Welcome to the Victor Wembanyama experience. Come one, come all, for there is a 7-foot-4 Frenchman who can nutmeg you off the bounce, block your 3-pointers, step back from 3, put back his own stepback in two steps and dunk on you from a standstill outside the restricted area. Behold the human cheat code.
Here, we’ll track the San Antonio Spurs rookie’s weekly progress relative to the most anticipated prospects of the past 50 years, using Yahoo Sports’ own default fantasy basketball settings to rank their production.
But first a few words …
As the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament enters our collective consciousness, as the league’s usual business becomes a bigger part of our basketball conversation — young stars overtaking the old guard and intrigue around how the standings are settling as Christmas and the season’s quarter mark approach — the Wembanyama hype has quieted, and he has the Spurs to thank. They are terrible, losers of 14 straight, also overshadowed by the Detroit Pistons’ 17-game losing streak. (FYI: The NBA’s longest single-season losing streak is 26.)
Wembanyama still leads all rookies in points, rebounds, steals and blocks per game, but he rates 32nd in effective field-goal percentage, shooting 36.6% on everything but dunks. His team starts a forward at point guard and ranks 23rd in shooting efficacy, which makes setting the table and spacing for him more difficult.
It makes for a painful watch, other than the occasional flashes from a 7-4 marvel.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama looks on against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first game he did not play in during his rookie NBA season on Friday. (Stephen Lew/USA TODAY Sports)
Wembanyama also missed Friday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans with hip tightness on the second night of a back-to-back. Assuming the injury is nothing serious, he will have five days of rest before Wednesday’s nationally televised showdown with Anthony Edwards and the West’s first-place Minnesota Timberwolves.
Maybe that adds some juice to the narrative arc of Wembanyama’s rookie season. He collected 29 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four…
..
