Victor Wembanyama is the best rookie this century

Victor Wembanyama is the best rookie this century

Victor wanyama just made history in the midst of one of the great modern rookie Seasons he had one of his signature performances becoming the youngest Center to ever Notch a triple double and the second youngest player to ever have 10 blocks in a single game but wemi wasn’t some slouch offensively dropping

27 points on just four missed shots with five assists with the level he’s been playing at for the last two months he is starting to enter some rare rookie conversations so how did he dominate this game against the Raptors specifically and how did it show off the unprecedented skill set that has made

Him maybe the best rookie this Century it starts on the defensive end of the floor the Raptors produced an offensive rating of 79 with wemi on the court teams were more efficient offensively against the 60 Celtics that is largely because he eats up space like nobody

Else in the league normally in a drop coverage a big man is forced to choose to some extent whether he wants to concede a floater to the ball handler or a lob to the roller but wemi is so obscenely long that he can both take away the floater with his length and

Still recover to eradicate the roller he is also constantly affecting passes that would normally be routine Scotty can’t get this pass out cleanly to purle he affects this entry pass and his presence certainly contributes to Scotty’s decision to shoot the turnaround instead of maybe testing wemi at The Rim W made

So many obscene plays saving Baskets at The Rim in this game he’s trailing this play in transition and look at where he is when oai catches this ball doesn’t matter he flies in block it Scotty slips the screen here so wemi is again trailing the play and this is an open

Dunk against maybe every single other player in the league but wemi somehow blocks it he was outside the paint when Scotty caught this ball so because it feels like wemi can alter any pass or shot attempt and he leads the league by far with over 4.3 combined Steals and

Blocks per game his impact as a deterrent is nearly unmatched players often don’t even look at the rim on drives and settle for kickouts To Mediocre shooters that basically just reset the offense rather than test him and it turns out he can play both a driver and a man in the dunker spot

Pretty damn well if you try to go to that guy on the year wemi has held opposing players nearly 11% below their typical field goal percentage at The Rim a number that puts him on par with the League’s best veteran Rim protectors the deterrent effect applies in transition

To where wemi is extremely quick getting down the floor for a big this is a clear two-on-one but Grady dick won’t try the pass here because wemi is so long so he tries to go around him which buys the Spurs defense time to get down the floor

And wemi gets a hand on this pass anyways I fear wemi was deep inside poor Grady’s mind because this is an inexplicable play he has a clear path to the basket and takes a scoop layup from 10 ft out if wemi isn’t out there I can’t imagine any world in which he’d do

That and unfortunately things get sadder from there and while his impact is greatest as this monstrous help Defender wemi had some really nice moments guarding in single coverage especially on the veteran yaka purle who has nearly 40 lbs on him even though he bites on the fake spin a little here wem’s 8ft

Wingspan allows him to quickly challenge the fadeaway so purle has to go with the step through to the left which wemi stuffs as though he were a child concerns about wem’s frame in relation to his defense just don’t matter to me his height and length are so special

That they can often make up for a strength deficit and he will add strength but as a rookie he’s already been excellent at the five he guarded well in space too I guess Scotty thinks he can attack wemi here but doesn’t get a step tries to get him to bite on this

Fake and then throws up a prayer and that’s what this is in the paint against wemi and he gets blocked twice IQ won’t test him attacking downhill but also won’t take his signature floater because wemi can affect that so he tries to pull him out but Wy gets a strip with those

Crazy active hands of his no matter the scenario the success rate of a Raptor attacking wemi was very low and like he’s done all year he completely changed the game defensively when he was on the floor wemi has improved the Spurs defense by 10 points per 100 possessions

When he plays this year that’s a 998th percentile onoff number as a rookie when wemi sits the Spurs are a historically awful defense and when he plays they’re a very solid one so while the defense stands out first wemi did some stupid stuff on offense too he is a 74 rookie

Running inverted pick and roll with his point guard who splits The Defenders with a lefty live dribble pass here keep in mind this man has shot 43% on nearly two pull-up threes per game this year so he can see over any defense as a passer

If you hedge and shoot over you if you don’t and this could be a gamebreaking action in the future he obviously has a long ways to go in terms of refining things here and has turned the ball over a lot in those actions but he’s already scoring with 60th percentile efficiency

As a picking roll ball handler and the potential there is terrifying his playmaking popped in this game this is a wild possession where he loses the handle but the euro into no look dime is ridiculous Another Broken play here after a smart cut by wemi and a great

Play at The Rim by purle and he fires a no look bounce pass that sort of floor vision and improvisation is just absurd on top of everything else he already has but it can look simple too bring a second defender on a face up and he

Wisely dots up the cutter but when he was left one-on-one on these faceups wemi showed how his unmatched length allows him to score on drives like no one else could he hardly gets a step here driving into traffic but extends so far that he gets a clean lookoff this is

A very similar Drive jab step then he attacks the inside foot and still drives into traffic but holy mother of God nobody else on the planet literally could dunk this ball and along with his length his agility is an outlier skill set and in this game as he does better

Than any big in the league he did a really good job beating his counterpart down the floor for transition buckets and you want to talk about ridiculous finishing this is not a good lob look at where Wy catches it and somehow finishes this as a reverse the body control the

Length the focus it’s just alien stuff you really can throw the ball up anywhere around the rim with wemi Wy had some bloopers on offense in this game with seven turnovers his handle could be too loose especially in traffic and he tried a couple overly ambitious passes

And although this was a rougher game than usual on that front that’s to be expected when you’re 74 20 years old and attempting the stuff that he does he is going to get sharper there and as he does his ceiling becomes all the more monstrous and although this performance

Was historic and filled with several highlights that seem impossible wem’s been making this stuff look routine I made a video a month ago that went into more detail on all the key areas that led to wem’s monstrous mid-season leap and now that’s just who he is an all

League level Defender who’s found his outside shot gotten more decisive tapped into his playmaking more improved as a rebounder grown more aggressive attacking the rim and turned into a high volume scorer on plus efficiency despite really rough circumstances offensively 3 months ago he wasn’t playing like the

Best rookie in his own class but I think the wemi we’ve seen since he moved to Center is the best rookie this Century just look at his production over those 29 G games that’s a big sample now since December 8th and keep in mind that’s in

Just 27 minutes a night and this is what he’s doing per 75 possessions compare those numbers to any of the great rookies of this Century both adjusting for the increased Pace in today’s game and comparing each player’s efficiency to League average their respective season because it’s gone up so much

League wide and wemi scoring production and efficiency pop as an outlier but even conceding that guys like Luca and LeBron were clearly more immediately ready to dictate team offense with their playmaking skill and driving ability from the perimeter although both struggled considerably with efficiency in Jump shooting as most rookies do does

That outweigh the fact that wemi is lapping the field defensively while still producing like a star offensively with rare efficiency for a rookie I don’t think so because of his unmatched physical tools and great instincts at the most important defensive position he can dominate that side of the ball

Whereas a vast majority of rookies struggle we haven’t seen two-way impact like this from a rookie all Century he has real potential to be the greatest Defender ever I get that the Spurs suck but let’s keep in mind none of the other rookies teams who I mentioned won more

Than 35 games or sniffed the playoffs and none of those players improved their teams by more when they were on the floor compared to offit than wemi has he makes them way better but just like every other rookie of the last two decades he can’t single single-handedly

Save a show the Spurs are dead last in three-point percentage and one of the few teams in the league lacking a semblance of a lead guard and pick and roll Creator and without wemi they’re lost defensively of course they suck when he is scoring at high volume efficiently playmaking well beyond his

Years and dominating defensively and on the glass I promise you the issues are not about him he still has so much room to grow every rookie comes into the league with a bunch to figure out and he’s very much included in that but when you come in a league capable of

Physically doing things no one else can as maybe the greatest physical outlier sense Wilt you can have an impact No rookie has in a long Time

Victor Wembanyama just delivered a historic performance, notching 10 blocks and his first career triple-double as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Toronto Raptors. Having sustained this absurd level for two months, has he now surpassed LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Blake Griffin as the best rookie this century?

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