Wemby Watch: ‘Sometimes You Feel for Him’ — Trae Young
Story of the Game
The story of the game comes by way of Trae Young’s TNT post game interview. Trae addressed a season long problem of Spurs teammates not passing to Wemby (that even Victor Wembanyama himself tried to sweep under the rug).
“Sometimes you feel for him. He had some open looks. Sometimes they don’t get it to him.”
Trae Young, truth teller.
One time the non-passing was so bad, Reggie Miller lit into the Spurs for it.
At this point in the season, I’m so accustomed to teammates ignoring Victor that I’ve grown somewhat numb to it. However, there were two times against the Hawks where Victor was so wide open for a dunk, my level of discomfort exceeded a 6.5/10.
I’d define discomfort as a combination of feeling embarrassment and awkwardness for the situation and physically trying to lean in Victor’s direction so that whoever has the ball passes to him.
I had originally penciled in the headline of “Spurs Channel Inner Dallas Cowboys” but given their second half push and that they had a very real chance to win, I threw that one in the recycling bin.
Victor Stats
26 points, 2 assists, 13 rebounds, 5 blocks in 27 minutes
12–18 fgs, 1–5 3 fgs
Quick Thoughts
This game epitomized the phrase, a tale of two halves.
Victor played like passive garbage in the first half and the rest of the team was right there with them.
The Spurs came out on national TV and played embarrassing basketball. They trailed by as many as 35 points in the first half.
Yes, they turned it around after the break, but there’s something very wrong if you fall behind by 35 points before halftime. Were the players horrible — yes. But, again, I look to the man who oversees the direction of the team, Gregg Popovich.
Pop is notorious for his anti-competitive behavior and the reality is the team not only played bad but looked like they had no clue what was going on.
On top of the horrible play, I was disappointed in the lack in of media accountability. Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal didn’t address the Spurs rolling over at half; they were just laughing and joking about mostly unrelated things throughout halftime.
Also, Reggie Miller picked up where he left off in the Bucks game (on TNT) and continued with the lose because they’re a young team narrative. But it’s easy to disregard Miller’s analysis as he still didn’t know how to pronounce Victor Wembanyama’s (it’s not Wembanyana) name for the second national telecast in a row.
Zero research is being done by the TNT crew.
To start the third quarter, Pop sat Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama and the move sparked the Spurs. Reggie and fellow color analyst Jamal Crawford lauded Pop, but you can’t laud the move while also ignoring why it was necessary in the first place.
Overall, I really like listening to Jamal Crawford call the games. He brings a true knowledge of the game and an intelligence in the application of his insight.
However, the TNT analysts lack of professionalism really shines through because it’s crystal clear they do little to no research ahead of the games. I can understand why Charles Barkley gets a pass (entertainment), but these other guys like Reggie and Shaq aren’t enough to just get by on being former players; they need to put in 30 minutes before the game and read the scouting report.
Continuing with my possible-opponent-point-guards-to trade-for tour, I thought about both Dejounte Murray and Trae Young.
Supposedly the Spurs have “exploratory” interest in Murray. This is one of things where you’ll glance up from your phone to see what’s happening, but you’re not getting up because ultimately you don’t think anything’s really there.
Dejounte seemingly checks a lot of boxes and I wouldn’t be opposed to him, but I just don’t have any conviction when it comes to him. It’s like when you go out on a few dates with a girl and everything seems okay, but you also keep swiping and to see who else comes up.
And speaking of someone else, the Hawks would definitely trade Trae Young for the right offer because they’re in purgatory. Trae Young is a superstar in a way, but then he’s not in a more realistic way and with him, the Hawks probably max out at .600.
But does Trae Young work for the Spurs?
Well the very fact he noticed the Spurs don’t pass Victor the ball earns him points, but he can’t stop anyone on defense. Also, he’s on a max contract until 2027. He’s a guy that demands and will get the max but he also isn’t worth it; he’s the obligatory max player.
Like Jaylen Brown. Like Bradley Beal.
But then you start envisioning his three point shooting and passing in tandem with Wemby. And then you start talking yourself into Wemby covering up his mistakes on defense.
Trae is a talented offensive basketball player who loves pressure, but I wouldn’t want to trade for an obligatory max player.
If there’s one team he kind of makes sense on though, it’s the Spurs.
Immediately after checking-in in the third quarter, Victor went to work and wowed the crowd at State Farm Arena.
We saw another extended streak of outright dominance that included blocks and all sorts of dunks.
Victor’s going to be the best NBA player of all-time, but to evolve from here, he has to figure some basics out.
For one, he’s still shooting too many threes. He must learn that the three will be best after it comes from inside scoring and that the three shouldn’t be a go-to shot, but an option for when the moment presents himself.
But the over use of three pointers isn’t as bad as when he’s passive on offense.
One thing I hate about Victor’s game is when he lets opponents redirect and guide him away from his spots. We saw this a lot in the first half with Clint Capella bossing around Victor.
On one play, Victor 100% just conceded Capella inside rebounding position. Typically, in these scenarios, Victor relies on out-talling his opponents and tries to reach over them.
Multiple times, I saw Victor being ushered around the court to the spots the Hawks wanted him to go.
However, this well started to dry out for Atlanta as the game wore on. There was one play where Victor straight up pushed Bogdan Bogdanovic out of the way and then got the ball for a jam.
This is exactly what Victor needs to do: take it to the opponents and be aggressive with them.
Pre-Game Setup
The Hawks-Spurs matchup is game #39 for the Spurs.
Betting: Atlanta -8.5, Over/Under 246.5
(Guess-Prediction: I’ll take the Spurs and the over.)
Betting Record going into the game 24–23–1.
The Spurs are in Atlanta for this contest.
