Grades: Spurs vs. Hornets - July 7, 2023

[Mugen]

He looked like a guy trying to fit within a gameplan when he had no idea what the gameplan was. He'll be fine once he gets more reps in the system.

I'm not a fan of the old man but even I don't think he'd have Wemby out 25feet guarding perimeter players (hoping that was just to keep him from getting injuries in the paint in SL).

[Dex]

For Wesley, we can't fail to call out that he is getting eaten alive at the rim. I've lost count of how many times he's barrelled in for a layup just to have his shot stuffed back in his face.

He either needs to learn to be more crafty around the rim, or develop a little floater or something because what he is doing now will not translate to the NBA.

[dbestpro]

Wesley would benefit from greater use of change of speed than his constant foot on the gas.

[BillMc]

Far more worried about Blake than Wemby.

[slick'81]

For Wesley, we can't fail to call out that he is getting eaten alive at the rim. I've lost count of how many times he's barrelled in for a layup just to have his shot stuffed back in his face.

He either needs to learn to be more crafty around the rim, or develop a little floater or something because what he is doing now will not translate to the NBA.

yea its weird. He needs to throw that down like he did in college

[BatManu20]

Blake Wesley just seems low IQ to me tbh. Like you think he’d realize after the 10th time of driving it to the cup and getting his thrown back in his face that he prob shouldn’t do that anymore, or at least try to change it up, yet he keeps doing it. Repeatedly. Was hoping he’d take a big step forward this season, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. He’s young and he’s got the physical tools so I’m trying to hold out hope, and there’s still some time, but I’m not holding my breath with him tbh. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being Lonnie 2.0 and doesn’t have a long-term future with this franchise.

[GAustex]

I wonder see if the Vegas over/under moved after the game

[MultiTroll]

This gives people comfort? It’s exactly like I predicted. Expecting wemby to guard players like this on a consistent basis is going to lead to failure. Plus, I say again, look at the players who are on the court. Miller is playing the 4 man here, and Wemby has almost exclusively (except on necessary switches) defended either the big man or the second to the biggest big man, which happens to be Miller whom the Blazers put out as their 4.

1st Kobme Miller shuffles his pivot feet without dribbling. Clearly a travel. Ok the NBA does not call that. Whatever.
2nd. while dribbling and after the first crossover, certainly looks like Miller touched the ball with both hands. Double dribble. Regardless, if Wemby saw Miller touch with both hands, that would indicate Miller is gathering the ball to shoot. Hence Wemby moves in.

Need to see a clear angle on Miller touching with both hands -or not.
If so, Miller and all the slurping over this play can shove it.

Also, clearly an on purpose forearm to the neck of Wemby. That was total bull .

I predict Wemby will posterize the out of Kobme Miller the next op he gets. And hopefully that is in the regular season.

[cd98]

If they want Wemby to score 20+ points with 3 practices with new teammates, then he either needed to be on fire for threes or they needed to get him down low for higher percentage shots. I can see he’s not comfortable yet on the block. He had to dribble to get to his spots and once he did, he was in a crowd. But he didn’t roll on any pick and rolls, he only shot threes and he’s a 27% shooter out there. He’s got good mechanics, but he’s not Durant level shooter.

[MultiTroll]

I liked what I saw for the most part. His confidence wasn't there which surprised me, but that will come around once he has a more structured offensive system. As for his issues handling and turning it over on drives, that'll come around too. He's feeling it out and finding what he can't do here. He's smart and will figure that out real quickly. As for position and the argument between people who tjink hes a 4 and those who think he's a 5, i think he looks more like a 3/4 on both ends. He's not physical or aggressive enough to guard 5's and watching how he defended Miller on the perimeter made me feel pretty comfortable projecting him guarding most 3's

Wemby said himself in interview he sometimes had no idea what he had to do and played with guys he never played with and have diff goals that preparing the season.
He was rarely set up and had to improvise most of the time.

Once he gets set up with the big boy club, Spurs should be better suited to get him the ball in the right spots instead of him trying to do it all himself.

All of this Xs 1000.
This was like a rat ball game at the park where players did not know, or care to know how the other person played.
When Wemby had the ball the other Spurs made little attempt to get open or run an NFL wide receiver route to get the assist pass from Wemby. The few times they did, it looked GREAT. That Wemby drive and shovel pass to ___ for the dunk. Loved it.

Hey it was game 1. But ya some kind of team ball needs to happen even in SL. In reg season there damn well better be an offensive strategy.
Myself i did not see 1 player I'd want on the roster with Wemby (Not sharing with the Champagne slurping) but again, it's only 1 game.

Lets suppose Wemby was named Scrub McDubb, trying to ear a roster spot from Missouri State.
The opening game switch hand left handed banker. The shovel pass for the dunk. The block of Millers trey.
We'd be doing farking cartwheels at the performance and potential.

[polandprzem]

Low expectations for THAT game

Wemby said himself in interview he sometimes had no idea what he had to do and played with guys he never played with and have diff goals that preparing the season.
He was rarely set up and had to improvise most of the time.

It is game of basketball not a game of excuses. You do lower expectations cause the player is whining? GTFOOH

[Atl Spur]

Thank god he has pop and this development staff

Pop is somewhere giddy….. not Josh though

[polandprzem]

1st Kobme Miller shuffles his pivot feet without dribbling. Clearly a travel. Ok the NBA does not call that. Whatever.
2nd. while dribbling and after the first crossover, certainly looks like Miller touched the ball with both hands. Double dribble. Regardless, if Wemby saw Miller touch with both hands, that would indicate Miller is gathering the ball to shoot. Hence Wemby moves in.

Need to see a clear angle on Miller touching with both hands -or not.
If so, Miller and all the slurping over this play can shove it.

Also, clearly an on purpose forearm to the neck of Wemby. That was total bull .

I predict Wemby will posterize the out of Kobme Miller the next op he gets. And hopefully that is in the regular season.

Does not matter when Wemby was way out of position there.

[Mr. Body]

Whole team was clearly nervous and wanting to play well for Victor. There's chemistry issues pushing a huge, unknown figure into a team that was already humming. They'll figure this out.

One kinda slight worry is that the team was much slower paced with Wembanyama tonight than the previous games, where they were hard to handle. I hope they don't sacrifice the ability to move on teams because he's slower. (I feel like comfort will get his timing and decision making more in line.)

Meanwhile, Julian Champagnie... hoo boy. To me the best player in SL so far.

[Mr. Body]

Also, Wemby has the problem Chet Holmgren is facing in his games: he can't handle the ball against NBA-type players like he used to. They're going to dig the ball out. Chet keeps trying this behind-the-back dribble, the Luca Samanic special. Both he and Holgren are smart and agile enough to figure it out.

[MannyIsGod]

Wemby was nervous and anxious as plain and simple he will be more than fine. When he came over to the US about 9 months ago and played those two games against Scoot and the G league Ignite he had 37 points and 36 points in those two games and looked great and looked nothing how he did last night.

The vast majority of the points he scores here are from the outside. He missed so many jumpers tonight. These videos are also in an offensive system where he is comfortable as opposed to just not knowing where to be last night.

I don't even care, honestly. The handles, the agility, they were all there. The shooting will be fine I'm sure. Its the positioning where he was lost and that'll work itself out. Thats why we have coaches.

And on the defensive end, he completely changed the game.

[paperboy77]

To me, Sidy probably deserved a B. Definitely needs to work overtime on his shooting but the guy is a pretty good defender. He doesn't seem to be an issue for the team and knows his role. A lot of those fouls were calls by the refs. I hope they figure a way to keep this dude on the team.

[MannyIsGod]

I have to say people thinking the B- is generous are only basing that off one side of the court. Wemby changed the game so ing much on D! Its amazing to see all the hot takes about him on offense and what needs to happen after this game.

[rascal]

I have to say people thinking the B- is generous are only basing that off one side of the court. Wemby changed the game so ing much on D! Its amazing to see all the hot takes about him on offense and what needs to happen after this game.

Good on one side and bad on the other is a grade of C.

[rascal]

Wemby should have been graded an F.

It was a failure and if he plays the entire season like this it would be a failure for the expectations of a generational number one draft pick.

No other way to spin it. He had a bad game.

Expect improvement moving forward.

[Seventyniner]

Carlton with that 5 trillion. Nice.

[florige]

Yeah, his dribbling was easily disrupted and NBA players will be even harder to go against.

Once he gets set up with the big boy club, Spurs should be better suited to get him the ball in the right spots instead of him trying to do it all himself.

Also should watch some tape on KD. Durant has handles but you rarely see him getting flashy with his dribble...just kinda keeps it simple and dribbles straight into his spot and into his shot.

Like someone else mentioned it really seemed like he was trying to show off a little bit for the crowd at first. It looked to me once he got stripped a few times it really hurt his confidence going forward in the game on the offensive end.

[Seventyniner]

I have to say people thinking the B- is generous are only basing that off one side of the court. Wemby changed the game so ing much on D! Its amazing to see all the hot takes about him on offense and what needs to happen after this game.

imo this is because there are so many stats tracked on offense, but Wemby's only defensive stat that will ever jump off the page is blocks. His ability to deter opponents from even taking shots near the rim will be invaluable and won't show up in the box score.

[slick'81]

imo this is because there are so many stats tracked on offense, but Wemby's only defensive stat that will ever jump off the page is blocks. His ability to deter opponents from even taking shots near the rim will be invaluable and won't show up in the box score.

Dude is a monster of d. Hes already gobert lite

[John B]

There’s a moment there when they brought Wemby back and it’s the last 4 or so minutes of the game, Pop was shown smiling as it’s approval. I don’t know if that’s for bringing back Wemby or something Coach Brown or somebody said. But it’s as if, yup just bring the kid out there. Let him get more feel of the game approval.