Wembanyama Surprised Me
I definitely went into this season believing there was way too much hype around Wemby, and there was no way he could live up to the hype. By the end of the season, I was dead wrong. Adjustments were made, and Wemby showed tremendous growth throughout this entire season.
Let’s first look at Wemby’s stats through his 1st 10 games:
Shooting: 72-161 FG (44.7%) , 17-57 3PM (29.8%)
Rebounds: 88 (8.8/gm)
Assists: 25 (2.5/gm) Turnovers: 38 (3.8/gm)
These stats are not horrible, but do not scream “the next Kareem” or “the next Shaq.” I am obviously not willing to declare someone’s career based around 10 games, but when you are that hyped coming into the league, people expect you to perform immediately. If these were his end of the year stats, I would be screaming that I was right, and Wemby is just another great athlete, but not necessarily the next “best to ever do it.”
However, the most important thing at this stage of his career is progress. This is where Wemby truly surprised me and showed that he has the potential to take his entire game to the next level. It is obvious that Wemby is a freak athlete and built different, but can that continue to translate to results on the basketball court?
By the end of the year, Wemby at least showed he is on the right trajectory in all areas. Lets compare his first 10 games to how he ended the season:
End of season stats and improvements:
Shooting: 551-1186 FG (46.5%) , 128-394 3PM (32.5%)
Rebounds: 755 (10.6/gm)
Assists: 274 (3.9/gm) Turnovers: 260 (3.7/gm)
Someone who is 7 foot 4 has no excuse to not grab 10 rebounds every game. I am not saying that Wemby should never have 9 rebounds in a game, but to average anything less than 10 is a complete disappointment. I am glad he got this average above 10.5 where it should easily be.
As far as shooting, his percentages may be a little lower than the typical big man since he shoots more. A good comparison for this category would be Dirk Nowitzki. In his career, Dirk shot 47.1% from the field and 38% from three. I would like Wemby to get more similar to these numbers to be impressed. His FG% increasing to 46.5% is almost right where it needs to be, but his 3p% still being around 32.5% is still fairly low. I would like to see him take less 3s when they are not going in. I do not think he is a lights out shooter to just keep launching them when you’re 0-3 already. If Wemby can become a situational shooter, and not average taking 6 threes per game, I think this percentage is very acceptable. But being 7 foot 4 and launching 6 threes a game at barely 30% is not the answer.
All in all, I was beyond impressed with Wemby’s improvement. I thought he would start to blend into the league this season, but he did the opposite. He is starting to separate himself from the rest of the league and show that he does have the capability to become one of the greatest to ever do it. I will still not be sold until after his first 3 years, but these next 2 years will show whether he becomes Jabari Parker, or Giannis Antetokounmpo.