[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

So, after watching him last night it clearly appears this guy might be a lot further away than most people initially thought. Sure, he has incredible measurements and can do things at his size that few human beings can do. But he’s just way too physically underdeveloped to be able to do any of that in the league right now. And despite all the hype and impressive highlights, I still don’t think he really knows how to play basketball yet.

I don’t want too harsh but if the Spurs just throw him out there next year with all the expectations on his back he is simply going to get eaten alive. Both on the floor and in the media. He has been billed as the next legend and anything less than a Lebron type impact off the bat will be considered disappointing. But this guy is probably years away from being able to have that type of impact if he can get there at all. You have to hope he has the right mindset and thick skin because this could get ugly. I actually really feel for the kid because there is no way he is going to be able to live up to expectations, at least not right away.

My prediction. Wemby will mysteriously go out with an “injury” in the preseason. They will give a vague timetable for his return, and he will wind up missing the entire season out of an abundance of caution. It will essentially be treated as a redshirt season for the training staff to work on his body and hopefully get him more adequately prepared to play in the NBA. The Spurs are the NBA in general just have too much riding on this kid to just throw him to the wolves when he clearly isn’t ready.

[OhCanada-Participant]

Lots of hype around yesterday’s game. Weeks of interviews, media availability, podcasts. Plenty of decisions. Endorsements, sponsorships, deciding to not play with team France. All leading up to this hyped up game. 9pm Eastern, July 7th in Vegas. Wemby’s debut.

9pm comes around and they have the entire Spurs team staged on the outside of the tunnel. Blazers/Rockets game still going strong. Ref calling the most ticky tacky fouls. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife, so much suspense on this debut. Rockets fighting on every possession. Meanwhile the Spurs and Wemby are standing there on the outside of the tunnel with 20 cameras pointed at them. They stood there like that for 30 minutes before the Blazers/Rockets game ended. Did 5 minutes of shoot around and started the game.

That was not a real game. It was not a routine experience. Can’t take much from it at all. As far as him being “physically challenged” this is not a problem. I mean well, yes. It is a problem. Although he has proven he has solutions to this issue and is still able to be productive despite his lack of physical strength. He was undersized in the French league too and he found ways around it. His ballhandling is incredible. Its not “good for his size” the guy has high level dribbling and playmaking techniques. The shot will take more time. He’s 19.

I agree to an extent. This guy is not coming into the league like Luka or Lebron. He is not an allstar. The Spurs are not built for immediate success. It would be wise to shut him down and strength train with him. Although I don’t think that is the direction his sponsors/endorsements will want him to take and he is still a phenomenal player.

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

I understand the circumstances weren’t ideal and you never want to draw too many conclusions from one game. However, I just saw too many concerning things to completely write his lackluster performance off as “jitters” or simply an “off night”. He clearly has a pretty advanced skill set for his size that he has worked hard to develop. However, I’m not sure he knows how to really utilize it in the context of an nba game at this time. He doesn’t move fluidly at all, seems to have a poor base and poor balance( Chet holmgren, for example, has a similar body type and is probably even skinnier, but moves much more fluid and naturally). It’s going to be very difficult for Wemby to take nba players off the dribble and finish because he lacks the core strength and center of gravity to stay balanced. The way he kind of flails his limbs around combined with his size will no doubt make him an injury risk. His size and length will obviously make him one of the best shot blockers immediately and he will be a lob threat of course, but outside of that it’s very hard for me to see him making much of an impact on offense. I would normally say it would be fine to give the kid a simplified role and let him continue to develop, but the way he is being billed and promoted I’m not sure that is going to fly. I think the expectation level significantly needs to get lowered but the train has already left the station in that regard. I’m just worried that if he isn’t able to instantly do the things he’s expected to, the narrative could turn and things could get ugly. We’ve seen it happen before with these ridiculously hyped prospects.

[sweaterflexParticipant]

Pop isn’t going to let him have that kind of shot selection, his primary offense at first will be as the dive man and cleaning up the glass, summer league is for testing stuff out. The defense is clearly there already which will likely be how he always adds the most value. As a reference, people forget Duncan and KG aren’t top 15 all time because of 20 ppg on medium efficiency, they were all world defensive anchors.

[BothTeamsPlayedHard-Participant]

This is a misinterpretation. Summer League is loosely organized and guard-oriented. Playing him without a proper point guard and with a more limited offensive player like Dominick Barlow as a frontcourt partner means he misses out on the part of the game that should, and will, translate immediately. He is tall enough, long enough, and coordinated enough to catch lobs without really jumping. He can catch alley oops with a bunny hop. It is a huge advantage. I wish Julian Champagnie well, and am glad he got guaranteed money and years. He isn’t a point guard. Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley have good traits, but neither are point guards. Tre Jones is probably on the lower end of point guards among starters, and I would think it is 50-50 if he is the starter in two years, but he knows the job. He can execute and put his teammates in a position to succeed. Zach Collins as a center is a bit like Tre Jones as a point guard, but he can do enough things so that Victor isn’t full-time on the perimeter where he can do some things, but isn’t maximizing his gifts.
I think they should have been a little more aggressive this summer to surround him with a higher end point or center to offer support as opposed to collecting veteran wings when that is who they have been drafting (or committing to in the case of Champagnie). Still, it will be better than it looked yesterday, because he will be better situated. As an aside, I think teams will learn quickly that they don’t want to play center-less against the Spurs. If the Spurs can play Tre-Vassell-Keldon-Cedi or Bullock or McDermott-Victor without getting opponents getting physical with them, they are in for either a bunch of lobs or open threes. You are going to want that guy who is 30-60 lbs heavier than Victor to make him uncomfortable when they bump bodies.

Anyway, part of the problem is that Victor became a highlight guy for almost everyone who follows the NBA or draft, and it created a cartoon character more than a basketball player. The highlights weren’t how he was effective. It was a lot of boring setup stuff with the highlights – and ignored lowlight- mixed in. He will be able to get enough easy stuff where the Spurs utilize his length and coordination for him to be effective as a rookie. Now, the shot selection that occasionally led to viral highlight clips is going to be less charming when you watch a full game and see the misses. It is very much a Trae Young thing. It is cool when Young makes one from the logo in a highlight, but if you watch the game and see the awful misses as well, not to mention his defensive work, he becomes less charming. San Antonio is a real team with real coaches. I doubt Victor will be taking step-back contested three pointers on the wing with 15 seconds on the shot clock without anyone saying a word to him. Also, I would also tend to believe given that Victor coming off a 1400 minute season where he often played just one game per week, he probably doesn’t double that. A high end college player will play 1100-1300 minutes in half the calendar time. Vicotr probably either gets legitimately hurt or hits a wall, because the volume of NBA games will be unlike anything he has experienced before. Between that, and his very thin 7’4″ frame, I would be surprised if he stays healthy enough to qualify for the 65 games needed to win rookie of the year. That is just me. Still, I think it is possible to hold both that opinion, and one that he will still be quite effective when he does play.

[GronounoursParticipant]

Excellent take in my opinion, thank you. I think he will be fine, but the expectations (maybe his own included) were ridiculous. People in San Antonio seemed to believe he was going to make their franchise competitive immediately, but that was never going to happen.

Have you noticed he never takes a hook shot, which may be surprising considering is height? I assume he’s simply unable to gain deep position in the post.

[HitsterParticipant]

He will be a work in progress but the Spurs will manage his workload. His size gives him a virtual uncontested shot anywhere on the court and teams cannot go small ball against him as he runs the court well and will dominate the paint on offence and defence.

I don’t see him banging that much in the paint against an Embeast or a Bam but he’ll pick his moments to go into the paint. The warm up wasn’t ideal and he had that crazy singer running up to him but luckily she didn’t sing at him.

[HitsterParticipant]

The Spurs haven’t made or yet made any FA moves to try and speed their rebuilding process. I thought they might get a proven veteran who already maybe has a title in to be a locker room leader for Wemby and the young team.

But Pops has just signed a new deal so he isn’t going anywhere and I can see them looking at this season really getting Wemby’s workload and conditioning developed, getting him and Sochan working as ther big man duo and not worrying too much about the results. If they have another couple of high lottery trips so be it.

Banchero had a lovely rookie year but Magic were still a high lottery team last season and if the same happened with Wemby and the Spurs I don’t think the Spurs would be worried one bit.

[OhCanada-Participant]

He probably does make the allstar team to be honest. Hes just too good.

[HitsterParticipant]

I’m not really thinking about Wemby being an All Star or not next season plus if the Spurs have a losing record when the voting is done he’d need to be doing something pretty spectacular. I don’t see him being voted in as a starter first year and with the coaches voting for the reserves I just don’t quite see it.

He’ll likely have about a dozen All Star appearances if he stays sound so I wouldn’t worry too much.

What do people see his rookie stat line being ? I’d say 18-20ppg, 9 to 10rpg, 2 to 2.2bpg and 2.5 to 3apg.

[NorrinRaddParticipant]

I think his popularity makes him a All-Star consideration guy his first year. His stat line this year will probably be like 19 pts/8 reb/2 ast/3.5 blk/1 stl in about 30 minutes a game. I’m guessing he plays around 50-55 games this year. Pop will ease him in.

[OhCanada-Participant]

Yeah I think that gets him in the allstar game.

[NorrinRaddParticipant]

Looks like the stat predictions were a little modest…

29.4 min 46.3 fg% 32.2 3pt% 79.6 ft% 10.6 reb 3.8 ast 3.5 blk 1.3 stl 2.2pf 3.6to 21.1pts

[HitsterParticipant]

Its only the block numbers we really differ on Norrin but he has the potential to be that high if he hits the ground running. I can see them sitting him some games and maybe he plays 3 out of 4 so 55 to 60 games would be in my ballpark especially if the team are out of the play offs/in mix and they want to improve their lottery chances over last few games of the season.

[OhCanada-Participant]

I think the Spurs are going to genuinely try to win as many games as possible. They already spent the last 5 years or so tanking which allowed them to gather talents l;ike Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, Barlow, Branham, Wesley, Champagnie. They also have a surpluss of draft picks owed. Creating winning habits and routines is more important at this point should be more important than acquiring anopther top 10 talent especially since they are probably too good to end up in the top 5. I don’t think you can tank with Wembenyama. The game is different in Europe. I think the Spurs are gonna shock people early in the season as teams figure out exactly what to do with Wembenyama.

[HitsterParticipant]

THe Spurs have got a decent core of young talent before you consider Wemby there have been some draft misses like Samanic or Primo. They have also made a few trades when it became clear the current young roster wasn’t really progressing and they wanted to longer term which helped them land Wemby.

A fully fit Devin Vassell will make a big difference as he was averaging 18.5ppg before getting injured last season. With him and Keldon Johnson they would have a combined 40ppg based on last seasons stats. Sochan will be a year further on too.

The Spurs have a few veterans on the roster and have added Reggie Bullock this summer but don’t have a huge amount of salary committed beyond next summer when I could see them looking to add a title winning veteran or two who don’t need to be chasing a ring but can be great on court leaders for Wemby and co. Then maybe a year further on look at top FA market or make a trade to get a really top level player as Wemby’s running mate.

[OhCanada-Participant]

I think Keldon Johnson is alot further ahead than people realize. Last year he started to struggle about a month into the season because teams started loading up on him. This is part of the process for a young star in the NBA, learning to deal with defenses gameplanning for you. That was his Keldon’s entire season last year and he didn’t get much help especially with Vassell getting injured and Poeltl getting traded. Theres a very good chance that Johnson ends up an amazing player next to Wembanyama and not many people are talking about how much pressure will be off of him with Victor’s arrival. Teams can’t load up on both of them.

I’ve had Keldon Johnson on my fantasy team pretty much every year of his career. I’ve followed his career very close. He gets better every year. 9 ppg, to 13 ppg, to 17 ppg, to 22 ppg with years 2, 3 and 4 being only minor minutes per game differences. His shooting percentages are gonna go up dramatically. It would not surprise me, as a matter of fact I would be shocked if Keldon does not average 25 ppg next year. Everyone is talking about Victor but this is the guy they have been grooming all this time.

Spurs are gonna be a problem. And it could be next year.

[HitsterParticipant]

ESPN have predicted this stat line for Wemby’s rookie year :-30 MPG, 15.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 1.9 APG, 2.8 BPG.
They already have him as the likely BPG leader so he’ll be a defensive and shot changing force from day one in their view.

[OhCanada-Participant]

I’m guessin at least 18-ppg, 7-rpg, 3-apg, 1-spg and 2.5-bpg at below 45%/30% shooting splits and 3 to’s a game. His rookie ceiling is much higher but he has a bad shot selection right now.

[HitsterParticipant]

ESPN expert panel have Chet Holmgren favourite to be rookie of the year despite the stats panel having Wemby way out in front.
The season predicator for the Spurs is only 27-55 which seems harsh if the younger players progress and you factor Wemby in. But the West is loaded so it may make sense. I have them for between 30 to 35 wins.
The panel only have the Blazers below the Spurs at 24-58 so I guess they figure Dame won’t be there.

[HitsterParticipant]

He now has 245 blocks this season which is the 2nd most in the last 16 seasons!

[Author]

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