San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama is a swiss army knife on the basketball court. Standing 7 ‘3, the former No. 1 overall pick in last year’s NBA draft can post up, has crazy handles, block shots, hits fadeaway jumpers and rebounds the basketball.
He’s a complete player, a guard in a center’s body and the scary part is that he’s barely scratched the surface of his potential.
Some experts have pegged Wemby as a hybrid between Boston Celtics big man, Kristaps Porzingis, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and Phoenix Suns All Star, Kevin Durant.
“I love his confidence,” Porzingis told me.
“You can tell that he knows that he’s good, and that’s important. And obviously his shooting.”
“I think that he’s going to be a better version of Porziņģis,” Los Angeles Clippers forward, Nic Batum shared.
“When I first saw him? He actually took pride in playing defense and I’m pretty sure that he’s like, Rudy is a great defender but I want to be BETTER than Rudy because he’s more versatile on defense. Rudy’s great on defense but I think that he’s more versatile on defense than Rudy.”
Others can’t place him at all. Insert Clippers head coach, Ty Lue.
“He’s a lot of people,” Lue shared with Scoop B Radio on Monday.
Ty Lue Weighs In On Wemby
Lue has seen it all as an NBA point guard and as an NBA head coach.As a player, Lue has the distinction of being teammates with Michael Jordan as a member of the Washington Wizards. He also won two NBA Championships as a Los Angeles Laker with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. As a coach, he guided a LeBron James and Kyrie Irving starred Cleveland Cavaliers team to an NBA Finals win in 2016 against the Golden State Warriors.
Lue was also front and center as USA Basketball’s assistant coach during the Olympic gold medal championship game against France. In France’s loss, Wemby had an impressive 26 point and 7 rebound outing. “He’s a super talent,” said Lue.
“A guy that big that can handle the basketball, shoot 3’s, midrange pull ups, post ups, block shots, rebounds, pushing the ball off the rebound? We’ve never seen a player like this before and the biggest thing is that just seeing him from last year is that he wants to win and he’s happy for other guys’ success; like making guys better. When his guys get it going, he’s definitely the one supporting and so, when your best player’s like that, it brings the team up tremendously. So his role is only going to get better and better. I always knew that he was going to be a force defensively getting blocked shots with his length and his athleticism. But offensively he’s understanding how to play and where to get his shots from, but also making guys better as well.”
The Spurs are currently 3-4 in the NBA’s Western Conference. Wembanyama is currently averaging 18.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest. Wemby and the Spurs will take on the Houston Rockets in Houston this evening.
