Victor Wembanyama is turning the rim into his personal landing spot, and the Spurs are feeding off it.
Through 11 games, Wembanyama has thrown down 58 dunks, a pace Brian Windhorst highlighted on The Hoop Collective as 5.3 per night. Windhorst used Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2018-19 season as a benchmark, saying the Greek Freak was at 3.9 a game at his peak. A check with Basketball Reference puts that number at 4.43, but either way, Wembanyama is above it.
There is one wrinkle to the comparison. Windhorst noted that dunks weren’t tracked in Wilt’s era or early in Shaq’s career, so the conversation starts in 2000.
Even with that limitation, Wembanyama’s volume is staggering. More than five dunks a game from a player who can also stretch the floor and erase shots at the rim is a brutal combination for anyone trying to defend him.
That’s the part the Spurs are leaning into. Wembanyama isn’t wandering through possessions hoping something opens up.
He knows what separates him from everybody else, and San Antonio is putting him in spots where those traits can punish defenses. Cal Durrett wrote about Wemby rolling hard to the basket and taking the right number of threes, and that balance is showing up in the way the offense is humming.
The guards are making it happen, too. De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper have been quick to get the 7-foot-4 rim destroyer the ball early and in rhythm.
They’re tossing him alley-oops from all over the floor, and Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson have joined in as well. The result is a Spurs attack that feels like a fresh version of Lob City, just with a different cast.
The old Chris Paul-Blake Griffin-DeAndre Jordan Clippers made the nickname stick as soon as LA brought in the Point God. You didn’t need a scouting report to know what was coming next. The lobs were the show.
San Antonio’s version is different because it isn’t built around one guard feeding a pair of airborne finishers. The Spurs have multiple players who can deliver the pass and multiple players who can finish it. Wembanyama gets the biggest share by far, but the rest of the roster can rise up and complete the play when the chance is there.
That depth is part of why the numbers look so wild. The Spurs lead the NBA with 93 total dunks, while the team in second place has 73.
Wembanyama’s 58 alone is more than 23 teams and tied with the Timberwolves. The gap says plenty about how often San Antonio is getting to the rim, and it also shows this isn’t just one guy carrying the whole load.
For the Spurs, it’s working like a charm. For the Bulls, who are next on the schedule, it’s a problem waiting to happen.
In Other News...
Wembanyama Just Gave Spurs Fans Another Unreal Moment To Debate
Victor Wembanyama keeps finding new ways to make the ordinary look absurd, and his latest highlight came in the third quarter against the Bulls. The Spurs big man launched into a two-hand dunk from the free-throw line, the kind of play that instantly turns a regular night into another entry in the growing Wembanyama highlight reel.
It also came in the middle of a game where he was already stuffing the stat sheet, with San Antonio ahead in the fourth quarter and Wembanyama sitting on 32 points, eight rebounds, two steals and four blocks. Given the way he has been playing all season, with elite production on both ends and a shooting touch to match, the only real debate left is how many more moments like this he can still create before the league runs out of ways to react. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Have A DeAaron Fox Problem They Cant Ignore
DeAaron Fox has been one of the Spurs most important creators since arriving from Sacramento, and the ball is in his hands more often than ever. He still leads San Antonio in assists, which speaks to how much the offense has leaned on him to organize possessions and get others involved, but the scoring punch that once made him such a difficult cover has not traveled with him.
Fox is averaging 13.9 points per game this season, a steep drop from the level he showed when the Spurs acquired him. The bigger concern is not just the number itself, but the way it has come about: he looks less aggressive hunting his own shot, and that shift has put his offensive role under the microscope while also raising questions about how the league will view his trade value if this version of him sticks around. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Hot Start Still Leaves One Big Tobias Harris Question
Nine straight wins have given the Spurs plenty to like early, but the one major piece they have not yet been able to factor in is Tobias Harris. His absence has left San Antonio to keep sorting through a rotation that is already working, even as the veteran forwards expected return looms as a potential boost in size and shooting.
Harris is the kind of addition that can change the shape of a lineup without forcing the Spurs to tear up what has gotten them off to such a strong start. The open question is where he fits once he is available, since his role could be determined by the coachs decisions and could land anywhere from the starting five to a more defined bench role. [Read more 🡒]