Victor Wembanyama may already be viewed as the league’s premier defender, but that label doesn’t satisfy him.
As the Spurs head toward Year 4 of the French star’s NBA journey, Wembanyama is focused on something bigger than reputation. He said Wednesday that there’s still plenty of room for him to sharpen his game, and that his coaches are pushing him to keep climbing.
"I've got a lot of growth to do in that aspect," the San Antonio Spurs admitted on Wednesday. "And I'm saying this because I have coaches that hold me to a very high standard."
For Wembanyama, the next step is not framed in tidy, linear milestones. He can come up short in MVP voting and still be a better player.
San Antonio can miss the final prize and still emerge sharper from the chase. The point is growth, not a neat finish line.
Luke Kornet sees one area where that growth can show up fast: communication. He said the challenge isn’t just seeing the action unfold, but making sure the whole defense hears it the same way.
"There's a big responsibility of communication," Kornet explained. "It's one thing to know something's happening and (another) to be able to vocalize it ... there's just more ways to grow ... the better you can communicate, you can get your whole team on the same page."
That lesson only gets more valuable once the postseason physicality arrives. Wembanyama went through that for the first time last spring, and by the end of the season, both of his arms were covered in two months worth of scars. Another season won’t erase those bruises, but it should make him better equipped to handle them.
The playoffs also forced him to feel how much opponents will bend their game plans around him. Wembanyama’s mere presence can warp an offense, but reading how teams try to blunt that impact is a separate problem.
Kornet thinks experience will help him sort it out.
"A good thing is that he's very perceptive and very creative in terms of the stuff he does," Kornet said. "The game's always changing, but you definitely grow in terms of awareness."
The defensive production is already outrageous. Wembanyama averaged 3.1 blocks and 1.0 steals in 64 regular-season games last season, along with 11.5 rebounds per night. Even so, there’s a difference between spotting a play and stopping it before it breathes, and Wembanyama says communication is central to closing that gap.
"I mean, this relates a lot to communication, my ability to communicate," Wembanyama said. "And that takes practice and effort, but it's easy, you know. But doing it repeatedly and precisely and in the right moment and saying the right words, this is what's hard."
That matters even more with a new starting group around him, one that figures to feature Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle. If Wembanyama is the anchor, the Spurs need the message around him to travel just as cleanly.
Coach Johnson believes Wembanyama gives the team a rare kind of freedom on that end of the floor.
"Victor allows you to think outside the box in almost any way you want to," the coach said.
But there’s a line the Spurs do not want to cross. Johnson said the team can keep expanding its ways to win without tossing aside the identity that got it this far.
"I think we want to grow as many ways to win as we can without losing our identity and our base," Johnson said, "and that's going to be a challenge, but I think that's part of pushing this thing forward of not forgetting our base and our identity and our style of play."
Wembanyama’s development won’t come from physical gifts alone, either. Opponents have had three seasons to study him, and they’ll keep searching for the rare openings he leaves behind. Kornet believes that sort of pressure will only make the Spurs star better in time.
"Obviously, no matter how talented you are when you're young, think about how much better you're going to be with five more years of experience and understanding," he said.
The Spurs are not asking him to wait that long to chase a title. They want to contend now, and Wembanyama made it clear the bar has already moved.
"Now, the standard isn't being the best on the planet anymore," Wembanyama said, asked about his early-career success and ceiling. "It's being better than last year."
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Spurs May Have Found An Early Answer Behind Wembanyama
The Spurs went into the preseason looking for a little more certainty behind Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet, and rookie Tarris Reed Jr. has given them a promising early look. Acquired in a trade after being drafted by the Nuggets, Reed has stood out with his rebounding and work on the defensive end, the kind of low-drama contributions that can quickly earn trust in San Antonio.
Devin Vassell has already noticed, and that matters for a young player trying to carve out a role before the games count. Reed appears to have the edge right now for the third big-man spot, especially with fellow rookie Jayden Quaintance still coming back from a knee procedure, but the Spurs will still have to decide how much of that preseason momentum turns into real minutes once the rotation tightens. [Read more 🡒]