uh not a lot of stuff at The Rim teams shooting more mid-range

Than they would really like and stuff like that of course getting more defensive players around him can help this too and I mean yeah it’s been a talking point this year what will this team look like around him in three four years I don’t know I like Deon Vell and

Trey Jones a lot while I understand the soan at point guard thing was weird we’ll just put it like that but he has been quietly good from three on low volume his free throws are at 78 he’s got some catch and drive juice of course we’ve all been talking about his defense

The second he showed up like I get it you do not want to hand too much of the offense to Sean we’ve already seen the evidence of that but he’s got some stuff anyway let’s talk about the offense so Trey Jones has been starting in the last

Seven games outside of his 30-point game recently the box score numbers are not going to jump out at you but he’s just going to be super solid making the right play all the point guard cliche things of course with Wy at Center the spacing is better and so his shots at The Rim

Have been trending upwards and on top of that with WBY at Center the Spurs have found more ways to have wemi operating at the top of the key for dhos or multiple screen actions whether it’s on the ball or like I remember a play I can’t remember what game it was recently

But he screens for I think Kellin Johnson on the wing and then he goes and screens for McDermot after running over to the top of the key and then he rolls off of that and he gets decent post position and then vasel throws it to him

Because it was a swing to Vel after the mcder screen and uh he misses the shot but just a lot of things happening I’m like that’s a good sign of course any sort of dho action at the top of the key or just screen action where the the

Paint is just open to allow Vel or Tre Jones or Kellin or whoever to get downhill is good they’ve been going to some inverted pick and rolls as well where wemi is the ball handler and I we’ve seen Trey Jones screen for him a little bit we’ve seen some soan a little

Bit of a cell here and there it’s not something they go to all the time but whenever they do I’m like this is cool you know there’s a play in the Pistons game where soan screens for wemi and then wemy gets downhill enough and then you got Trey Jones cutting from the

Corner and then he gets a shot there in that same game youve got soan cutting when wem’s in the post there was another one in a game recently where wemi he uh was at the top of the key he throws it to soan in the post and then I believe

He sets an off ball screen for vasel for him to be moving and then I think it was the Hornets game they doubled soan on the post which you probably don’t need to do and then wemi was able to cut off of that just there’s things happening in

The offense it’s good the team still is not good let’s not get carried away but there there’s good progress happening here as far as when w is putting the ball on the floor I mean he pulls off some wild things man like like late in the Cavs game where it’s a screen for

Vasel and they put two to the ball on vasel So Max stru rotates over to wemi at the top of the key wemi gets by him which off rip like Center beating Wing off the dribble like sure wem’s not the only guy in the league who can do that

But it’s also not a huge list of guys right and then from there he gather steps finishes over Jared Allen at the rim and now sure you are still going to get the plays where it does look a little awkward like in the Celtics game where he takes Horford one-on-one and it

It ends up being this like wild layup but it feels like there’s less of those plays happening of course we’ve also gotten some Trey Jones lobs to wemi or wemi slipping a screen for Vel and he’s getting downhill and as far as the shooting it does feel like the jumper

Shot selection is still getting better I mean there there’s definitely still some threes where it’s like yeah you probably didn’t need to take that one

they put him at center pretty much
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