Wemby Watch: Victor The Meek Now New Normal As Spurs Embarrassed Again at Rockets
I thought the line of Rockets -6 was too low with Jeremy Sochan out. So I had the Spurs for a loss, but not like this.
The Spurs were absolutely obliterated from the opening tip until the final buzzer — they never even threatened to get back in the game.
And, sure, the loss of Sochan is a significant setback, but what I just witnessed wasn’t a disaster that could have been prevented with Jeremy — and even Devin Vassell — in the lineup.
The Spurs have structural problems.
Over and over again, we see that the Spurs lack sharpness and focus:
- They’re unprepared.
- They don’t value the basketball
- They continually make stupid plays.
And what’s even more glaring is that Victor Wembanyama has regressed in his second year.
These aren’t talent problems or injury problems. These are infrastructure problems.
There’s nothing wrong with losing games with 2 of your best 4 players out. There’s everything wrong with not having the basics in place.
The Spurs had 2 points 4:45 into the game and 26 points 18.5 minutes in. The team wasn’t ready to play.
Let’s recall just three weeks ago when Gregg Popovich elected only to play the starters token minutes in the preseason. That nonchalance illustrates perfectly why this team still looks completely lost.
Mitch Johnson
Mitch Johnson stepped up with Pop out on Saturday and coached the team to a big win against the Timberwolves. He has since 1) watched the team blow a 26 point lead against a non-playoff Clippers team and 2) led the team to this abomination of a loss.
In the span of 5 days, I’ve gone from thinking we might have the Spurs next head coach to this is another Pop, Jr. (not a compliment because I’m referring to Pop of the last 6 or so years).
You can’t have the team get embarrassed by the Clippers and then follow that up by being embarrassed even worse by the Rockets.
My theory is Pop’s more recent relaxed and mellow approach to coaching has established a weak team culture that accepts failure and mistakes with open arms so long as the greater journey is not lost. And judging by the last two anti-competitive losses, Mitch bought into that. Or maybe he just can’t coach.
You can’t win every game. And I could have easily foresaw a scenario where the Spurs dropped both the Clippers and Rockets game, but you can’t show up like the Spurs just did.
So a lot of the blame has to be placed on the coach(es).
Victor Wembanyama
The killer mentality that Victor had in his rookie season is gone. Pop may have philosophized it out of him.
Victor now looks mentally weak for the majority of the game. During this contest, I wished that Victor could have just one one-hour consulting session with Kobe Bryant.
Kobe would never, ever have tolerated how Victor is playing.
This was a game where the Spurs desperately needed their superstar to take over the game and carry them. And Victor looked like he was trying to be a role player who gets to chuck extra threes.
Once again, for the third game in a row, I’ll say it again: Victor’s a bad three point shooter and the stats show it:
6–14 fgs, 1–6 from three
Overall, he’s shooting 42.3% from the floor and 22% from three. It’s pitiful.
And the other night I looked up his three point percentages from when he played for the Metropolitans 92 and he was never a good three point shooter.
So why are the Spurs encouraging Victor to shoot from deep?
The offensive good was he finally got some buckets in close against Dillon Brooks, but there was the glaring bad that he was looking to pass out of 1-on-1s and not being decisive whatsoever.
Also, early on he was flailing in attempt to draw cheap fouls. I’m glad the refs didn’t give him the calls. Wemby’s supposed to be out there dominating and instead we see him playing like a bitch.
Pick ‘n Roll Defense
The Rockets abused the Spurs, and mostly, Wemby, in the pick n’ roll.
It was a free for all.
Waive Them
Zach Collins is incredibly bad at basketball. We’re talking clown show bad. The guy can’t even complete simple plays at this point.
And the Spurs are still on the hook for $18 million for Zach Collins after this season. #BrianWright
Blake Wesley. Good god. He’s lightning quick, but he makes incredibly dumb decisions on repeat.
I think Charles Bassey lost his athleticism.
There’s really no point in keeping these three other than sunk cost with Collins.
Turnstile
When opponents watch the game tape, it will be clear that Champagnie can’t guard a soul.
He was torched infinity times.
Competitive
Just be competitive.
The Spurs are so far removed from playing simple, solid basketball it’s alarming.
You can lay the blame on any number of things, but at some point we have to look at who’s leading the team.
I guarantee you if Ime Udoka was leading San Antonio, this would not happen.
Last, remember that “development” season?
Yeah, the Spurs wasted Victor’s entire rookie year and the team not only hasn’t progressed, they’ve regressed.
