Welcome to the Victor Wembanyama experience. Come one, come all, for there is a 7-foot-4 Frenchman who can nutmeg you off the bounce, block your 3-pointers, step back from 3, put back his own stepback in two steps and dunk on you from a standstill outside the restricted area. Behold the human cheat code.
Here, we’ll track the San Antonio Spurs rookie’s weekly progress relative to the most anticipated prospects of the past 50 years, using Yahoo Sports’ own default fantasy basketball settings to rank their production.
But first a few words …
Wembanyama’s breakout 38-point game against the Phoenix Suns at the start of November vaulted him from the bottom five to the top six of our rankings of the 20 most hyped rookies of the past half-century, and there he has hovered ever since — despite an interesting development in the Rookie of the Year race.
The 19-year-old is settling into the sort of consistently inconsistent season you expect from a first-year player on the team that held the No. 1 overall pick. Over the past week, Wembanyama logged more shots (58) than points (54) and more turnovers (11) than assists (six), finishing a combined -68 in 90 minutes. His entire season is not so different, and the Spurs have run their losing streak to eight straight after a 3-2 start.
San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama dunks past Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes during an NBA in-season tournament game at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, on Nov. 17, 2023. (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images) (Ronald Cortes via Getty Images)
You see flashes of future dominance, but he is shooting 31.3% outside of the restricted area. His decision-making needs to improve. His double-big combination with Zach Collins is being outscored by 11.9 points per 100 possessions. The offensive challenges are compounded by the Jeremy Sochan experiment at point guard, which Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine covered in detail last week. Spurs lineups featuring Wembanyama, backup point guard Tre Jones and no Sochan are +12.6 points per 100 possessions, scoring at a top-five level in a limited sample size, according to Cleaning the Glass. Lineups casting…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/victor-vector-victor-wembanyama-makes-another-move-up-the-rankings-after-4-weeks-172140899.html
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Publish date : 2023-11-20 17:21:40
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