The Basketball World Is TURNING AGAINST Wembanyama...

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What’s going on with Victor Wembanyama? He generated more hype than the NBA's biggest superstars in the first few games. But with 20% of the season now being played, not only has the buzz died down, but some NBA fans are actually starting to turn on him.
But why would you turn on a 19 year old rookie who btw is averaging 19 points, 9 and a half rebounds plus a steal and 2 and a half blocks per game. These are monster numbers.
Sure, he’s not shooting well, but Paolo Banchero won rookie of the year with similar offensive numbers last year, and he was nowhere near Victor when it comes to defense.
So what’s going on here? Well, there are 2 guys to blame for what’s going on.
And as shocking as it may sound, 1 is Gregg Popovich, and the other is Chet Holmgren.
Before diving deeper into the weird dynamics of the San Antonio Spurs, we need to address the Chet Holmgren situation.
Both him and Wemby were mentioned in the conversation of the future of the NBA, but it’s clear that Wembanyama got all the shine, and Holmgren was in his shadow at the start.
But being the second best scorer on the second best team in the west, you cannot ignore that, and people are seeing just how good Chet is, and how big of a factor he is to OKC’s explosion.
Comparing the raw numbers side by side, Wembanyama has him beat by an inch, but there is absolutely no comparison when it comes to efficiency. 56 and a half percent from the field for Homlgren and almost 44% from downtown. That is elite.
The pick and pop game with Shai is absolutely deadly, and as a defender you can pick your poison between these 2 guys. But again, we’re talking about a 7 foot center shooting 44% from downtown.
Then you get to his game off the dribble. This kind of fluidity is unbelievable. Look at him going full speed into a spin for the finish. Or what I like even more are these half spins into a fadeaway jumper that’s seemingly money every single time.
So, you know that phrase: underpromise and overdeliver right.
I feel like that is the case with these 2 players. The media underpromised with Holmgren not hyping him up as much so this seems like he over delivered.
At the same time because all the attention was on Wembanyama, it’s almost like people expected him to be a 28 point per game scorer right out the gate. So the 19 per game on not so great shooting percentages almost looks kind of disappointing.
If you’re a Spurs fan I bet that you don’t like this shift in narrative, but I’m sure that Gregg Popovich is more than ok with it. And this is how we get to him. Why did I say that he can be blamed for why people are turning on Victor.
Well, if you’ve watched a few San Antonio games, you know that the starting point guard for this team is Jeremy Sochan. And while he’s a nice hustle player there’s no way why he should be the starting point guard for a generational talent like Wemby.
Sochan is a forward first of all, but then, he’s slow and doesn’t have the instincts nor the ball handling required for a point guard.
Sometimes it looks like he’s even struggling to just bring the ball up the court. The Grizzlies pickpocketed him twice while doing this.
On the fast break here, this is a 2 on 1 with Wembanyama, but he passes out to the three. So then thankfully Tre Jones is a real point guard and he immediately lobs it up to Victor.
But they’ve lost 12 games in a row and Popovich of course sees all of this.
But the thing is, all of this is by design. It’s on purpose.
Sochan will either learn to play the point or if not- they’ll lose a ton of games at least and get another high draft pick to pair him with Wemby. They weren’t going to make the playoffs this year anyways so why not go all out with losing.
Jeremy doesn’t get criticized for his mistakes and that’s the same reason why Wembanyama is shooting badly as well. He’s allowed to take all kinds of shots to find what works best for him, to try things out. This is an experiment both for him and for the Spurs, to see how they can best use him going forward.
So yeah, Wembanyama's hype died down and if all numbers stay the same he’ll lose the rookie of the year race to Chet.
But guys like Curry, Giannis, Jokic and Tatum, also didn’t win it and are now the face of the league. And as soon as the team around him gets shaped up Victor will play that role as well and will be one of the greats in this league. Along with Chet.
But for now, he has to go through the highs and lows of a superstar. He has to stay focused with all the noise around him. Whether it’s because another rookie is playing great, or because the coach and the organization want to set him up for the future and not for the present.