Victor Wembanyama aka Wemby aka The Extraterrestrial

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA BLOCKS GIANNIS.

pic.twitter.com/6Z8At9cJm9

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 5, 2024

a little early for "new sheriff in town" comments, but that was a sweet block and giannis is now on notice for the remainder of their respective careers.

betcha he's gonna be the 5th guy to record a quadruple double

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEZAwNgWoAARId3?format=jpg&name=large

what

like im really starting to wince watching them play, i get that they wanted to experiment to see how everyone fits with wemby, but i feel like the experiment has lost the plot when you lose 12 games in a row. sochan is never gonna be pre-playoff freakout ben simmons and i worry that pop will break him trying to make it happen. giving wemby no direction means he plays like a 19-year-old, no shit he's gonna try to do too much and get a bunch of turnovers. this team feels rudderless without competent point guard play and their defensive woes are compounded by the turnovers and missed shots. tre jones isnt a world-beater but he's a capable pg whose on-off numbers and netrtg with wemby are fuckin good. they should experiment with winning even at the expense of some theoretical all-switching all-the-time defensive lineup.

im not terribly worried in the long run bc its not like pop was given a loaded roster to begin with. there are several good pg prospects in this draft (i like collier and topic rn but who knows) and some servicable bigs that can upgrade charles bassey pretty quickly.

― oatly carmichael (m bison), Monday, November 27, 2023 6:33 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

so spurs are 3-6 since trae young took over as starting pg. along with some better rotation decisions (julian champagnie takes over for keldon as starting wing bc hes a better 3pt shooter and defender, sochan moves to pf, branham minutes getting replaced by sudenly playable blake wesley) and now they look like a real nba team. only one of those 6 losses was a blowout and that was boston. the wins are against fellow bottom-feeders, but they will have a much more promising second half of the year, esp if vassell can get his 3pt consistency back.

the thing that would bother me watching this team every game, aside from all the losing obvs, is they play so fn soft, it was bothering me when they played the celtics, i was like whatre you doing you gotta throw a shoulder into someone get out there and squabble

so spurs are 3-6 since trae young took over as starting pg.

― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Sunday, January 21, 2024 7:56 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i mustve missed this

lmao TRE JONES shit

too many short guys named "trey"

three many short guys named trey

the thing about the spurs, and I haven’t watched enough of their games to really be an authority on this or anything, is that it seems like pop has a plan for how the team should be constructed — something I’ve noticed is that they’re first in the league in assist percentage and have been the whole season pretty much, so I feel like they’re punting on putting the best possible offense out there for now and planning for the future when they have a more winnable roster

Could be an all time great matchup for many years to come

Chet and Wemby really went to war in the fourth quarter of their matchup 🔥 pic.twitter.com/jMqDCkbGL2

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) January 25, 2024

yeah, there was a lot of fun stuff happening even though the game was already decided

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcRjJ1PDYJs

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFihGYUW4AAtUgQ?format=jpg&name=small

jesus christ

being slightly colorblind i hate graphics like this

graph roughly says that wemby is perfect

DARKO D-DPM?? Wemby rocking the triple D!!

Wemby's stats over his last 5 games are more ridiculous than this dunk!

24.2 PTS, 11.2 REB, 5.6 BLK, 4.8 AST, 2.8 STL, 1.8 3PT while playing just 29.1 MINSpic.twitter.com/bdhd93LXtl

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 26, 2024

could see him putting up olajuwon-like numbers of 6+ stocks per season (dream did it five times, only done twice outside of that: eaton and d robinson)

might even be able to push 7 a few times.... maybe 8?

whats the limit of what this guy can do lol

Wemby what the f*** pic.twitter.com/OMZjSmOtyX

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 28, 2024

lol yeah I've seen dads try to do that during 3rd grade basketball practice

Bruh 😭 pic.twitter.com/rtOn2Nik5L

— BrickMuse (@BrickMuse) February 28, 2024

it's wild how much he is living up to the hype and how terrible of a basketball team they are

the only players i feel sorta confident will be here in two years with wemby are vassell and sochan. they have so many guys that can best be described as draft projects (wesley, branham) or reclamation projects (collins, champagnie, osman maybe). keldon johnson gets a bunch of minutes but lost his starting job to a guy who was just starting summer league bc he’s the odd man out. he’s the heart and soul but that kind of guy is only valuable on winning teams.

tre jones has held his own but he is the quintessential backup PG and not good enough a shooter or stout enough a defender to be a starting lead guard in the nba. wemby desperately needs shooting, and while sochan is passable as a low volume wide open guy, tre is a minus in that regard. it’s why if the spurs hit the lottery again risacher might be their guy as a big wing who can shoot.

What do you see as the highest priorities this offseason? Hoping they get a high lottery pick to pair another young star w/Wemby.

they have their own pick which is likely to be at least top 7 or 8, plus they might get torontos pick if it falls out of the top 6. so a pretty good shot at two top 10 picks with one in the top 5.

atp they need to draft for fit with wemby which i think makes sarr an awkward fit. they could use a wing shooter to pair with vassell (a la risacher), they could use a lead guard who can set up the offense and spread the floor, they can use a backup big with actual defensive ability, they could use rotation players who can reliably knock down open jumpers. they just don’t have a functional team because they’ve traded away anyone another team would want to pile up draft assets and all that’s left were a bunch of brian wright’s “best player available” draft selections and contract fodder that wasn’t diverted elsewhere

I’ve only seen a handful of spurs games but it seems to me things are going according to plan. they can let the young guys play pop’s preferred style (first in the league in assists% by a decent margin) and make mistakes, figure out who the keepers are, and dip back into the draft. don’t think it really matters if they win 18 or 30 games, they just don’t have the talent yet

considering how good webmy is already youd like them to have a more in place now

naw what’s the rush man

i mean for my personal rooting interests itd be fine if the spurs took their time, but from their pov the better wemby is the harder it is for them to build via the draft

which i suspect informed some of their odder coaching decisions in the first half of the season

there are just not many guys who are title contending players super early in their careers, and the guys who won young usually played with hall of fame big men (timmy with drob, kobe and wade with shaq). otherwise it takes ~7 years for most era-defining title-winners to arrive. that said, wemby might just be built different and i think he could be an all-nba first teamer before his rookie contract runs out (assuming some decline from jokic and embiid by 2026-7).

wemby being maybe the best defender in the league already and a walking 20-10 on any given night doesnt necessarily mean they have to cash in all their assets and put the best possible team around him right now, but i do think they should try to get a lot better a lot faster than what they probably initially planned. they need to start figuring out the archetypes that best fit around him that actually win games, but theyre not gonna learn anything new throwing out the same lineup plus a 19-year-old or two from the 2024 draft.

i dont know how much truth there was to the spurs' interest in trae young, but it's a gamble i think that's worth taking. he has 3 years left on his deal which would give them a comfortable couple of season to asses his fit with wemby/pop before needing to decide to extend or trade him. he's only 5 years older than vic. if anyone can compensate for trae's defensive shortcomings, it's vic, and if anyone can complement vic as a playmaker and floor-spreader, it's trae (ok luka and shai too but i dont think they're going anywhere anytime soon).

guys who are title contending players super early in their careers, and the guys who won young usually played with hall of fame big men

Or, in the case of HOFer big man Kareem, he got to play with the Big O in his second season.

wemby-trae would also be good from the pov of pairing the biggest guy and the littlest guy

Trae would average 15 assists playing with wemby

it might be good but at what cost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOZzFXolGJc

Other than that how was the game, Mr. Lincoln?pic.twitter.com/hkt590bCD6

— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) March 1, 2024

hahahhahaha this game was incredible

typical wemby line 28-13-7-5 blks-2 stls, 5/7 from 3

Victor Wembayama during his on-court interview after the win “I missed this shit” pic.twitter.com/GBQQw3A4xO

— Noah Magaro-George (@N_Magaro) March 1, 2024

i cannot express how much ppl in sa love this young man

lol that block got the ball before it left his hands

him vs. Chet has been really fun to watch

its crazy how good they both are

he said NOOOOOO! pic.twitter.com/5IYmqu4E9B

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 1, 2024

Wemby on his penchant for live-TV bleeps:

“I’m still not used to the, uh, standards here. I’m adjusting.” https://t.co/QyDaJYSUEP

— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) March 1, 2024

wemby is currently -10000 to win ROY