Wemby Watch: Victor Pours in Stats But Jokic MVPs Way to Nuggets Win

Story of the Game

I’m 265.4 miles away from Denver but NBA League Pass still blocked out the Nuggets-Spurs game. To add insult to my subscription injury, they don’t even allow the replay for I don’t know how many hours. I initially thought it was 3 hours, but apparently that doesn’t apply to regional games.

Anyway, one of the most impressive aspects of this game was just how bad of lineups Pop could muster. At one point Sidy Cissoko was in the game and looked completely lost. He’s only 20 so maybe he emerges at some point, but he doesn’t look like someone that will eventually make it in the league.

As lowly as the Spurs talent was, the Nuggets, without Jamal Murray, played well below their standards which allowed the Spurs to stay in the game, but ultimately the champions prevailed.

Victor Stats

23 points, 8 assists, 15 rebounds, 9 blocks in 34 minutes

9–29 fgs, 2–11 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

I can’t tell if some of these younger guys realize that these games are their shot. This Nuggets game was the perfect opportunity to earn more playing time and hopefully carve out a roster spot.

But very few of them cashed.

Malaki Branham was good early on, but then faded in the second half.

Julian Champagnie showed real effort, but he also made way too many dumb plays and just has a problem scoring in general.

Blake Wesley looked horrible. It will be hard for him to get non-novelty minutes if his entire offense consists of attempting running one-handed dunks.

Mamu had his bright spots and plays a smart game, but he’s limited physically and doesn’t shoot well enough or consistently enough; he needs to become a marksman.

Cedi Osman converted on threes before leaving with an injury, but he’s a lower level journeyman type of player. He has good intentions with his game, but he’s just not that good. He too could benefit from working on his shooting. Mamu and Cedi need to make up for what they lack by becoming automatic from three-point land.

At first I had Davonte Graham for a giant check mark for being the only guy smart enough to force feed Victor the ball, but then he stopped being magnetized to Victor and started jacking up threes which he did not convert.

Basically, it turns out the deep bench players are deep bench players and the Spurs don’t have any diamonds in the rough that played this game.

However, I do really like Dominick Barlow and I’d like to see Charles Bassey come back.

These guys have value by themselves, but I also think Victor needs to flex out of the full-time center position and play more of a roaming defense. Especially in games where the Spurs play bigger and/or more talented centers.

As tall as Victor is, it’s important to remember he’s not really a center and doesn’t have a center’s body. If Pop really wants to prolong Wemby’s career, he won’t have him wrestling down low with some of the behemoths of the league.

Nikola Jokic plays with slightly more finesse so at least that’s better than when Victor is going up against Alpie Sengun, Joel Embiid, and, to a lesser extent, Anthony Davis.

But keep in mind other, less talented, more lumbering centers like Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunus, and others are also bad for long-term health.

This game is slightly skewed in that Victor’s surrounding cast was so bad most of the time, it’s hard to know how accurate any analysis is, but we did see several themes that have been present all season:

• The Spurs absolutely struggle to get the ball to Victor in good positions. They ignore him, outright miss the pass, don’t see the pass until it’s too late, the pass gets deflected, and/or they turn the ball over. There’s less ignoring now and more just ineptitude.
• Victor resorts to three pointers way too often.
• Victor, for some reason, contorts himself on offense in a way that cedes his height advantage over to the defender. Sometimes his offensive moves cause him to be put in bad spots — like caught underneath the basket — and for no real reason.
• One of Victor’s worst attributes is that he absolutely does not box out. His height rescues him quite a lot, but, regardless, he does not box out whatsoever. Yet another reason to play him alongside a center like Barlow or Bassey. Although he does need to start boxing out.
• Victor blocked Jokic a lot this game. Three, maybe four times. Despite not having the thickness, Victor’s length and athleticism give Jokic problems. Jokic always overcomes the problem, but in a more competitive game where Victor has more talented and defensively intelligent teammates, the Spurs will have a real edge to harness.
• Victor needs to stop pretend jumping at three point shooters. The idea is to distract them, but that’s not going to work in the NBA. These guys are way too good and all that happens is Victor loses valuable rebounding position. But, again, this leads right back to Victor completely not boxing out.

More general thoughts:

• Jokic’s greatness is, in part, because he doesn’t try that hard. Other players try as hard as they can but it actually works against them at times. Joker figured out that maximum effort is suboptimal.
• Jokic is so steady, so solid. He’s unreal. I hope he plays for several more seasons. There is real greatest of all-time potential here.
• It was great to see Victor shoot 29 times. We need more games of 25+ shots.
• The Spurs tanking arc is holding true. Though they will face some tests down the stretch if Victor keeps playing and the Hornets don’t win. They were not supposed to win that Suns game without Victor.
• Can you imagine if Pop hadn’t decided he was master of the universe and hardcore tanked Victor’s rookie year? Victor would have the Spurs in the playoffs.

Pre-game Setup

The Denver-San Antonio matchup is game #76 for the Spurs.

Betting: Spurs +15, Over/Under 223.5

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

Betting Record going into the game 52–55–1.

The Spurs traveled to Denver for this contest.