Victor Wembanyama is figuring it out.

Victor Wembanyama is figuring it out.

Since LeBron James entered the league 21 years ago there has not been a more highly regarded NBA Prospect than Victor wanyama the 7 fo4 Phenom was hailed as an alien for years before he even got to the league and possessed traits we’d never seen from a prospect he’d be the

Tallest man in the NBA on day one with an 8ft wingspan and a fluidity of movement and level of perimeter skill that you couldn’t have imagined was possible for a man of that size before he set foot in the league there was not the hope but the expectation this man

Would be one of the greatest players in NBA history but wem’s career didn’t get off to the smoothest start he certainly had special moments but he found himself on one of the worst teams in the league who lost 18 straight games earlier this season his inexperienced teammates were

Frequently mocked for poor awareness and tunnel vision they came at the expense of his production his efficiency was really bad his turnover numbers were really high and he found himself a clear Underdog for rookie of the year to chat holr but a little over a month ago wemi

Made the switch from starting power forward to Center knocking Zack Collins out of the starting lineup and the results since then have been phenomenal wem’s efficiency has skyrocketed his raw production has gone up across the board even as he’s been on a minute’s restriction lately due to a nagging

Ankle injury and the Spurs have even started to win a few games not many and mostly against Bad teams but a few bottom line the alien is figuring out his new terrain and there’s been a few key ways we’ve seen W be meaningful steps forward in this recent stretch as

He has started to dominate wem’s efficiency has taken a massive leap since he moved to Center in large part because his shot quality has been much higher wy’s perimeter skills are super impressive for a 74 20-year-old but they aren’t his bread and butter and early in

The year the Spurs were asking him to do a bit too much creating for himself from the perimeter and that hurt his efficiency he was still prone to losing his handle and didn’t have some killer first step step to separate because he’s a big so he’d often settle for tough

Jumpers and his outside shots always been inconsistent so the wing stuff is cool and there’s a lot of upside there but it’s not what he’s best at and the Spurs were not doing enough to manufacture high quality looks for him around the rim as a big where he’s a

Unique finishing weapon given his size length and Agility but since Wy moved to Center his volume and efficiency around the rim has increased by a lot as has his involvement in pick roll now that he’s the lone starting big and doesn’t have to split those opportunities with

Collins wemi is a problem as a roller for one major reason if you put the ball anywhere around the rim he can go up and get it here the big drops and Devon Vel doesn’t even engage him at all as a driver he just sees wemi has a bit of a

Step and throws the lob up there leading him way too far with this pass by any mortal standards but wemi uses his unmatched length to extend and maintains his body control to finish even as his momentum is carrying and past the rim his catch radius is obscene and it’s not

Only useful on lobs this pass is way off Target it is effectively to the defensive player but Wy fully extends tips it up to himself and easily reverses the combination of body control and length he possesses is one of one this spin is fluid and then look at

Where he releases this ball from Brooke Lopez is 71 with a 76 wingspan and he looks like a kid trying to jump up to get a toy back back from his dad wemy can just go over top of Defenders as a finisher in a way other people can’t

Because his arms can extend from so far out so basically if you can just get him around the rim and then get him the ball you’ve got two points and pick and roll is the best way to do that in the half court at least cuz wem’s also a

Nightmare to deal with in the open court he’s so athletic and agile that he runs the floor better than maybe any big in the league and he leads all centers in transition scoring this season that means he can grab a board pass the ball

Run the floor hard and catch a lob in a span of just a few seconds he’s also comfortable handling as a grab and go Guy this is a smooth behind the back move into a poster over a seven-footer not normal for a center and less flashy but also devastatingly effective wemi

Can hunt cross matches in transition if he outruns a slower footed big who’s supposed to be guarding him down the floor somebody else has to pick him up and if WBY can get good position and seal that smaller Defender off they have no prayer of affecting his shot the

Easiest way to score is in transition you can get out in the open floor with a numbers Advantage avoid facing a set defense and weaponize your athletic strengths to the fullest extent no Center in the league is doing a better job of that right now than WBY and it’s

One of the more underrated exceptional parts of his game but wem’s got other ways to get to the rim by creating separation off Ball Watch how he capitalizes on the threat he poses from the perimeter here coming off a down screen to seemingly flow into a handoff

Again this guy is 74 and Giannis actually thinks that that’s what he’s about to do before he sharply Cuts back here for an open dunk he’s got some pass rusher moves off ball here he hits the swim move then again shows his ability to catch and finish from a variety of

Angles reversing this in one fluid motion this is an awesome give and go where he spins off the little guy the second he passes this ball away and that’s a great way to weaponize his size advantage and get a step without trying to take a quicker Defender who’s low to

The ground and can affect his handle off the dribble wemi has perimeter skill but these big man play types pick and roll cutting give him much cleaner paths to efficient offense and set him up to succeed as opposed to putting the burden on him to create in oneon-one situations

Where he’s naturally struggled more so the shift to prioritize these play types has been a clear positive but even in situations where he’s attacking from the perimeter wemi simplified his game a bit he’s not just taking more good shots he’s also taking fewer bad Shots part of what was killing wem’s efficiency

Earlier in the year as we talked about was his heavy Reliance on the mid-range too often he’d settle for tough jumpers if he didn’t feel comfortable with his handle or didn’t feel he could get a step he’d take smother jumpers immediately off the catch he’d take double team turnarounds out of the post

And even though he’s crazy tall with dudes up in your airspace those are still bad shots and he’s shot poorly for mid-range all year but the rate at which he’s taken them has gone way down since he moved to Center he’s also been a bit more decisive as a driver emphasizing

Attacking angles more than trying to break Defenders down with fancy dribble moves where he could lose his handle this is a possession from November here’s a loose In-N-Out dribble then he loses the handle on the spin barely gathers the ball and just sort of throws up a tough fadeaway with 16 seconds on

The clock compare that to this more recent possession he creates the advantage by faking as if he’s going to run pick and roll and that gets him a step going left much simpler much more efficient now he hasn’t done a 180 here and he has to get better in terms of

Ball security he still ranks fifth in the league in lost ball turnovers per game on the season and it’s just hard to handle when you’re that far from the ground but he’s improved he’s been driving more as of late and he’s been finishing much better after a brutal start there wem’s gotten more

Comfortable being physical as a driver lately which has definitely increased his efficiency and gotten him some more trips to the line Wy can be moved off his spots by physical Defenders because he is still slight and he doesn’t overpower people as a driver so at times

He has to finish from Awkward angles but his greatest weapon as a driver is again his length he loves driving left and going to scoop finishes which can be a bit difficult for him to control because he’s holding the ball away out there with one hand but look at the separation

He creates from Rim protectors with it nobody can affect that so he’s been much better at the rim and has taken better shots but W’s also finally found his three-point shot as of late in fact over his last last 13 games he shot nearly 37% from Deep this was kind of

Inevitable because wem’s always been a better shooter than the numbers indicated the same was true of him before he got to the league his shot quality can just be rough at times cuz he relies on these contested jumpers but he was just on a really brutal cold

Streak earlier this year that he’s now broken out of mechanically his jumper is smooth his release point is high obviously and he’s comfortable shooting off movement and has shot well on a small sample of Pull-Up thre so far this year so as his three becomes more consistent which it will it’s going to

Be a deadly weapon wem’s also been able to do more as a passer lately and I always loved his skill there as a prospect he’s already quite good at running fake handoffs with excellent timing dotting up Cutters with bounce passes and that timing and placement translates to him finding Cutters out of

Doubles as well and he’s solid at dropping passes off to guys in the dunker spot when he draws multiple Defenders but it’s not just designed actions and basic reads where W’s effective he’s got some real improvisational feel as a passer look at launch this Dart of a baseball pass

Right to Sohan in transition who catches it right in stride strong Outlet passing is always a separator for Bigs and that’s pretty special here you see wemi sense for mapping out the court watch him wait for Sohan to cut and deliver this well timed behind the back dime

This could have been a tough jumper but he turns it into a really nice pass out in midair drawing two Defenders and creating an open layup for his teammate and wemi can even playmake out of pick and roll as the ball handler he’s run them at a low vol volume this year but

Created with 63rd percentile efficiency out of those actions including passes look at the sheer value of his size here we talk about how valuable big ball handlers are because of the passing angles they unlock we’re normally talking about 66 or 68 dudes look at how easily 74 wemi lets this rip over the

Defense with good timing and feel at that height he can see everything passing big men are one of the hottest Trends in the NBA dudes who can run handoffs make decisions as a short roller pass out a double spot Cutters and for all his scoring potential and

All World defensive value wem’s gonna be pretty damn good at that stuff too and we’re already seeing it now wy’s passing is inconsistent he can be very inaccurate as a passer like very inaccurate at times but his willingness to pass absolutely bodess well and he

Can still get a bit of tunnel vision and force tough shots but he’s a rookie big and he’s trending in the right direction there so wem’s taken strides offensively in basically every way lately and defensively he’s one of the best rookies we’ve ever seen and has been from the

Jump for all his freakish offensive skill that defensive Foundation was always his greatest strength as a prospect and boy has he delivered as the sole rim protector starting now his block production has taken a leap to a comical 3.9 per game over the last 15 outings which would be the most by any

Rookie since David Robinson only wem’s doing it in 10 fewer minutes per game while four years younger I don’t say this lightly wemi has the potential to be the best defensive player ever let’s just take a look at a few plays from the last game wemy played in when he posted

A casual seven stocks that steals plus blocks something he’s already done five times this year this play is absurd he’s out of position trailing on yeka but when you have the longest wingspan in the league by a couple inches you can still cleanly stuff this dunk attempt from behind and Corral the board

Yourself here wemi unsuccessfully swipes down the ball and Trace smartly starts to go up into his shooting motion he’s been barbecuing the league for 5 years in situations like this where he has a two-on-one out of pick and roll and can either hit a floater or a lob and wemi

Stuffs him like it’s nothing here Trey again has that two-on-one out of pick and roll and wemi easily takes away the lob then recovers to block Trey’s second effort wemi has held opposing players 12.4% below their typical field goal percentage at The Rim this year a top

Three Mark among the League’s 30 most prolific Rim protectors which doesn’t even account for the massive deterrent he is all the instances in which drivers see wemi patrolling the paint and would do anything to avoid trying him but it’s not just shop blocking where his length has a monstrous impact he also erases

Passing Lanes ranking third among all big men with 2.8 deflections per game and averaging a strong 1.1 steals per game I mean look at how he just takes this lob away W’s also already an elite rebounder especially defensively since moving to Center he’s averaging 11.1 rebounds per game in under 27 minutes

Per game meaning on a per minute basis he’s comfortably outrebounding the current boards champ damont sabonis and the Spurs have been a much better defensive rebounding team with him on the floor he’s also a problem guarding the perimeter he moves fluidly but more than anything can just eras space on

Closeouts and he’s held opposing players 5% below their typical field goal percentage outside of 15 ft2 and all in all the Spurs defense has been nine points per 100 possessions better with wemi on the floor an elite number number that reflects his incredibly rare defensive impact as a rookie and yes

Some of the League’s stronger post players can overpower him but his Supernatural length timing and instincts still make it so difficult to finish the teams have hardly targeted him in that capacity and his ability to already anchor a defense as the lone big when Zach Collins was supposed to serve as

His metaphorical training wheels a guy who could handle some of those big body players and allow wemi to roam more is just another Testament to his historic ability so make no mistake about it he may have taken some bumps and bruises but wemi is as advertised especially

Because he was never going to be consistently efficient from three or have seamless Wing skills as a rookie as a prospect we got real flashes of those things but it was always going to take time but he’s already firmly trending in the right direction in those areas and

The traits that we knew were generational are generational Wy may not win rookie of the year but that says way more about how special ch hren is who I called the best Prospect since ad before wemi came along then it does wemi who I’m not saying can’t win chck just got a

Head start but he is phenomenal this man will be one of the great players in this league we’re already seeing him do things nobody else can and he has so much room to grow and seeing that Improvement before our very eyes is exciting and it is terrifying for the rest of the league

Victor Wembanyama was the most hyped-up prospect in decades, but his rookie campaign with the struggling San Antonio Spurs didn’t get off to a seamless start. But since switching to the center position, Wemby has been nothing short of exceptional as he’s made some key improvements to his game.

Follow us on social media:
IG/TikTok: NerdSesh
Twitter: Nerd_Sesh

Shop the hottest gear in all of sports podcasting: https://thevolume.com/shop-all-new

Learn more about The Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com