Everyone will be tuned into Victor Wembanyama this season.
The first player selected in the NBA Draft usually gets a lot of attention, but Wembanyama isn’t your normal No. 1 pick. He dominated France’s top league last season as a teenager and entered the NBA as one of the most hyped prospects of all time.
Wembanyama had moments in his highly anticipated debut with the Spurs. He then made a massive impact in San Antonio’s overtime win over Houston. He had his worst game yet in Sunday’s loss to the Clippers, but he still put together a number of impressive plays, including one where he put his two-way potential on full display.
You know what that means — to the film room!
MORE: The Sporting News ranks the top 30 players in the NBA
Victor Wembanyama’s two-way potential in one Spurs play
🎥 The play
✏️ Breakdown
Russell Westbrook brings up the ball for the Clippers following a 3-pointer from Keldon Johnson.
Before he crosses halfcourt, Westbrook passes the ball along to Paul George, who then swings it to Robert Covington at the top of the 3-point line. Even though he’s a proven 3-point shooter, Wembanyama gives Covington a little bit of space by dropping to the top of the free-throw line circle.
Wembanyama can give shooters more space than most defenders because he’s so dang big. In addition to being the tallest player in the NBA right now, he has a massive 8-foot wingspan.
Ask Luka Doncic or Paul George. Shooting over him is a daunting task.
Kawhi Leonard moves from the left side of the court to the right side, clearing the way for Ivica Zubac to get the ball in the post from Covington. Zubac isn’t a dominant back-to-the-basket scorer but he was an efficient one last season, ranking in the 83rd percentile with an average of 1.13 points per possession.
Wembanyama immediately goes into help mode by keeping one eye on Zubac and the other on Covington.
The closer Zubac gets to the basket, the more Wembanyama helps off of Covington. Wembanyama then commits to the double team after Zubac takes his third dribble.
Zubac sees Wembanyama and wisely spins away from him.
Safe? Not so much. Wembanyama skies over both Zubac and Zach Collins for a block, sparking a fastbreak.
🤔 Why it matters
Through three games, Wembanyama is averaging 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds on 44.7 percent shooting from the field. For someone billed as one of the best prospects of all time, you might be underwhelmed by those numbers. If you are, you shouldn’t be.
Defensively, Wembanyama is already a force. He’s nimble enough to step out to the perimeter and he’s so long that players are terrified to shoot over him, even if he’s giving them a few feet of space. He’s going to rack up blocks and steals by the boatload, and teams are already thinking twice about challenging him whenever he’s at the basket.
Three games is far too small of a sample size to draw anything conclusive from, but here’s something to monitor: San Antonio is holding opponents to an average of 102.8 points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the court. With him on the bench, that number skyrockets to 125.8. That’s the difference between the Spurs being one of the best defensive teams in the league and the absolute worst.
(Also, the player with the second-best defensive rating on the Spurs right now is Devin Vassell. The gap between him and Wembanyama — 8.2 points per 100 possessions — is colossal.)
If this is the type of impact Wembanyama can have as a 19-year-old, imagine what he’ll be like in a couple of years when the game slows down for him. He has all of the makings of a multi-time Defensive Player of the Year and an all-time defender.
The block on Zubac is only half of the sequence, too. Here’s what Wembanyama did on the other end of the floor:
As our Steph Noh detailed here, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Wembanyama has his ups and downs offensively as a rookie. His jumper looks like the real deal, but he wasn’t an efficient shooter in France last season. (He made only 32.5 percent of his jump shots, per The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie.) His size makes him a tough matchup in the post, but he’s at a strength advantage against most power forwards and centers.
Wembanyama struggled to get by Mavericks forward Grant Williams in his debut and didn’t do much when guarded by Clippers forward Nicolas Batum on Sunday.
“Everybody’s going to be physical with him, try to knock him off balance, and that sort of thing,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said of Wembanyama after the Clippers loss. “He’s got to get used to that. That’s probably the biggest difference for him, all of that physicality.”
It would help if Wembanyama was playing with better passers. There have been a number of times already where he’s had a mismatch but wasn’t able to take advantage because one of his teammates missed him. It’s no surprise that Tre Jones has assisted him more than anyone else on the Spurs despite the fact that Wembanyama has shared the court with him for fewer minutes than Jeremy Sochan, Vassell, Johnson and Collins.
Still, the skill is obvious. You just don’t see players 7-4 draw defenders out to the 3-point line, lose them with a jab step (without traveling!), put the ball on the floor and draw a foul on a strong drive to the basket.
It’s those types of sequences that show how special Wembanyama will be when he puts it all together.
Victor Wembanyama stats
15.7 points per game 7.3 rebounds per game 2.0 steals per game 1.7 blocks per game 1.7 assists per game 4.7 turnovers per game 44.7 percent field goal shooting 23.1 percent 3-point shooting 66.7 percent free throw shooting