The San Antonio Spurs made a acutely aware determination to not rush into competition when the workforce received the lottery to land generational draft prospect Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 general choose. Wembanyama appeared poised to be not less than a stable participant as a 19-year-old rookie coming into the league, however the Spurs needed to push the bounds of his talent set for future growth — and ensure they may add one other excessive lottery choose subsequent to him within the 2024 NBA Draft.
The Spurs misplaced to the Chicago Bulls, 114-95, on Thursday night time to proceed their free-fall down the standings. San Antonio is now 4-23 general, and solely the Detroit Pistons — who’re on the verge of the longest dropping streak in NBA historical past — are worse. It’s vital to recollect the Spurs made an intentional option to prioritize growth over on the spot wins this season, as a result of a lot of the low-hanging fruit on the workforce comes again to their lack of ability to maximise Wemby’s unbelievable expertise.
The massive storyline of San Antonio’s season has been the, uh, experimentation with the purpose guard place. Legendary head coach Gregg Popovich has benched incumbent lead guard Tre Jones to as a substitute give second-year ahead Jeremy Sochan many of the facilitating duties. Sochan is 6’9 and got here into the league with a repute as a very good playmaker for his place … however his place was by no means presupposed to be level guard. It’s put Wembanyama in scenario the place he must create most of his offense himself as a result of his teammates can’t get him the ball.
Wembanyama seemed visibly pissed off when Sochan missed him for a straightforward dunk on Thursday in opposition to Chicago. Bulls announcers couldn’t consider the Spurs saved failing to get him the ball.
“I don’t understand how you miss a 7’4 man,” analyst Stacey King mentioned on the Bulls’ broadcast. “It’s virtually just like the workforce is reluctant to throw it to him.”
Spurs teammates have persistently did not get Wemby the ball in advantageous positions for the reason that begin of the yr. It’s gotten so unhealthy that Wembanyama is leaping to finish alley-oops even when the cross isn’t there — which he did just a few days earlier in a loss to the Pelicans.
An absence of passing round him has killed Wembanyama’s general scoring effectivity. His 52 p.c true capturing this yr could be abysmal scoring effectivity for anybody, however particularly for a 7’4 man. The stat “true capturing plus” places scoring effectivity in perspective by making 100 league-average for any given yr. Wembanayama is just at a 90 true capturing plus this season, per basketball-reference. To place that in context, fellow Rookie of the 12 months contender Chet Holmgren is at 64.6 p.c true capturing and 112 true capturing plus this yr.
The choice to roll with Sochan and scale back Jones’ position has been the largest situation — however no the one situation — with failing to maximizing Wembanyama as a play-finisher to this point. Wembanyama’s area objective share is in some way solely 19.4 p.c off a cross from Sochan, per NBA.com by way of on-line pal Polar. Sochan has additionally made extra passes to Wembanyama than some other teammate this yr. By comparability, Wemby is making 55.8 p.c of his photographs off a cross from Jones, however he’s solely taking part in 23 minute per sport after taking part in greater than 29 minutes per night time final yr.
The memes have been out in full drive final night time because the Spurs continued to overlook Wemby:
The entrance workplace NEEDS to get playmakers round Wemby
Not one good passer within the beginning lineup is loopy
— Spurs Tradition (@SpursCulture) December 22, 2023
There may be an argument right here that the Spurs are doing the suitable factor for his or her future regardless of such ugly leads to the current. With a transparent lack of plus passers round him, Wembanyama has needed to flush out his personal creation potential, which ought to serve him effectively down the road. The Spurs could have a excessive lottery choice with their very own, and likewise personal the Toronto Raptors’ first rounder which is monitoring within the lottery. Our 2024 NBA mock draft has Serbian level guard Nikola Matter because the No. 1 participant within the class. USC level guard Isaiah Collier could possibly be one other good choice for San Antonio.
The lineups the Spurs are taking part in round Wembanyama are in all probability going to look so much totally different subsequent yr. San Antonio doesn’t simply want some extent guard — it wants extra plus passers within the lineup. If Wemby’s rookie yr was about discovering how the workforce must be constructed round him going ahead, the roster’s largest flaw is already painfully evident.
