Victor Wembanyama’s breakaway was a sight to behold in Phoenix
PHOENIX — There’s a special feeling when you’re in the building for that: “Holy s—!” moment, that rare, special game in which a young prodigy determines he is ready to take his place as one of the game’s next great stars.
While it didn’t take a rocket scientist, or even a rocket, to determine that Victor Wembanyama was likely on that trajectory, Thursday was that day for him. His 38-point outburst was the exclamation point, the game that told everyone the league’s Next Big Thing has officially arrived.
In case you missed it, the San Antonio Spurs’ 7-foot-4 French phenom took over crunch time in just his fifth NBA game, scoring 10 points in a crucial 12-0 run to tie the game late in the game. open the fourth quarter. San Antonio won a two-game series in Phoenix with a 132-121 victory over the Suns on Thursday.
It was a somewhat accidental passing of the torch, at least from my perspective. I was fortunate enough to be present at such a game almost twenty years ago when a 19-year-old Kevin Durant made a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer for Seattle (*sobs briefly*) to defeat Atlanta on November 16, 2007. Coincidentally, I was also in the building when the next logical successor to Durant’s mantle offered his own rookie breakout against the now grizzled Durant and his current team.
Wembanyama wasn’t exactly a liverwort in his first four bouts as a pro, but this was something else entirely, a performance that made it clear to everyone that A) his ceiling could be even higher than we thought, and B) his learning curve to get to that point could be a lot faster and steeper than we expected. Even in the short time since we saw him in summer league, he seemed to add skill, balance and speed to a package that was already virtually unprecedented in the annals of the league. The speed at which he has acquired his skills over the past eighteen months is simply phenomenal. What that could portend for the future is downright scary.
What makes Wembanyama so special is that he is a 7-4 player with a guard’s ability to handle the ball and shoot. That last skill was on display in the critical moment on Thursday, saving a Spurs win after they surrendered a 27-point lead.
In particular, he seemed to seize the moment when he grabbed the ball with just over two minutes left and Spurs up by seven, quickly dribbling left before pulling up for a three-pointer over Drew Eubanks. As it burst through the net, the residents of Footprint Center began heading for the exits, and Wembanyama’s Spurs had stunned the Suns for the second time in three nights. (All in all, it’s been a tough week for Arizona sports fans.)
What particularly surprised me about that play (see clip below) was the same thing I saw when I watched Wembanyama’s pre-match shooting drills with some scouts: how much Wembanyama’s balance has improved on his jump shot. Previously, any lateral dribbling action usually resulted in him leaning like the Tower of Pisa as he launched his shot, the momentum of his long strides carrying his body far beyond the braking ability of his ankles. He could still make a few, but that side angle wasn’t exactly conducive to a repeatable high-percentage delivery.
Now look at him. Keep in mind that this giant beat a defender with a jab-step move and a quick dribble to the left; instead, marvel that he took a hard side dribble against Eubanks and still planted his left foot with enough force to stay square to the hoop and bounce straight up and down with his buttery-smooth release. Splash. How do you defend this?
Wembanyama said after the match that he was just playing in the flow – the shot was the result of a cross screen that pushed Durant off him and allowed him to attack Eubanks.
“It’s more instinct at this point,” he said. “You just have to make big steps in the fourth quarter.”
That was his fourth quarter in a nutshell – he would follow it up with a quick catch-and-shoot after a similar screen had him playing Eubanks again to close out the point – but this dominant performance started from the opening possession. On Phoenix’s first trip (after Jusuf Nurkić blatantly stole the tip to hand Wembanyama its first jump ball defeat of the season), he had a small “bonjour” for Devin Booker to set up a quick transition 3 for the Spurs ; San Antonio flew up and down the court for the entire half en route to 15 fast-break points, most of them by speedy Devin Vassell.
Speed, however, is another area where Wembanyama himself appears to have made significant progress over the past year. Instead of wandering around the field, he zips from one end to the other, racking up fast-break points along the way.
Watch him get two easy transition baskets for himself here. In the first, he contests a half-turn 3 and is still well ahead of the pack for a fast-break dunk. In the second, he hinders Durant’s drive to the rim by easily turning his hips while closing to stay in defensive position (most players his size are toast in that scenario) and then beats the other Phoenix big men by about a mile on the ground. for a monstrous blow in the middle of the track:
Of course, this is just an inventory of a few set pieces that I think best symbolized some of the physical improvements Wembanyama has made since his season in France. (I saw him twice in person last year and also announced some of his games via video for the NBA app.)
But what makes Wembanyama a must-watch on TV every night are the moments we’ve never seen before, the little bits of pure wonder that make you cackle and rewind in stunned amazement that someone is doing this. big and long could also be coordinated like that.
There are the Inspector Gadget left-handed dunksthe plays in which he makes other gigantic men look Lilliputian by reaching rebounds over his head (including one in which he made the 6-10 Durant look like Muggsy Bogues, fruitlessly reaching for the ball as Wemby plucked it), the crossover dribbles and pulls-up 3s that he casually pulls out as if every 7-4 player has this in his bag.
“He is an incredible talent. Everyone knows that,” Booker said. “I’m just trying to figure out what he is because we’ve never seen him before.”
And the impact he has had on Spurs cannot be understated. Their legendary 74-year-old coach, Gregg Popovich, looks completely rejuvenated, barking teaching points at players from the touchline and during timeouts and making one sweet look after another for Wembanyama with every dead ball.
“He’s a versatile player,” Popovich said, “and he’ll pass it off to the open man. But he has confidence in himself and he made some incredible plays. That combination is quite good, if you have that skill and are still willing to succeed.”
His Spurs teammates are still learning how much of a weapon he can be, seemingly just beginning to understand that any ball thrown in the general direction of the hoop and about 10 feet high will most likely end in an assist. He has already sent several horrific lob pass attempts to the basket this season, including at least two on Thursday.
“He’s a versatile player.”
Pop at Wemby after his career-high 38 PTS 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/Gz1xOEzqUO
— NBA (@NBA) November 3, 2023
Meanwhile, the rest of the Spurs project is progressing in fits and starts. They looked ready for prime time this evening, but even less so four days earlier, in a miserable 42-point loss to the LA Clippers, when the offense came to a complete standstill. The team is giving 20-year-old non-shooter Jeremy Sochan on-the-job training at point guard, a position he has never played before, and fielding a 6-11 center – Zach Collins or Charles Bassey – next to Wembanyama. to protect him physically.
However, both of these things mean that the distance is closing and Wembanyama sometimes has no runway to complete moves. (On one play on Thursday, for example, he was seen dusting a defender with a delightful left-to-right crossover, only to have Bassey’s defender wait in the lane and deflect a drop-off pass off Bassey’s mitts.)
Things could get worse before they get better, as Vassell hurt his groin during Thursday’s game and will likely miss some time, according to Popovich. He was Spurs’ top scorer coming into the match and tormented Phoenix in the first half, and is also the main source of gravity in the starting group.
Nevertheless, Wemby’s wonder is likely to be the league’s nightly draw for the foreseeable future. He could already be too good to guarantee the Spurs another high lottery pick for their rebuilding efforts; No one will be sobbing about them considering every key player is 26 or younger and the Spurs are looking at max cap space in the summer of 2025, but it’s still amazing that he’s making us reconsider the team’s timeline five games into the season .
Wembanyama was that special on Thursday. Suns fans may have left the building disappointed, but everyone who was in the building will be talking about their night for a long time.
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(Photo by Victor Wembanyama: Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)