Even before the draft, it was clear to most people that Victor Wembanyama was special. The number 1 pick of 2023 not only met the expectations that were high from the start, but even exceeded them. The Frenchman fills the stat sheet especially at the defensive end.
By Moritz König
When you watch Victor Wembanyama play basketball, you immediately notice several things.
What stands out above all is its size. At just 20 years old, Wembanyama is 2.24m tall and has a wingspan of an incredible 2.43m!
Of course, it’s not unusual for very tall people to end up in the NBA, but the young Frenchman is no flash in the pan. Even before his 2023 draft, most experts were convinced that he was the greatest talent since LeBron James.
The resulting pressure on him was enormous. Most young players would be unnerved by this media attention. But not Wemby.
It seems like he puts his entire focus on basketball. This is also confirmed by his sleep rhythm. The Athletic newspaper reported: “Spurs staff have been told never to call Victor Wembanyama after 9.30pm. He then reads for an hour and falls asleep.”
Not exactly a normal evening routine for a 20-year-old. But Victor Wembanyama is different, he subordinates everything to sport. His incredible statistics also show this.
Rookie Wemby vs. Rookie LeBron
The comparison with LeBron James came before the 2023 draft. The players were not compared one-to-one with each other due to mismatched positions. It was more about the incredible talent that unites both of them.
If you now look at the stats from both players’ rookie seasons, one thing stands out: Wemby leads in almost every category.
In his debut season, LeBron put up 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.7 blocks and 3.5 turnovers. He hit his two-pointers at 43.8 percent, his three-pointers at 29.0 percent and his free throws at 75.4 percent. This results in a true shooting value of 48.8 percent.
Now to Wemby. The Frenchman’s box score stats to date are 21.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 steals, 3.5 blocks with 3.6 turnovers (as of April 4, 2024). His rates are 53.4 percent on two-pointers, 31.9 percent on three-pointers and 79.4 percent on free throws. The true shooting is therefore 56.3 percent.
You can see that LeBron is only ahead in steals and assists. The comparison in blocks cannot be overestimated due to Wemby’s size and position.
What is surprising, however, are the odds. Wembanyama hits better than rookie LeBron in every category, even though he is almost 20 centimeters taller than the “King”. Such a touch is incredibly unusual for a player of his size.
At the same time, the numbers are still quite effective considering how bad the San Antonio Spurs team is. Wembanyama actually has to do almost everything alone and therefore has a so-called usage rate of 32.3 percent in his first season. This is the fifth-highest number in the entire NBA.
The usage rate is the percentage of plays that a player completes on the court (through field throw attempts, turnovers and free throws). So you can see that Wemby is directly involved in almost a third of all Spurs’ shots – and also turnovers.
For comparison: LeBron had a usage rate of 28.2 percent in his first year.
Will the Frenchman now be better than LeBron? Kevin O’Connor from “The Ringer” can definitely imagine it…
Wembanyama: One of the best defenders in the NBA
Hardly any player has as much defensive gravity as Victor Wembanyama. The term “Gravity” – loosely translated as “attraction” – is mostly used for players like Steph Curry. Because of his incredibly good throw, defenders have to be very close to him and sometimes double him. This creates space for the other players on the field.
Wemby has the defensive equivalent of this. When he’s in the zone, a lot of players don’t even dare to attempt a shot. The presence of the 2.24m giant is too great – and the fear of being blocked.
However, this is not surprising considering Wemby is already leading the league in blocks in his first season. 3.5 blocks per game is over a block more than second-place Chet Holmgren’s 2.4, also a rookie. He currently has 235 blocks this season. That’s more than any Defensive Player of the Year has had at the end of each season since Ben Wallace in 2002/2003.
In addition, according to “StatMamba”, there are more blocks than 86.6 percent of all previous NBA players have ever managed – in their careers.
What you shouldn’t forget is that he only committed 149 fouls. This ranks him 81st in the NBA. For comparison: last year’s “Defensive Player of the Year” Jaren Jackson Jr. committed 233 fouls this season.
Wembanyama: “Defensive Player of the Year” already this year?
Many people are now calling for Wembanyama to be named the best defender in the league this year. According to “basketball-reference.com”, the Frenchman blocks an incredible ten percent of all shots while he is on the court – unsurprisingly 1st place in the NBA.
In his podcast, the former “Defensive Player of the Year”, Draymond Green, also supports the 20-year-old: “A while ago I said that Wemby shouldn’t be ‘Defensive Player of the Year’. But I lied. He It should be!”
Now one last stat that shows the incredible defensive influence on his part. With a value of 4.0, he ranks eighth in the NBA in Defensive Win Shares. This value shows the estimated number of victories that a player has made possible through his defense. FYI: The San Antonio Spurs currently have just 18 wins in the season. So, statistically speaking, the Frenchman is solely responsible for four of Spurs’ 18 wins.
It won’t really matter to him whether he actually gets the award. For him it’s all about winning. Statistics play a secondary role for him. He had five steals and blocks each against the Sacramento Kings and previously the Houston Rockets. Only Michael Jordan had ever achieved that.
When asked about this statistic, Wemby was unimpressed: “I wonder if he did it in wins and not in losses.” The Spurs lost both the Rockets and Kings games.
“For me it’s secondary. Hopefully we can look back and think that this was a good performance. But today I can’t be happy with a defeat,” added the rookie.
So his mindset is right. It remains to be seen how the young Frenchman will develop in the coming years.
The scary thing – at least for the other teams – is that, in retrospect, this season will probably be the “worst” of his career.
2024-04-06 06:43:00
#NBA #Victor #Wembanyama #rookies #incredible #statistics
