Victor Wembanyama’s game is still packed with possibilities, but the bigger question right now is whether he can turn one or two of them into something his teammates can trust every night.
That was the debate Tim MacMahon put on the table Monday morning on ESPN’s The Hoop Collective, when he dug into the Spurs conversation that’s been buzzing all week: Wembanyama averaged 25 points per game last season and still doesn’t really have a go-to move. MacMahon floated whether the Alien might be better served by a "more limited diet of things" rather than trying to do a little of everything.
There’s a clear case for that from an efficiency standpoint, and Wembanyama has already fed it early this season. He opened the year by going 1-for-13 against Oklahoma City and has shot 36.5% through three games.
But the more interesting issue isn’t just what that does for his shot selection. It’s what it does for everyone else wearing silver and black.
Wembanyama has a tool kit that keeps expanding, and that’s part of the problem. He can step into a three, face up from the elbow, rise into a jump hook over his shoulder, or take a rebound and go coast to coast by himself. The question is whether he has truly mastered anything beyond the lob dunk.
Owning a move and making it your weapon are two different things. Mastery comes from repetition, until the action is so automatic he can stop thinking about it and start reading the defense in real time.
That’s where the counters come in, because counters only matter once the defense is actually forced to stop the first option. The jump hook over Tari Eason on Friday fit that idea, even though Wembanyama had to absorb contact and work his way off the block before getting it off.
That uncertainty doesn’t just live with him. It spills onto the other four players on the court, including De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Dylan Harper.
If Wembanyama doesn’t always know what he’s going to do next, his teammates can’t know either, and that creates hesitation. A cutter can be late.
A shooter can end up in the wrong spot. A screener can set up for one action and watch the possession morph into something else.
That doesn’t mean the Spurs’ offense is broken. They finished with a top-five offense last season, and there’s a case for wanting more of that style back. But there’s also a simpler version of this offense that could make life easier for everybody.
That’s the part where the old stars come to mind. When it was winning time for Dirk Nowitzki or Tim Duncan, teammates knew where those guys were going to be.
So did the defense. And because of that predictability, everyone else could react with confidence - back cutting, slashing from the weak side, drifting to the corner, or flowing into whatever needed to happen once the defense had loaded up on the star.
Mitch Johnson didn’t try to sidestep the issue when asked about Wembanyama’s post-up over the weekend. His point was that multiple things can be true at once, and everyone involved can improve.
Wembanyama has already started spending more time around the elbow, which gives him the right base. The next step is turning that into something sturdier.
In Other News...
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The timing is what makes it interesting for the Spurs, because Oklahoma City entered the week unbeaten at 3-0 and looked like one of the leagues early standard-bearers. With no official diagnosis yet for Williams as of Sunday night, the bigger picture in the West remains cloudy, but San Antonio at least found itself on the right side of a market move that says plenty about how quickly the balance can feel like it is changing. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremy Sochan Faces A Tough New Reality After Spurs Run
Jeremy Sochans latest stop comes with a different kind of pressure, and not much time to settle in. After a championship run with the New York Knicks and a previous stint with the San Antonio Spurs, he was selected No. 1 overall by the Texas Legends in the NBA G League Draft, giving him a new path as he enters his fifth professional season.
Sochan had signed a one-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, only to be waived before the regular season, which made the G League route a necessary next step rather than a detour. Even so, both the Texas Legends and the Dallas Mavericks organization have signaled belief in what he can still become, leaving his next move as one of the more interesting subplots around his career. [Read more 🡒]
Victor Wembanyama Keeps Proving The 2023 Draft Was No Debate
The 2023 draft class has been measured against Victor Wembanyama ever since the night San Antonio landed the first pick, and the comparison has only gotten starker as the league has moved on. Portlands decision not to reach a rookie extension with Scoot Henderson before the deadline adds another note to that conversation, because Henderson was taken third that year and now heads toward restricted free agency next summer after the Blazers and their young guard couldnt come to terms.
Wembanyama, meanwhile, just reinforced the gap on a much bigger stage. In the 2026 playoffs, he and Henderson met in the first round, and the Spurs star led San Antonio to a series win with the kind of individual impact that keeps separating him from his classmates. Around the league, other members of that draft have had moments, but none have touched the level Wembanyama is already bringing to a postseason series. [Read more 🡒]