Aldridge: Spurs are far from contentious, but Wemby's defense is rising fast

PHILADELPHIA — A few weeks ago, Joel Embiid said he wondered if Victor Wembanyama knew what he wanted.

“I think the first thing he has to do is figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever.” said the 76ers big man. “It's not necessarily about whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it is what he wants to become. Do you want to be KD, or do you want to be me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys – you want to combine everything. Right now I feel like everything feels a little forced in the way he's playing, which isn't a bad thing. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That's the only way. You make a lot of mistakes and you learn from them.”

Learning Wembanyama.

The San Antonio Spurs rookie center is processing NBA offenses at a seemingly geometric pace. He has become a defensive terror since Spurs moved him from power forward to center in mid-December, giving the league a glimpse of what the future could bring, even in the five-out, zero-in version of most NBA Fouls. Positionless basketball, meet Space-Catching Defender. And meet a newcomer who is already incredibly good at defending without making mistakes.

“Am I surprised? No,” Wembanyama said after blocking six shots in the Spurs' win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday.

“Especially as a young player, as a rookie, and with a coach like ours, it starts on defense,” he said. “Growing up in Europe, to get a place in a professional squad at 15 or 16, you have to do your utmost in defence. So it goes back to that role as a rookie in the league. It feels good somehow to play that difficult role sometimes.”

And there's a clear difference in Wembanyama's impact: pre-Tre-Jones-at-point-guard and post-Tre-Jones-at-point-guard.

In San Antonio's first 19 games, the Spurs ran an experiment of sorts, with second-year forward Jeremy Sochan getting the ball, Wembanyama playing power forward and Zach Collins starting at center. There was a methodology for the decision; San Antonio wanted to use the first quarter of the season to just let Wembanyama play and adjust to the NBA game. It's not that the Spurs didn't care about winning or losing, but… they didn't really care about winning or losing. There was a bigger picture to think about.

And Spurs lost 18 straight between November 5 and December 13.

During that stretch, Wembanyama shot 42 percent from the floor and 26 percent from 3. His assist-to-turnover ratio was .872. Spurs opponents shot 39 percent on three-pointers; and 54 per cent at 2s. And San Antonio gave up an average of 121.5 points per game and lost by an average of 13.1 points per game.

But soon after, Gregg Popovich moved Collins to the bench and inserted Jones into the starting lineup at point. He restored Sochan to power and placed Wembanyama in the middle. The sky cleared.

Wembanyama has shot 51 percent from the floor since mid-December, including 34 percent on 3s. His assist-turnover ratio is 1.24.

But Spurs' defense has also improved dramatically. They were tied for 28th in the league in defensive rating (120.5) in November. They were 21st in the league in December (118.6). After eleven games in January they are fifteenth (115.6). Wembanyama is blocking 3.5 shots per game in that stretch. And their net rating has dropped from minus-13.1 to minus-5.9. They're only 5-15 in that stretch, and Embiid scored 70 points against Wembanyama and the Spurs on Monday, setting the 76ers' team record for points in a game. Of course, the Spurs are still one of the worst teams in the league. But they are also the youngest. And their defensive numbers are generally moving in the right direction quite significantly. It's a start.

Wembanyama are ninth in the league Dunks and Threes“Estimated defensive plus-minus, at plus-3.0. That's 14 spots ahead of Oklahoma City's Chet Holmgren, Wembanyama's main rival for NBA Rookie of the Year. He ranks ninth in Dunks and Threes defensive rebounding percentage (29.5). And Wembanyama leads the league in blocked shots per game (3.2).

“Some of the things he does, I've told you guys from the beginning, you can't ignore it,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said Monday. “You've never seen anything like this before. I keep saying: he makes the game easier for us, and we have to make it easier for him. Defensively we have to make that impact. When we lead people to the basket, we know he's going to clear the basket. So we have to make sure we get back to his man to make sure he doesn't get the rebound or whatever the case may be.

There are all kinds of guys coming down the track and trying to adjust mid-flight to this 8-foot praying mantis unfolding. There are highlight blocks against star players – at the start of games, as Wembanyama handed out here to Ja Morantand in times of crisis, as applied here to Giannis Antetokounmpo. And there are blocks that defy logic and pretty much everything you've seen defensively in the past sixty years. yes I know He did this kind of thing last season at Metropolitans 92. But, with all due respect, there is a slight difference in talent between the LNB Pro A League and this one.

I mean what is this?

wait, how did Victor Wembanyama get this. pic.twitter.com/XbvUH5q5ca

—Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) January 21, 2024

Here's another angle. He doesn't look at the ball he's going to block:

Wemby blocked this shot…unbelievable pic.twitter.com/RoRhXKeKRS

— mat (@mattbigguts) January 21, 2024

Washington's Marvin Bagley is 6-11. The average height of 18-year-old men in the United States, as of 2014, was just above 5-8. Everyone aged 6-1 years or greater, among men aged 20 years and over, in the 95th percentile of all men in the US, depending on the height. Bagley is a statistical anomaly.

So what is Wemby?

“Normally I could just go up there and just go over people because I'm 6-11,” Bagley said. “But guys like that, you have to be a little crafty with it, or create something for yourself or your teammates.”

The way the game is played today, you'd probably draft someone with Wembanyama's frame to challenge shots — tall and agile, with an incredible ability, as Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse noted, to change direction. The nurse was talking about how Wembanyama cuts back on the foul, but the same principle applies on the other side.

“It goes both ways,” Popovich said, echoing Nurse.

“He (Wembanyama) also likes to be on the edge, handle the ball a bit, things like that. It's a lot easier for him now than it used to be, when someone would lead him everywhere with his hand and touch and bump him. Imagine Isiah (Thomas) or someone else. So it's an easier environment for someone local. And defensively he can roam more, like Joel does. We call them 'roamers', and so do I. They don't specifically guard a man all the time. Their job is the paint, the rim, changing shots, blocking shots, things like that, so people have to change what they're doing offensively. And then the other players, the complementary players, have to respond, to the extent that they realize that guy is going to leave and go to the edge all the time.

What is among Wembanyama's most impressive traits is not picking up fouls.

Rookies, especially rookie big men, have a target on their back. The league insists its officials call everything and everyone the same. Maybe that's true on Earth II. But here, beginners usually don't get the benefit of the doubt.

However, Wembanyama has only missed one match so far. With rare exceptions — Monday's game against the 76ers was one — he doesn't draw many mistakes from the primary defender, as happened when Embiid went to the basket and took the 20-year-old along for the ride. He averages just 2.4 errors per game.

Popovich had some fun with me last weekend when I asked how Wembanyama's D had developed since the start of the season. (The guess here is that he doesn't want to be seen as having “taught” defense to Wembanyama, who was instructed by one of the game's best coaches, Vincent Collet – Wembanyama's coach at Metropolitans 92 and the coach of the French national team team that Wemby will appear this summer at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.)

“I say, 'Put your hands somewhere else and stop that dirty business,'” Popovich said. 'That's all in your mind. You tell everyone how to do it, how to detect it and how to do it, what is appropriate, what is an inappropriate mistake. Some guys get it; some guys don't. He's smart, he gets it and he's figured it out.”

Sochan needs to be part of this too if Spurs are to gain defensive traction in the coming years. In 2022 he finished ninth in the first round as someone who likes to get 'cheeky', as he put it before the draft, with opponents. He doesn't care if he gets dunked; he keeps talking. And play.

“I think this gets under people's skin,” Jones said.

Now in his normal position, Sochan should be able to deal with the four players Wembanyama can ignore. That's probably what the second half of the season will be about.

“I find it scary. Scary. As we get older, more mature, our bodies mature, it's going to get scary,” Sochan said. “I think it will be difficult to score against us. And I think that will allow us to win a lot of games, so I think it's exciting. I feel like as the season has gone on, me and Vic have become closer and closer, both on and off the field. It turned out great. … It's just talk, just knowing … also instincts. Sometimes defense isn't about the X's and O's; it's about instincts. Just read, read and respond. Sometimes I am defeated and it is he who helps me. Or it's the other way. Or steals. Or rebounds, because he blocks everything.”

On Wednesday, Holmgren and the Thunder came to San Antonio. With a potential MVP alongside Holmgren in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with one of the most diverse and difficult offenses in the league, along with a team defense that is ahead of schedule, OKC showed that the Spurs just have to go far – even then Wembanyama added another. fur to his collection.

Education continues, the learning curve always stretches into the distance.

– The athletics's Josh Robbins contributed to this story.

(Photo of Victor Wembanyama blocking a shot against the Trail Blazers: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)