Wemby Watch: What Happened to Victor the Killer? New Orleans Escapes with Win

Story of the Game

Victor Wembanyama had his third bad game in a row. Again, his stats look decent, but I didn’t see Wemby the Killer on the court. I saw a guy who looked off at times, passive at others, and continually deferred on dominating.

On some offensive and defensive possessions, he even looked lost. And a few times he had some incredibly stupid decisions.

Something’s wrong.

My guess is he’s either hit the rookie wall or someone got in his ear and weakened his play.

He could also be overcorrecting because he did make some good adjustments including jacking less threes and dribbling a lot less.

But I’d much rather have season opener vs. the Mavericks Wemby than the Ghost of Wemby we saw tonight. It started to get embarrassing watching him have a clear isolation against Dyson Daniels and look for ways to pass out of it.

Victor was playing so weak I absolutely did not want him to shoot the last shot down by 1.

Victor Stats

16 points, 7 assists, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks in 28 minutes

7–13 fgs, 0–3 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

Victor looked really off.

I kept thinking he would shed his passive play every time I saw the old Victor, but he always reverted back.

Spurs color analyst, Sean Elliott, mentioned that he looked winded/tired on the telecast so maybe he was just physically spent.

On defense, Victor was a step and a half slow. Maybe more. He frequently found himself out of position, guarding no one, or guarding the wrong guy.

At one point he was on Jose Alvarado at the three point line.

When he was playing defense away from the basket, the Pelicans were driving by him with ease. And, unlike early season Victor, he wasn’t able to catch up and block their shot.

I can’t emphasize enough how bad Victor was on the defensive end. I saw him get yo-yo’ed a few times (going back and forth helplessly) and it could have happened even more if some of the Pelicans had taken advantage of his guesswork defense.

He did appear to be on wobbly legs at times so maybe his play was indicative of the rookie wall.

A few more Victor-specific notes:

• If the refs miss a call, Victor needs to tell the bench so they can call for the replay in time. There was an obvious missed call and Victor only turned away and walked down the court. He visibly disagreed but made no gesture to the bench.
• Victor not only needed to give Zion space, but he then needed to not reach low when Zion drove. For all of his Hulk size, Zion really has nothing on Victor if Victor guards him the right way. Victor should have had 5 blocks on Zion tonight the way Zion was challenging him.
• Wemby had some lovely passes out of the post, for sure (like his left-hand shot turned into a pass to Tre Jones for a layup). But the Spurs don’t need a 7'4 Vlade Divac. I love that Victor has the complete toolkit, but him waiting for double teams and cutters rather than attacking a helpless opponent is crazy talk.
• Victor made another one-handed sling pass and it was so bad. So, so bad. It was an instant turnover the second he even thought about throwing it and it was one of the most stupid plays from Victor I can remember. As I’ve written multiple times previously, I can’t stand his one-handed passes — they’re completely out of control and have such a low percentage of leading to anything positive.

Gregg Popovich Substitution Patterns

I hated, hated Gregg Popovich’s lineups and substitutions in the second half. I thought Pop’s lack of talent on the court in the third quarter hurt the Spurs and allowed the Pelicans to more easily salt away their moderate deficit.

Also, why does Zach Collins returning mean Dominick Barlow doesn’t get to play anymore?

Barlow was playing sound basketball and then Collins comes back and he gets zero minutes in a game where Zion Williamson was abusing Zach Collins. Jonas Valanciunas was having his way too.

Pop was attempting to cover those two behemoths with Cedi Osman and Julian Champagnie when Zach Collins and Victor weren’t guarding them.

I don’t understand why the Spurs weren’t going more at full strength in the second half. It was like Pop was trying to buy rest minutes instead of just playing his best players.

Julian Champagnie Rises

One game after I wrote Julian Champagnie off for dead, he comes back alive and well.

Here’s Champagnie analysis fragments from what I wrote in my Orlando Magic Wemby Watch:

Julian Champagnie Needs to Go

I want this guy off the team. If you can’t be bothered to protect the ball, the Spurs shouldn’t be bothered to roster you.

I just found out the Spurs signed him to a 4 year, $12,000,000 contract. Ugh.

You have to be aware and alert at all times during an NBA game. You can’t ebb in and out of paying attention or you’ll inevitably falter. Champagnie illustrates this perfectly.

And then Julian Dr. Jeckles and comes out this game and plays with real effort and purpose.

He ended up at 30 minutes, probably because of just that. His stats were quite mild:

5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, and 0–4 from 3

But I loved what he was doing in this game. Surprisingly, it was was on the defensive end where Champagnie made his mark.

Zach Collins Abused But Improves

Zach Collins was absolutely getting torched for the majority of his 20 minutes. What’s extra terrible about him is he’s a center but he can’t guard opposing centers.

Jonas Valaciunas is ready to open up his own basketball clinic when he sees Collins guarding him.

Zach Collins did make some positive contributions as the game wore on, however.

That said, Zach Collins needs to put in more effort to defend and rebound and he desperately needs to hit the weight room.

You can’t just check-in, get scored on at will, not get contested rebounds, miss threes, and then check out.

Jeremy Sochan, the Star

Jeremy Sochan hasn’t been entirely consistent, but if he keeps stringing together games like this, he’s going to be an all-star.

Sochan’s in-between game is what gave the Spurs a real chance to win this affair.

This guy has tilted the see-saw from low IQ, stupid, and turnover prone to Polish-Swiss army knife who can defend, hit threes, rebound, and score down low.

Sochan had 9 — an incredible 9 offensive rebounds this game for a total of 16 boards to go along with 3 assists, 2 steals, and 15 points.

Jeremy has been really, really impressive of late.

Zion Williamson, Nearly In-Shape

For all of the fat talk that has surrounded Zion Williamson — and he’s deserved it — there needs to be some in-shape talk, because Zion has slimmed down a lot.

He’s moving better on the court (he’s even walking better (more straight ahead and less wobbling side to side) and he played very strong basketball against the Spurs.

I think he’s just 15 lbs. away from being at his optimal playing weight.

Zion is always going to be bulky — that’s just his frame, but he plays with that bulk extremely well.

He’s lost a fair amount of athleticism already, but he’s still an absolute monster and extremely difficult to defend.

If Zion loses 15 more lbs., he can impose even more damage than he’s already doing.

Spurs or Pelicans: Who’s the Better Team?

Something I kept thinking while watching the first half of this game is, if you didn’t know either team’s record, who would you think is the better team?

The answer is the Spurs.

And it wasn’t because they were hitting a bunch of threes or the Pelicans were struggling.

The Spurs were the better team.

Glimpses of The Beautiful Game

I’m noticing some Beautiful Game play sneaking into the Spurs offense.

Pop’s lineups in the second half were highly questionable, but, I didn’t detect any obvious tanking for the fourth, maybe fifth game in a row.

Pre-game Setup

The New Orleans-Spurs matchup is game #49 for the Spurs.

Betting: Pelicans-7, Over/Under 234.5

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

Betting Record going into the game 34–33–1.

The Pelicans are in San Antonio for this contest.