Victor Wembanyama Analysis: Rookie Season Scouting Report Card

Kris Rivenburgh, In-Between Game Podcast

7 min readNov 19, 2023

A few minutes of preseason was all I needed. As soon as I saw Wemby, I knew he would dominate the NBA in his rookie year.

15.8% of the way through the season (13 games), I was kinda right and kinda wrong.

Below you will find my analysis and scouting report of Victor Wembanyama for the 2023–2024 season.

(This article-ledger will be updated regularly throughout the season. Currently, it is updated as of November 19.)

At only 19, Victor is already a force to be reckon with in the Association. Wemby has displayed abilities that no human has ever possessed before.

Let’s start by examining the good.

Victor, The Person

From the ~35 hours of footage I’ve seen, this guy is a 10/10 personality and human being-wise.

What’s uber remarkable is that he’s the hyped player he is while also coming across so pristine as a person; it may actually be in part because he’s 19 that he’s so unsoured.

Either way, he’s friendly, jovial, jubilant, intelligent, self-aware, energetic, and competitive. Plus, he’s flawless so far in dealing with the media.

Also, we’ve seen him range from being genuinely friendly with any random well-wishers in the streets of San Antonio to being an intense competitor on the court.

He definitely gets bonus points for not letting Dennis Schroeder help him up off the floor during the Raptors game. And when talking about competition, Victor used the word “killer” multiple times. Wemby’s not looking to make friends, he’s looking for wins.

I attended that Raptors game and watching Victor pregame was quite interesting. He was bouncing around with energy — darting (literally run-sprinting) from place to place, playing with teammates, greeting various others, and then sitting alone courtside, thinking to himself.

Oh, and more bonus points for him saying he wanted to be in the playoffs this season.

This leads me to my one asterisk to his 10/10 personality: Pop and his teammates are dampening his confidence and tempering his spirit.

I don’t think it’s the losses that are directly affecting Victor but how his coach and cohorts aren’t fulfilling their end of the bargain.

Read my time for a coaching change article for more on Pop limiting Victor’s success.

Defense Positives

There’s a lot going right, starting with Victor’s ability to affect opponent shots in a variety of ways. Opponents are:

getting their shots blocked
altering their shots
passing up shots
strategizing during play
taking themselves out of the play

Some of these bullets show up in the stat sheet and others you can only directly see by watching the game, but Victor’s presence has loomed the largest on defense.

Offense Positives

If Victor gets anywhere close to the rim, he knows exactly what to do. And he’s converting nearby buckets well, even with defenders in the vicinity.

(P.S. There are about 30 Victor points already lost in the ether because his teammates didn’t catch him near the bucket.)

Even better is that a few of his highlight dunks are because he commonly sprints down court, attempting to beat his man for an easy two.

And Victor is always scanning for favorable caroms to capture offensive rebounds. He knows opportune bounces are another path to easy hoops and this thought process has paid dividends with a few dunks and putbacks.

If he’s not near the basket, he’s frequently around the three point line. Over 1/3 of his shots are threes so far and while his percentage is poor 27.9% (19–68), it’s clear he has a good stroke and the 3-pointer will be in his bag for as long as he plays.

He’s also shown pressure only affects him positively. In close games down the stretch, Victor has sought out the ball and cashed a variety of big shots, including jumpers in the mid-range.

Last, Victor is eager to setup his teammates to succeed. He’s exhibited time and time again that he’s looking out for his teammates on offense. Zach Collins, for worse or for better, has been on the receiving end of many looks.

Overall Positives, In a Nutshell

In a nutshell, here’s what’s going well:

Winning personality and mindset
Frustrates opponent shot selection constantly
Makes easy work of anything near the bucket
Great teammate
More than willing passer
Shooting stroke is a check
Comes through in clutch moments
Intuitively understands winning basketball

Defense Negatives

Victor continually finds himself out of position on defense because he jumps for blocks and/or overcommits, usually unnecessarily so.

Once Victor realizes that his length alone will mostly accomplish the objective (prevent the score) — even if he doesn’t get the block, his already large defensive footprint will grow.

A less fixable problem is Victor is susceptible to being bullied down low. This has led to offensive rebounds and easy put backs for opponents because Victor essentially gets pushed out of the frame during scrums.

However, one redemptive quality is Victor is usually only beaten because he’s rotated to help someone else.

Offense Negatives

Victor’s acquiescence to opposing coaches’ game plans jumps off the screen.

This is, in part, why he shoots so many threes: its an available source of refuge from the physicality that only increases as he attempts to wade towards the basket.

Victor very much is going with the current and overwhelmingly puts up no resistance to defenses walling him off.

So one problem is he settles for threes.

Relatedly, he gets pushed or redirected off his post position. Victor might set up camp right outside the paint but end up 18 feet out by the time he catches and turns to face up.

Another problem is he regularly rushes shots and there’s usually no need to. He hasn’t yet figured out that very, very few players will ever be able to bother his shot release at its apex.

When he rushes, he can have a few things go astray:

His balance is off
He’s leaning too much
The ball isn’t comfortably in his hand

One close-up shot that he’s gone to a few times is a pivot off the block, left handed bank shot. The motion looks good but he doesn’t take the correct angle off the glass, perhaps due to rushing.

When it comes to passing, Victor’s willingness and eye for opportunity are in place, but his decision-making is not.

Victor averages 3.9 turnovers a game and it’s in part because he’s making passes that aren’t there.

Victor’s passing woes result from:

Passing to teammates who aren’t expecting the ball
Passing to teammates who can’t handle the ball
Passing when there isn’t a play to be made (because it will close before the ball arrives)
Sloppy one-handed passes

Another problem is that Victor will pass out of a promising situation for himself if he thinks an opportunity presents elsewhere. I think this is in part because he subconsciously trends away from perceived physicality.

And Victor’s one-handed passes can be any bad combination of hurried, panicked, and out of control. He needs to take the one-handed pass out of his arsenal for a while because it’s a recipe for turnovers.

Finally, 13 games into his rookie season, it’s clear one of Victor’s hyped attributes won’t work in the NBA: his dribbling.

It’s not that he can’t handle the ball beautifully, but he’s simply too tall to dribble near defenders. As soon as he puts the ball on the floor, he cedes over some of his advantage to whoever is guarding him and we’ve seen turnovers happen at too high of a clip.

This is not to say Victor’s ability to advance the ball or occasionally dribble won’t be a nice plus, but we’re going to see a lot less Wemby crossover highlights than we might have thought.

Overall Negatives, In a Nutshell

Too block happy
Overcommits on defense
Gets bullied down low, on offense and defense
Easily walled out of the paint
Accepts being pushed out of position
Bad passing habits
Settles for threes
Rushes shots
Out of control too often when advancing the ball
Can’t dribble in a crowd

Assessment

You’ll hear talk about bulking up and adding strength and, of course, that can help Victor’s cause, but Victor’s never going to habitually back down centers and power forwards.

His lengthy build is such that he’ll always lose leverage against defenders who correctly use their base against Victor’s post up.

So, in the half court, he has to incorporate more slicing into position near the basket vs. trying to back defenders down to that position. Relatedly, when he does gain position, he can’t allow defenders to freely muscle him out to 15–18 feet.

The face-up jump shot will be a nice option that’s usually available.

And, of course, he’ll always have as many fadeaways as he wants.

That said, where Victor will excel is in transition; the Spurs need to install a fast-paced offense that moves up and down the court because Victor thrives in space.

Victor’s agility can’t move mountainous big men like Mitchell Robinson, but it will alter the game of basketball.

The French sensation is very quick, coordinated, and his movements are fluid. When the Spurs finally realize that an up-and-down game will net them +20 points per game with Victor’s aid, they’ll pick up dunks, layups, and three pointers in droves.

The transition game will be a bounty of offense, highlights, big moments, and excitement, and the faster the Spurs come to this conclusion, the sooner their new star will flourish consistently.