Wemby Watch: Pop, Spurs Openly Disrespecting Victor, Losing Continues vs. Wolves

Story of the Game

You know things are bad when Hubie Brown, of all people, says you need to get the big guy more involved in the offense.

In the fourth quarter, play-by-play announcer Mark Jones even remarked, “I’m surprised, Hubie, that he doesn’t have more field goal attempts.”

I also turned the game on early and caught some overt ESPN pre-game grumblings about how the Spurs are handling Victor’s rookie season.

This is bad news for Gregg Popovich: the Spurs are in the national spotlight and his do-the-opposite-approach is being exposed for the horrible coaching it is.

As the season nears the quarter mark, what I one thought was a bad early season trend has turned out to be the way things are:

Gregg Popovich isn’t featuring Victor Wembanyama and his teammates are ignoring him.

Victor, for all his greatness, is treated like just another role player by the Spurs coach and teammates.

For the entire Timberwolves game, the Spurs literally looked for Zach Collins more than they did Victor.

It’s hard to fathom this could happen to a 7'4' #1 pick who was billed as the greatest prospect ever, but it’s true.

Victor Stats

12 points, 2 assists, 10 rebounds, 1 blocks in 32 minutes

4–13 fgs, 0–2 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

Zach Collins went 6–20 on fgs with 0–6 from three had a team worst -17.

That doesn’t sum up the game, but it does speak volumes.

Where are the Spurs priorities?

The Spurs actually led for a good portion of the game against the #1 team in the NBA but stumbled in the fourth quarter, uncoincidentally around the time Victor was taken out in yet another edition of Pop obssessively and compulsively shaving minutes off Victor’s playing time.

It was around 9:16 in the fourth when Victor came out and near 4:58 when he was re-inserted.

At this time, ESPN flashed a graphic that the Wolves went 16–2 run in last 5 minutes. In other words, when Victor was out, the Spurs lost control of the game.

Quick thoughts on Victor for the game:

• He’s in an awkward position where he wants to play good team basketball and yet in the rare times he gets the ball, he immediately wants to make a play. This unevenness sometimes results in Victor forcing a shot or a drive.
• Victor gets caught watching and doing nothing on some rebounds.
• He really likes pivoting to a left handed shot near the block.
• He’s too good of a teammate in that he continually looks to make the right play but his teammates aren’t skilled or aware enough to take advantage.
• He got in a nice physical battle down low with Karl Anthony-Towns but then gave up towards the end by shooting a horrible fadeaway on the baseline.

I also noted four blatant instances where Victor was ignored:

• Jeremy Sochan ignored Victor clapping for the ball near the free throw line.
• Cedi Osman disregarded Victor for an off balance drive to the hoop.
• Keldon forces up a miss even though Wemby wide open for a dunk.
• Tre Jones looks off Victor post up to pass to Jeremy Sohan for three.

It looks like Gregg Popovich has finally capitulated and given up on the always stupid Jeremy Sochan experiment.

He went for the mystery box and threw in shooting guard/small forward Cedi Osman at point. I don’t know if there’s something that prevents the team’s one legitimate point guard from being the starting point guard, but this is an ongoing mental block for Pop.

At least Devin Vassell was back in amongst the starters.

Fast forwarding to the end of the first half, Victor was 2–7 with 5 points.

By the end of the game, Victor finished with 12 points on 2–13 shots.

What is even going on here?

Victor’s rookie season is turning in a nightmare.

And the look on the rookie’s face after the game said it all.

His enthusiasm is waning with each game and it’s not necessarily the losses; it’s the total disrespect.

Gregg Popovich isn’t treating Victor like he treated Tim Duncan.

Does anyone recall when the only play the Spurs roster knew was 4-Down?

Has anyone looked up Tim Duncan’s mpg during his rookie year?

(39.1 vs. 30.1 for Victor)

Back in 1997, one season after Gregg Popovich fired Bob Hill and replaced him with himself, Pop was damn sure to leverage Tim Duncan to the fullest.

Now, the 74-year old has decided its time to see what Zach Collins has in store for us.

Now it’s acceptable for guys who are barely in the league like Malaki Branham to brush off the #1 pick.

After the loss to the Timberwolves, the Spurs are 3–17 with 15 losses in a row. Losing always take its toll, but disrespect amplifies losing.

Pre-Game Setup

The Denver-Spurs matchup is game #20 for the Spurs.

Betting: Timberwolves -12.5, Over/Under 230.5

(Guess-Prediction: I’ll take the Spurs and the over.)

Betting Record going into the game 6–6.

The Spurs travel to Minnesota for this contest.