Wemby Watch: Tre Jones Refuses to Pass to Victor in Loss to Wolves

Story of the Game

I’m in disbelief.

The Spurs one true, legitimate point guard, Tre Jones, refused to pass the ball to Victor Wembanyama down the stretch despite the fact that he had Wemby open in the lane on multiple occasions.

This was the kind of open ignoring, rerouting, and looking away we saw earlier in the season. In the fourth quarter vs. Minnesota, the two times I saw Tre attempt to pass the ball to Victor (when Victor was in good position), Tre turned the ball over badly.

Tre wasn’t the only one ignoring Victor, but he was by far the worst offender. Keldon Jones had at least two instances of not passing to Victor and Cedi Osman elected to drive to the hoop and get emphatically rejected rather than pass to an open Victor waiting to dunk the ball.

The Spurs made a mini pretend run in the fourth to make the score look more respectable, but, during their final run, they didn’t start pressuring the Wolves until the game was practically over. Also, Tre Jones was kept in the game the whole time.

Note how Pop didn’t correct either of these two egregious mistakes in-play. And I don’t think this, specifically, was tanksmanship — the Spurs were already well on their way to a loss.

Victor looked:

• frustrated
• mad
• perterbed
• displeased
• annoyed

Or any combination thereof after the game.

I thought we were over the blatant ignoring, but the Spurs got back to hardcore not passing to Victor this game.

One passing bright spot came courtesy of Devin Vassell. Although he missed Victor a few times during the game, he kept getting him the ball in the fourth and it led to two alley oops.

Victor Stats

21 points, 5 assists, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks in 34 minutes

5–13 fgs, 2–7 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

The effects of tanking shined through in this game. One of the many problems when your coach is losing on purpose is that the players start playing like losers and expecting to lose.

By the end of the third quarter, the Spurs had 20 turnovers or thereabouts — and these weren’t turnovers borne out of amazing defense or overly aggressive offense. These are turnovers that come from laziness, being lackadaisical, a lack of focus, and simply not caring.

It’s one thing to have an off game, but the Spurs just had an off game in Utah where they turned the ball over and over. This is yet another game where they did the same thing.

Where is the blame for Gregg Popovich?

We’re in the final third of the season and your team just had back-to-back 20 turnover games.

Rudy Gobert’s experience in playing Victor showed because he took him to the low block and punished him with an array of physical play and easy dunks.

It’s clear that Victor does not view himself as a center and, possibly as a result, mostly does not engage in battling down low. Beyond the Gobert bully ball on offense, Victor freely let him have inside position on rebounds just like he does against most centers.

But, if the Spurs are going to have Wemby guard opposing centers, they need to teach him some of the nuances of guarding big men who post him up.

Victor is always going to have a slight frame and Gobert easily has 20–35 lbs of muscle on him so you have to play him smarter vs. harder which means giving Gobert more space and making him fill the space and then you challenge with your height.

This isn’t a recipe for 100% success, but it’s better than just getting backed down every post play which is exactly what was happening with Gobert.

Beyond ignoring Victor, Tre Jones played like garbage again. His passing touch has been incredibly bad for a pure point guard. In a possession in the first half, he completely overthrew Jeremy Sochan for no reason.

Point guards are supposed to be good at stuff like court vision and passing.

The Spurs have to pass to Victor when he’s actually in position to score. And they can’t just pass, they have to make sure the ball gets to him (and isn’t a turnover).

Victor works so hard to get position and his points in the half court come so difficult, that it’s a basketball crime he doesn’t get the ball when easy points are there for the taking.

We saw Victor chucking more threes this game as a result. And threes usually mean the defense has won the possession.

Pre-Game Setup

The Minnesota-San Antonio matchup is game #59 for the Spurs.

Betting: Timberwolves -12.5, Over/Under 223

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

Betting Record going into the game 40–45–1.

The Spurs traveled to Minnesota for this contest.