Wemby Watch: Sochan Stars as Non-Point Guard vs. Hawks, Pop Limits Victor’s Minutes Again

Story of The Game

Jeremy Sochan had a career game as the starting point guard, but the majority of his output (33 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) came from non-point guard activities. His ball handling and decision-making still remain problematic as evidenced by his 5 turnovers.

Jeremy almost played hero with a steal down two, but committed his last turnover by running into Trae Young while out of control and driving for a layup.

Victor Stats

21 points, 2 assists, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks in 29 minutes

9–16 fgs, 1–5 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

The Spurs came out much improved after a 3 day rest, but ultimately blew another double digit lead.

With Victor fully involved in the first quarter, the Spurs got off to a great start, but two season-long themes reemerged as the Spurs lost their momentum and lead:

• Pop limited Victor’s minutes (29), taking him out of the game for long stretches at a time
• Victor’s teammates selfishly looked for their own shots and ignored the team’s franchise player

Before the Spurs started trending away from the #1 pick, Victor looked reinvigorated, confident, and every bit of the impossibility he’s been billed as.

He was driving, scoring, passing, defending, and impacting the game in the way only he can.

His presence down low very much affected the Hawks paint opportunities. And he once again showed that he can create havoc by playing the passing lanes.

No matter how well Victor is playing, Pop is continually looking for ways to limit his minutes.

In this game, we saw Pop change up his normal substitution cadence, this time taking out Victor at 4:51 instead of the six-minute mark and not re-inserting him again in the first quarter (Pop normally puts him back in near the two-minute mark).

Victor started the second quarter, but then was taken out at 6 minutes and never returned. This resulted in Victor ending with the 6th highest minutes total on the Spurs at half time with 13 minutes.

Some other notes from the first half:

• Keldon Johnson actively looks away / ignores Victor. One example is Victor fed Keldon on the break, but Keldon didn’t drop it back to Victor for a dunk, instead opting to force a tough layup that he missed.
• Victor is helping teammates less on defense, making opponents more comfortable with drives to the hoop.
• Devin Vassell is no longer injured and yet Pop is still bringing him off the bench in yet another do-the-opposite decision. Vassell’s future isn’t as a bench player so this marks yet another bad Pop coaching move.

To start the third quarter, we saw more freezing out of Victor. I don’t think he was involved in the offense until 3:30 in. And, as one might expect, the offense stalled during this stretch.

Malaki Branham is especially bad when it comes to avoiding Victor. On one possession, Branham opted to turn the ball over rather than pass to Victor. On another, Malaki looked him off for his own drive.

At some point, Popovich has to instruct and admonish role players like Branham for ignoring the team’s franchise player. After 17 games, it’s no longer Malaki’s fault, it’s Pop’s.

Victor is taken out at the 5:02 mark and reinserted with 6.7 seconds left.

In the fourth quarter, Victor had some good moments and bad moments. Here are my notes:

• Victor with excellent cross court pass.
• Doesn’t defend Trae Young after screen and Trae gets easy layup in the half court.
• Trey Jones has excellent pass to Victor down low.
• Victor blocks a shot after biting on fake (rare and exceptional).
• Victor is more involved in fourth.

Victor was taken out at 8:43 in the fourth.

Sean Elliott, the Spurs color guy, says he asked out because he was tired.

Pop puts Victor back in at 5:46.

The game is leaning in the Hawks favor and the Spurs keep it close but the Hawks pulled it out.

Victor had two possessions to push the Spurs near victory but on one he misses a tough but makeup reverse layup. On another at the very end of the game, he brings the ball up and misses a three.

Pop’s very real OCD with limiting Victor’s minutes is getting out of control.

I think Pop thinks he’s creative in how he uses his substitution patterns to shave minutes off Victor’s playing time, but it only comes across as a mental condition that is costing the Spurs games.

Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs franchise player, who is 19 years old, is averaging 30 minutes a game through 18 games.

In other words, Wemby’s minutes have literally been managed lower than Tim Duncan’s when he was 37 and playing with a bad knee.

If Victor plays 35 minutes against the Hawks, the Spurs very likely win.

Instead, the Spurs suffered a 13th consecutive loss.

Pre-Game Setup

The Atlanta-Spurs matchup is game #18 for the Spurs.

Betting: Spurs +6.5, Over/Under 246.0

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

Betting Record going into the game 4–4.

The Spurs are at home for this contest.