Victor Wembanyama, a fluid 7’4 “ athlete, is scoring almost the same percentage of his points from beyond the arc as from the paint. When the outside shot is falling, the cries for him to go inside subside, but on nights in which he misses, the default response is to demand the big man to play like a traditional center.
The frustration with Wemby’s perimeter-oriented game is understandable to a degree, but also misguided. Wembanyama hasn’t decided that he doesn’t want to score inside, but he often can’t due to his own limitations, how opponents defend him and the skills of his teammates.
Wembanyama can score on the block but is not a volume post scorer. He has good footwork, but he has a high center of gravity that makes bodying his way close to the paint nearly impossible. Because of his height, he also has a very high dribble that defenders can disrupt easily when he tries to get to the middle, and help defenders can often steal the ball when he puts it on the floor. That leaves Wemby with the option to spin baseline, but he’s also easily moved in those situations by smaller but stronger opponents and he has to find a cutter or a shooter before falling out of bounds. Sometimes he does, others he coughs the ball up, resulting in a live ball turnover.
Most athletic centers in today’s NBA are not prolific post scorers but make up for it by scoring inside on the pick-and-roll by being rim-runners. In theory, Wembanyama should feast on lobs thrown by The Point God himself, but the problem is twofold. First, at this point in his career, Paul is not a huge threat driving to the rim and is mostly looking for the assist, so opponents deny the pass to Wemby and live with a CP3 midrange jumper. Second, the spacing isn’t always pristine for San Antonio, as some rotation players don’t command the respect of the defense when they are off the ball, so even when it seems like the pick and roll is freeing the center, help defense is always there.
There’s no need to go to the post or the pick and roll to get Wemby in a position to score or create inside the arc. Since Wemby can’t take too many dribbles without risking a turnover at this point and he can’t push centers around, the goal is to get a mismatch that allows him to attack quickly and directly. The Spurs have several plays using both on-ball and off-ball screens to force those mismatches, but those actions are a lot trickier to pull off when opponents have their power forward on Wembanyama and their center on a forward. When that happens, the other team will just concede the switch but then switch their center to Wembanyama to negate the advantage. This occurs even when Jeremy Sochan is not around but becomes a bigger problem when he shares the court with Victor.
So should Wembanyama just shoot threes? Of course not. The coaching staff has done a good job of finding new ways of getting him open and his teammates are improving when it comes to making the right pass at the right time. He has also been doing a better job of reading when help is coming and getting a shot up quickly or finding open shooters if the defense really loads up on him when he has the ball inside the arc, which is normally the case. The Spurs get more points at the rim with Victor on the floor, and he has a hand in creating them either by scoring, assisting, or demanding so much attention that others can just waltz to the bucket.
Wembanyama is immensely talented and tall but at this point in his career and with this roster, it’s simply impossible for him to play like a traditional center. Without a ball handler who is scary enough to prevent the defense from focusing almost solely on Wemby, he can’t be a good dive man. He’s too skinny to play with his back to the basket and his height makes his dribble too easy to disrupt. And if he’s playing next to non-shooters or players that don’t scare the defense with their off-ball scoring, he’ll always run into a crowd.
The three-point shot should always be a big part of Wembanyama’s game but as he matures as a player, he’ll diversify his game to be the matchup nightmare he’s destined to become by also being unstoppable inside. The process has already started, as he has made strides as the games have passed. It will just require some patience.
For now, it’s fine for Wembanyama to take threes in volume and rely on them to get shots up. It helps him stay involved on offense, it helps create room for his teammates and it prevents him from trying to force things in settings that don’t play to his strengths, all good things for both the player and the team.