Victor Wembanyama has been as good as the Spurs could have hoped for the rookie, even if his season has been a little up and down. He is averaging 18.5 points and 10.7 rebounds a game, and more importantly getting three blocks a night and impacting games on the defensive end. Unlike rookie Chet Holmgren in Oklahoma City, the Spurs have not given Wembanyama a clearly defined role but are letting him explore the NBA game and space. Gregg Popovich has played Wembanyama in a lot of different roles — posting up, getting him the ball in the high post, having him bring the ball up, facing up on the wing — and letting him find his comfort zones and where he wants to be on the court.
The NBA is an adjustment for everyone, and in a fantastic story at The Athletic, David Aldridge asked Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis about their adjustments to the NBA and advice for Wembanyama. I thought Embiid’s description of Wembanyama’s season to this point and where he goes from here was particularly on point and enlightening.
“Right now, there’s so much hype around him, I think he’s trying to live up to the hype. That’s what I see. And I watch a lot of games. I think, first of all, he has to figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever. It’s not necessarily whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it’s what he wants to become. Do you want to become KD, or do you want to become me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys — you want to combine everything. Right now, I just feel like everything kind of feels a little forced, in the way that he’s playing. Which is not bad. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That’s the only way. You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn.
The one thing that I’m happy about is they’re allowing him to make those mistakes, and learn from it. But I just think there’s a good and bad in that. The good of it is you learn through your mistakes. But then again, the bad of it is, you know, it just feels a little forced. Like, some of the shots. He can make it easy on himself. He can make it easy for himself. Like, he’s 7-5, 7-6. Sometimes, and that’s one thing I’m learning, too. Like, sometimes, just go down there and whatever, just shoot over somebody. Sometimes, you don’t have to (work so hard). I’m still learning it. We all have the same issue.”
Wembanyama is so skilled, so unique, he can do a little bit of everything, but being good at everything and not elite at one style is not necessarily the path to the level of NBA success he wants. Wembanyama has to pick who he wants to be as a player, even if he can break into other styles when situations call for it.
Watching Wembanyama play, some things are clear and likely to happen, like him getting physically stronger. That was not a secret when he came into the league but it’s also something that can happen over a few years with dedication (Antetokounmpo is the poster child for that kind of transformation). Wembanyama seems to get that.
Finding a true identity of who he wants to be on the court is part of that. It’s not that he needs to be Durant or Embiid — he can be his unique self — but that identity is still taking shape and needs to form. That’s what this first season in San Antonio is about — growth over wins, just trust the team’s process and get better. Wembanyama is doing that, although that can be uneven at times. This season was about learning.
Joel Embiid seems to understand that better than anyone.
