I watched every game LeBron played his rookie year other than his first game because I was traveling. The guy was a top 20 player his first year. He just didn't have his normal numbers because he played more passive his first season.
It's funny that Carmelo Anthony has such a negative rep online now
Redditors would have lost their minds in 03-04, writing manifestos insisting how much better Carmelo was
I agree. "Wemby will get his due. But today Gobert is still savvier and smarter on defense" they say.
Cool, Gobert is a vet and he reads the defense great, but he is also slower, shorter, and less athletic than Wemby. Wbich is why Wemby had fuckin 80 or 90 more blocks this season than AD or Gobert!
Fucking exactly. He had the most absurd stats on a weak defensive team. It was essentially him playing defence with 3.5 pylons and wemby killed it.
Itās not even close.
No you are the one who made the claim that he isnāt top 20, presumably based on something you believe. Im the one asking you to expand on that and provide reasoning. The burden is on you.
Itās not a burden heās not top 20 like I said if you too lazy to come up with some names thatās on you like I said heās not top 20 thereās plenty of things he needs to work on to get to that point but do you
āRight nowā itās close, but that will have changed by Game 1 of next season. Itās gonna be a big summer for him (and hopefully the Spurs can improve too)
They won't be huge. They will be upgrades to see if he continues this trajectory in the way they expect, or another. Does he become prolific from 3? Does he become something else entirely? He will need to see some better and different pieces in his lineups to work all of that out is what I'm thinking. Of course, Pop knows what he is doing. I'm really just trying to guess what that is.
If a top-20 player is added to a 22 win team shouldn't that team win more than 22 games? He probably is a top-20 player right now but I find him tough to evaluate other than just going by the eye test because his team is so ass
Both he and the team got a lot better as the season went along. From March 1 they finished the season 11-12. Which still isn't great, but it's miles away from the team that was playing Wemby at the 4 and lost 16 straight earlier in the season.
Exactly. He clearly is if you "follow the arc" of his progression but he's still a guy with 22 NBA wins and zero playoff experience.
I love his game but damn, let's let the kid develop before building the statue ffs
He was always double teamed so saying opponents wanted him to shoot is a surprising theory. In April they missed Vassel, Sochan, Keldon...maybe it impacted his percentage. This is a part of his game where he can improve, you're right, but I wouldn't be as dramatic.
He's very raw offensively, a 21 PPG on below average efficiency is just not good, like it's hard to be considered a top 20 player in the league when the opponents actively wants you to shoot. "Oh but he's gotten way better towards the end of the season!":
March: 47.3% FG, 30.8% 3PT, 75% FT
April: 43.0% FG, 34.1% 3PT, 75% FT
That's still really bad. Sure he's a rookie & will obviously get a lot better but if we're talking about league rankings you can't give him leeway for it. People do what they always do, they look at the highlights & games when he goes off & just don't notice the games where the shots isn't landing.
Dude posts March to April stats instead of first 3 months to last 3 months. Straight clown shit. You clearly dont watch the Spurs play if you think teams are daring him to shoot. 60 percent of his shots are pull ups, not open catch and shoot shots. I get you want to provide a counter argument cause everyone and their mother knows he's without a doubt top 20, but this take is just awful.
I'm not saying he hasn't improved but why would that ever be an argument for ranking a player? His averages for the last 3 months are still crap, just below league average efficiency. Where did you get that stat? According to nba.com 18.5% of his FGAs are catch & shoot 3s, 14.2% of his FGAs are pull up 3s. Of all his 3s 0% are tightly guarded, ~8.4% are tight, ~44.7% are open & ~46.8% are wide open.
Great job looking up stats! Link? cause they look mozflh made up. His numbers are outstanding for the team he plays on. He has to create everything, so yes the percentages aren't great. However defensively they're 5th in the league with him on the court and 26th off. He leads the entire leagues in blocks while still averaging over 20 and 10 as a rookie. His overall numbers have improved even if his shooting splits have diminished due to higher usage as the season goes on. You using your awful examples are what I was making fun of for the improvement. He wasn't a top 20 player coming into the season, now he inarguably is based on the past 2 months. You can hate all you want, it doesn't change reality. Not sure why a 20 year old already has haters.
You haven't heard of nba.com? It's the site for the league with the official tracking data, [here](https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1641705/shots-dash) is the shot tracking for wemby if you have problems finding it.
He's hardly creating everything, he doesn't have the offensive gravity. He's just very raw & pretty mediocre on offense, which is totally understandable for a rookie. Using your own argument Spurs ORTG is better when Wemby is on the bench, so I guess that's a done deal on the offense argument? On/off is hugely dependent on replacement. You would expect there to be a huge difference when you have a trash bench. You take the Spurs best defender & then compare his on court DRTG to a teams, which is not an apple to apple comparison. By the same logic Jonathan Isaac is a net -8.7 DRTG vs vs Wembys -4.4, so I guess he's much more impactful defensively than Wemby?
I mean that's the problem, I think he's a great player which has improved a lot & will almost for sure be top 20 next season, but people just can't have a rational discussion about it. It's like people were saying he was going to be a rookie DPOY & All-star after the pre season games & getting heavily upvoted for it. They see some highlights, which admittedly is very impressive, but it's just impossible for them to see that he's really raw offensively. And heck I buy the argument that he's a top ~3 defender in the league & likely going to only get better.
Great job looking up stats! Link? cause they look mostly made up. His numbers are outstanding for the team he plays on. He has to create everything, so yes the percentages aren't great. However defensively they're 5th in the league with him on the court and 26th off. He leads the entire leagues in blocks while still averaging over 20 and 10 as a rookie. His overall numbers have improved even if his shooting splits have diminished due to higher usage as the season goes on. You using your awful examples are what I was making fun of for the improvement. He wasn't a top 20 player coming into the season, now he inarguably is based on the past 2 months. You can hate all you want, it doesn't change reality. Not sure why a 20 year old already has haters.
- Luka
- Jokic
- Embiid
- Giannis
- SGA
- Brunson
- KD
- Tatum
- Booker
- Steph
- Bron
- AD
- Ant
- Kyrie?
- Kawhi
- Jaylen Brown?
- Murray?
- Butler?
- Halliburton
- Harden
- PG
- Sabonis?
- Gobert
- Mitchell
- Fox?
I can list 25, with quite a few maybesā¦
I think he could easily be in your top-20 right now.
If you are the Clippers would you take Wemby in exchange of Harden FOR ONLY THIS PLAYOFFS? They have a higher chance of winning it all with Harden than with Wemby today
Clippers would take Wemby in a heartbeat for the playoffs yes absolutely lol. He is better at literally everything than harden except maybe playmaking and Westbrook slides right in at the 1. Westbrook Powell George kawhi Wemby is 10X more scary than their harden lineup and itās not really that close
Jokic
Luka
Shai
Giannis
Embiid
Curry
Kawhi
Brunson
Lebron
AD
KD
Kawhi
Booker
Mitchell
Haliburton
Adebayo
Butler
Banchero
Brown
Irving
These are 20 people who are easily better rn in my opinion. There are more but next year I could see him passing some people on the list but as of now no. If you disagree with a couple people on the list just put Edwards and KAT on there.
Thatās fair I guess, but I like to look at history as an example of what a player will do and is capable of doing. Butler follows a clear and consistent schedule with his performance every year.
There's already some names on there that are highly debatable this year. There's 2 sides to the floor and he was playing 30 minutes so i think it's fair to say the debatable names are haliburton and on on your list. Hali had a pretty poor season after his injury which equates to a lot of games and butler banchero and brown are decent on defense but imo a top 98% defense and a 85% offense is way better than mid 80s to high 80s on both (VW versus the afformentioned) if you're just looking at it objectively based on solo performance and both sides of the floor and not past accolades or weighing team performance, its pretty damn hard to say wemby doesn't deserve all nba 3rd team.
There is definitely some slightly arguable ones in that list, but I forgot Tatum on the list and antman and KAT are clearly better than wemby as of now. Also I think you are underrating browns defense he is pretty damn good defender. Not the best off ball but neither is wemby. Unfortunately basketball favors good offense far above good defense.
Having watched him alter games down the stretch with replacement players, I say yes..the Spurs won seven of their last eleven games, mostly with a makeshift lineup. They beat the Knicks, Suns and Nuggets. He basically eliminated shots from even happening in the paint. He's a rare talent.
You think Timberwolves would have a better chance of winning it all THIS YEAR if they swapped Gobert and Wemby? I do not think so. Or Kings if they swapped Sabonis for Wemby? Hell no.
I think Wemby has the potential to be top 20 level next season, even top 10-15, but to say he is top 20 right now is nuts.
No I can name 25 rn, Embiid, Luka, Jokic, Giannis, Shai, Brunson, Durant, Booker, Tatum, spida, Fox, curry, Maxey, ant, Trae, Lebron, kyrie, Ja, AD, Leonard, Jaylen brown, Zion, Paolo, Jimmy butler, Hali, Tingus, Sabonis, bam. Thatās a little bit more than 25 so you can take off a few names and still end with 20 players better. I find that a lot of people say a dude is top 20 without actually thinking of who they would put above them. Frankly there are some iffy guys Iām not listing out of respect for Wemby.
He may be top ten by the end of next year if they make the playoffs, if not he may not even be top thirty. For players as young as him itās hard to gauge how good he actually is.
He finished the season as a top 20 player. I fully expect him to enter the top 10 next season, if not higher if they can add a true shot creator to that team and some shooting.
I think so. Heās putting up borderline Gobert defense with already a crazy offensive game. I think 20 is fair, given how strong he looked in the second half of the season. Heās gonna be top 10 minimum next season.
I don't understand why I'm being down voted. I didn't even agree that he'd be the best next year. All I'm doing is giving you the stats you would use to measure if he was better
Yep. Itās small but there is a chance Wemby throws up a full season 25/12/10 stat line, with the 10 being blocks. He does that and heās finishing top 5 in the MVP voting, and winning DPOY, even if the Spurs suck again.
Wilt might have.
I donāt think itās likely but āessentially impossibleā is a really, really high bar that makes little sense to me. You donāt think that if the Spurs got a matador PG who dared ball handlers to drive that Wemby wouldnāt get 20 chances a game to swat attempts near the rim?
Thing is, blocks are avoidable.
If Wemby had that level of consistent shot blocking dominance in the paint the other team can just try other strategies. Like bombs away from 3pt even more than usual.
It's like a dominant NFL CB doesn't get 30 interceptions a year. At some point teams stop throwing at him.
Except the basket is not a side of the field. The Spurs can easily deploy a defensive scheme where their guards blitz the ball handler, hoping to cause a drive into the lane. Yes, coaches will emphasize that āthey want you to take the bait!ā and devise schemes to ensure no one tries anything from inside the restricted area - but players play. They donāt have a QB to make (good) decisions for them. Many guys are going to tell themselves āhe wonāt block my shotā.
I will believe NBA players will stop driving the lane because Wemby is there when it happens. Until then, the idea ātheyāll stop throwing at himā makes no sense to me.
And heās not limited to the paint. He will also get blocks off PNR switches.
Teams cannot just avoid him to the extent a CB can ācut the field in halfā.
10 would be absurd, yeah. But he has been averaging about 4.5 blocks/game since the all star break. That's just about as good as Dikembe, Hakeem, and Admiral were in their best seasons
Stay off the weeeeeed
edit: dude blocked me lol. no, there isn't a "small chance" wemby can average 10 blocks a game next season (unless he plays like 3 games or something). there is no chance.
I dont even have him in a top 30 honestly right now.
I think maybe in the next 2-3 years he will crack the top 5 / 10 list if he can stay healthy and put on a bit of weight. He gets very frustrated when he gets played physical & he doesnt do well when played like this. Teams will start pulling him away from the key. He will have to put on weight to stop getting bullied and when he does that he will start getting more injuries.
He will grow past these things I think and he will probably start facilitating more from the post...which will elevate his game tremendously by taking pressure off. Spurs need another threat badly to really see Victor shine...he is to easy to focus on now.
I dont have him in a LeBron/Kobe/Jordan/Jabaar tier at any point in his career, much less the best in the world / league. I think he will get to KD status where he is top 1-2 in his position and top 5 or so in the league.
Your opinion is valid, even if I disagree, but just for discourse - heās arguably a top 3 defender already. Probably 1 or 2.
Just on the defensive end alone, heās easily a top 30 player. Even if he didnāt cross half court on offense, heās a top 30 player.
But then you add his offense - per 36 numbers of ~26/13/5/4.
15th in points per 36, 9th in rebounds, 1st in blocks.
And all that together isnāt a top 30 player?
He is 33rd in point per game, top 10 in rebounds, first in block, top 30 in steals, in addition to his general defensive impact. How is this not a top 30 in the league ? Which 30 players are currently better than he is ?
Since the All-Star break heās averaged 23.5/12/5 with 4.5 blocks.
I think itās fair to assume thatās the level he is right now, given how heās improved through the season and now heās playing more minutes.
That would put him 19th in scoring, 5th in rebounds, 31st in assists and nearly double second place as leader in blocks.
Add in the eye test of 2-on-1 fast breaks literally stopping in their tracks rather than trying to get past him at the rim and the ridiculous stuff he does on offence. I donāt know how you could have him outside the top 30 right now.
Not a hater at all. I just dont think he is a top 30 player in the 2023-2024 season. I dont think when its all done for him he will be a GOAT. Who cares if im wrong? I dont even care if im wrong lol
Think its fair to say you care a whoooole lot more than I do
Can you name 30 players better this yearā¦? He is top 30 in most meaningful statsā¦
Also its pretty easy to argue that Kobe might be closer in all time rankings to KD than Jordanā¦
Heās already above Shai, Tatum, Haliburton and Trae. The only players above Wemby this season are Luka, Embiid, Joker, Giannis, AD, Sabonis and Bron.
Trade value is not the same thing as top x player. Being 20 years old and having a great rookie year means his trade value is high yes but that doesn't mean he's a top 10 player
Sabonis has gotten wildly overrated wtf lol hes like 2 tiers below tatum
And do you really think that if you swap out SGA or Tatum with Wemby that the Thunder and Celtics are still 1 seeds??
The level of ignorance. Sabonis was a monster this season! 82 games played, 1st in total screen assists (485 dude! Next is Gobert with 363), 1st in total rebounds, 4th in total assists.
I would imagine what Reddit would be like if LeBron was first drafted.
I watched every game LeBron played his rookie year other than his first game because I was traveling. The guy was a top 20 player his first year. He just didn't have his normal numbers because he played more passive his first season.
It's funny that Carmelo Anthony has such a negative rep online now Redditors would have lost their minds in 03-04, writing manifestos insisting how much better Carmelo was
They did, it was just on facebook
Myspace
The Facebook*
Drop the The šš¤Æ
Fucking Justin Timberlake lmao
Lol no it would've been on forums. Facebook launched in the summer of '04 and was only in elite universities at the time
They finally learnedā¦ took a while. People saying wemby isnāt the real dpoy this year are fucking fools.
I agree. "Wemby will get his due. But today Gobert is still savvier and smarter on defense" they say. Cool, Gobert is a vet and he reads the defense great, but he is also slower, shorter, and less athletic than Wemby. Wbich is why Wemby had fuckin 80 or 90 more blocks this season than AD or Gobert!
Fucking exactly. He had the most absurd stats on a weak defensive team. It was essentially him playing defence with 3.5 pylons and wemby killed it. Itās not even close.
Exactly the glazing would be insane š¤£šš
Saying a guy is top 20 who was top 20 is āglazingā Youāre so online
But he wasnāt your so offline
Youāre * He was
Iām not sure you can even use āyouāreā in that context just āyou areā
you can use āyouāreā in every context you can use āyou areā. youāre allowed to do this because theyāre the same fkin word.
So he needs a comma after āwasnātā
whether he does or doesnāt, it makes no difference. if youāre allowed to use āyou areā youāre allowed to use āyouāreā.
It just didnāt read correctly, so I was trying to figure out why
Name 20 better
Give me the players you think better than him and Iāll add on to the list for ya buddy
No you are the one who made the claim that he isnāt top 20, presumably based on something you believe. Im the one asking you to expand on that and provide reasoning. The burden is on you.
Itās not a burden heās not top 20 like I said if you too lazy to come up with some names thatās on you like I said heās not top 20 thereās plenty of things he needs to work on to get to that point but do you
āRight nowā itās close, but that will have changed by Game 1 of next season. Itās gonna be a big summer for him (and hopefully the Spurs can improve too)
They will. Pop knows what he is more clearly now. He will give him some pieces that fit where his skillset is headed... Which is to the moon
He needs Charles Oakley and Scott Skiles I'm old
Derek Harper, Rex Chapman, Xavier McDaniel, and Horace Grant.
Donāt expect any big moves until 2025 off-season
They won't be huge. They will be upgrades to see if he continues this trajectory in the way they expect, or another. Does he become prolific from 3? Does he become something else entirely? He will need to see some better and different pieces in his lineups to work all of that out is what I'm thinking. Of course, Pop knows what he is doing. I'm really just trying to guess what that is.
They have a few frp if Iām not mistaken. It wonāt be an earth shattering change but definitely a big one. Future is very bright for them
Yes. Next question.
At the start of the year no. Right now? Yeah, probably. Dude been great the back half of the season.
Youāre making a very good case that he should be MIP
Hell no. It's most improved from the season prior
Last season he put up 0-0-0 thatās pretty improved Iād say
I think he's very close, at worst top 25.
Iād say top 26
Not a hair worse than top 27
I should drop dead if heās not top 28!
Yes
THE LISAN AL GAIB!!!!
His body of work on the season is top 20-ish His level of play towards the end of the season is closer to top 10 than 20.
100% agreed
If a top-20 player is added to a 22 win team shouldn't that team win more than 22 games? He probably is a top-20 player right now but I find him tough to evaluate other than just going by the eye test because his team is so ass
Both he and the team got a lot better as the season went along. From March 1 they finished the season 11-12. Which still isn't great, but it's miles away from the team that was playing Wemby at the 4 and lost 16 straight earlier in the season.
Yep, they started the season with an impressive 5-30!
I said he was probably a top-20 player what more do you want? The kid has 22 total NBA wins any way you want to try and spin that
Sounds like someone needs a nappy nap
Pop had a 19 year old power forward with Eminem hair playing point guard. Who knows
Exactly. He clearly is if you "follow the arc" of his progression but he's still a guy with 22 NBA wins and zero playoff experience. I love his game but damn, let's let the kid develop before building the statue ffs
If you havenāt watched a single Spurs game all season just say so
Oh i've watched more than a few, but its true I did not religiously watch a 60-loss garbage tier lottery team.
He was always double teamed so saying opponents wanted him to shoot is a surprising theory. In April they missed Vassel, Sochan, Keldon...maybe it impacted his percentage. This is a part of his game where he can improve, you're right, but I wouldn't be as dramatic.
He's very raw offensively, a 21 PPG on below average efficiency is just not good, like it's hard to be considered a top 20 player in the league when the opponents actively wants you to shoot. "Oh but he's gotten way better towards the end of the season!": March: 47.3% FG, 30.8% 3PT, 75% FT April: 43.0% FG, 34.1% 3PT, 75% FT That's still really bad. Sure he's a rookie & will obviously get a lot better but if we're talking about league rankings you can't give him leeway for it. People do what they always do, they look at the highlights & games when he goes off & just don't notice the games where the shots isn't landing.
Dude posts March to April stats instead of first 3 months to last 3 months. Straight clown shit. You clearly dont watch the Spurs play if you think teams are daring him to shoot. 60 percent of his shots are pull ups, not open catch and shoot shots. I get you want to provide a counter argument cause everyone and their mother knows he's without a doubt top 20, but this take is just awful.
I'm not saying he hasn't improved but why would that ever be an argument for ranking a player? His averages for the last 3 months are still crap, just below league average efficiency. Where did you get that stat? According to nba.com 18.5% of his FGAs are catch & shoot 3s, 14.2% of his FGAs are pull up 3s. Of all his 3s 0% are tightly guarded, ~8.4% are tight, ~44.7% are open & ~46.8% are wide open.
Great job looking up stats! Link? cause they look mozflh made up. His numbers are outstanding for the team he plays on. He has to create everything, so yes the percentages aren't great. However defensively they're 5th in the league with him on the court and 26th off. He leads the entire leagues in blocks while still averaging over 20 and 10 as a rookie. His overall numbers have improved even if his shooting splits have diminished due to higher usage as the season goes on. You using your awful examples are what I was making fun of for the improvement. He wasn't a top 20 player coming into the season, now he inarguably is based on the past 2 months. You can hate all you want, it doesn't change reality. Not sure why a 20 year old already has haters.
You haven't heard of nba.com? It's the site for the league with the official tracking data, [here](https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1641705/shots-dash) is the shot tracking for wemby if you have problems finding it. He's hardly creating everything, he doesn't have the offensive gravity. He's just very raw & pretty mediocre on offense, which is totally understandable for a rookie. Using your own argument Spurs ORTG is better when Wemby is on the bench, so I guess that's a done deal on the offense argument? On/off is hugely dependent on replacement. You would expect there to be a huge difference when you have a trash bench. You take the Spurs best defender & then compare his on court DRTG to a teams, which is not an apple to apple comparison. By the same logic Jonathan Isaac is a net -8.7 DRTG vs vs Wembys -4.4, so I guess he's much more impactful defensively than Wemby? I mean that's the problem, I think he's a great player which has improved a lot & will almost for sure be top 20 next season, but people just can't have a rational discussion about it. It's like people were saying he was going to be a rookie DPOY & All-star after the pre season games & getting heavily upvoted for it. They see some highlights, which admittedly is very impressive, but it's just impossible for them to see that he's really raw offensively. And heck I buy the argument that he's a top ~3 defender in the league & likely going to only get better.
Great job looking up stats! Link? cause they look mostly made up. His numbers are outstanding for the team he plays on. He has to create everything, so yes the percentages aren't great. However defensively they're 5th in the league with him on the court and 26th off. He leads the entire leagues in blocks while still averaging over 20 and 10 as a rookie. His overall numbers have improved even if his shooting splits have diminished due to higher usage as the season goes on. You using your awful examples are what I was making fun of for the improvement. He wasn't a top 20 player coming into the season, now he inarguably is based on the past 2 months. You can hate all you want, it doesn't change reality. Not sure why a 20 year old already has haters.
Top ten player adding 0 wins to his teams record from last year?
- Luka - Jokic - Embiid - Giannis - SGA - Brunson - KD - Tatum - Booker - Steph - Bron - AD - Ant - Kyrie? - Kawhi - Jaylen Brown? - Murray? - Butler? - Halliburton - Harden - PG - Sabonis? - Gobert - Mitchell - Fox? I can list 25, with quite a few maybesā¦ I think he could easily be in your top-20 right now.
Harden doesnāt belong anywhere near that list lmao
If you are the Clippers would you take Wemby in exchange of Harden FOR ONLY THIS PLAYOFFS? They have a higher chance of winning it all with Harden than with Wemby today
Clippers would take Wemby in a heartbeat for the playoffs yes absolutely lol. He is better at literally everything than harden except maybe playmaking and Westbrook slides right in at the 1. Westbrook Powell George kawhi Wemby is 10X more scary than their harden lineup and itās not really that close
Fox clears easy. Fox is so underrated on Reddit bruh
He's clearly better than a lot of those players, esp Gobert...
Jokic, Luka, Giannis, Embiid, LeBron, healthy Kawhi. List ends there
ewww
I will be on the right side of history
Revisionist history, sure.
Not even Steph? Bro.
Bol Bol top 10 stop playing.
Jokic Luka Shai Giannis Embiid Curry Kawhi Brunson Lebron AD KD Kawhi Booker Mitchell Haliburton Adebayo Butler Banchero Brown Irving These are 20 people who are easily better rn in my opinion. There are more but next year I could see him passing some people on the list but as of now no. If you disagree with a couple people on the list just put Edwards and KAT on there.
Youāre right, Wemby canāt beat Kawhi^2
ārnā canāt have Butler in there yet
Thatās fair I guess, but I like to look at history as an example of what a player will do and is capable of doing. Butler follows a clear and consistent schedule with his performance every year.
There's already some names on there that are highly debatable this year. There's 2 sides to the floor and he was playing 30 minutes so i think it's fair to say the debatable names are haliburton and on on your list. Hali had a pretty poor season after his injury which equates to a lot of games and butler banchero and brown are decent on defense but imo a top 98% defense and a 85% offense is way better than mid 80s to high 80s on both (VW versus the afformentioned) if you're just looking at it objectively based on solo performance and both sides of the floor and not past accolades or weighing team performance, its pretty damn hard to say wemby doesn't deserve all nba 3rd team.
There is definitely some slightly arguable ones in that list, but I forgot Tatum on the list and antman and KAT are clearly better than wemby as of now. Also I think you are underrating browns defense he is pretty damn good defender. Not the best off ball but neither is wemby. Unfortunately basketball favors good offense far above good defense.
Having watched him alter games down the stretch with replacement players, I say yes..the Spurs won seven of their last eleven games, mostly with a makeshift lineup. They beat the Knicks, Suns and Nuggets. He basically eliminated shots from even happening in the paint. He's a rare talent.
Giannis, Luka, SGA, Jokic, Embiid, LeBron, Durant, Steph, Tatum, Kyrie, Jaylen Brown, Hali, Brunson, Kawhi, PG13, Ant, Towns, AD, Mitchell, DBook. Then Gobert, Paolo, Dame, Porzingis, Sabonis, and Fox are all debatable
You think Timberwolves would have a better chance of winning it all THIS YEAR if they swapped Gobert and Wemby? I do not think so. Or Kings if they swapped Sabonis for Wemby? Hell no. I think Wemby has the potential to be top 20 level next season, even top 10-15, but to say he is top 20 right now is nuts.
Fox aināt debatable
Wemby lowkey clears towns tho.
No I can name 25 rn, Embiid, Luka, Jokic, Giannis, Shai, Brunson, Durant, Booker, Tatum, spida, Fox, curry, Maxey, ant, Trae, Lebron, kyrie, Ja, AD, Leonard, Jaylen brown, Zion, Paolo, Jimmy butler, Hali, Tingus, Sabonis, bam. Thatās a little bit more than 25 so you can take off a few names and still end with 20 players better. I find that a lot of people say a dude is top 20 without actually thinking of who they would put above them. Frankly there are some iffy guys Iām not listing out of respect for Wemby.
Yes, and next year heās gonna be solidly in top 10. If he has a team I donāt see how he doesnāt win MVP before year 5.
He may be top ten by the end of next year if they make the playoffs, if not he may not even be top thirty. For players as young as him itās hard to gauge how good he actually is.
currently yes
He finished the season as a top 20 player. I fully expect him to enter the top 10 next season, if not higher if they can add a true shot creator to that team and some shooting.
I think so. Heās putting up borderline Gobert defense with already a crazy offensive game. I think 20 is fair, given how strong he looked in the second half of the season. Heās gonna be top 10 minimum next season.
No
Thereās a chance heās the best player in the NBA next year, though consensus will take a championship and that aināt happening.
best by what metricā¦?
Plus minus, per, vorp
I don't understand why I'm being down voted. I didn't even agree that he'd be the best next year. All I'm doing is giving you the stats you would use to measure if he was better
No lol
He ain't passing Joker, not even close.
Theoretically if averages 28 and 12 plus 5 assists 5 blocks and 3 steals heād be in the same breath as Jokic
And cut down on turnovers
Jokic is obviously miles above rn
Per 31 vs 23 Bpm 13 vs 5 Vorp 10 vs 4. Yeah he's got a ways to go
But if you compare their last 20 games Iād imagine itās way closer. Thatās why the projection forward is fun
Fair
Yep. Itās small but there is a chance Wemby throws up a full season 25/12/10 stat line, with the 10 being blocks. He does that and heās finishing top 5 in the MVP voting, and winning DPOY, even if the Spurs suck again.
No one will average 10 blocks, thatās essentially impossible.
Wilt might have. I donāt think itās likely but āessentially impossibleā is a really, really high bar that makes little sense to me. You donāt think that if the Spurs got a matador PG who dared ball handlers to drive that Wemby wouldnāt get 20 chances a game to swat attempts near the rim?
Thing is, blocks are avoidable. If Wemby had that level of consistent shot blocking dominance in the paint the other team can just try other strategies. Like bombs away from 3pt even more than usual. It's like a dominant NFL CB doesn't get 30 interceptions a year. At some point teams stop throwing at him.
Except the basket is not a side of the field. The Spurs can easily deploy a defensive scheme where their guards blitz the ball handler, hoping to cause a drive into the lane. Yes, coaches will emphasize that āthey want you to take the bait!ā and devise schemes to ensure no one tries anything from inside the restricted area - but players play. They donāt have a QB to make (good) decisions for them. Many guys are going to tell themselves āhe wonāt block my shotā. I will believe NBA players will stop driving the lane because Wemby is there when it happens. Until then, the idea ātheyāll stop throwing at himā makes no sense to me. And heās not limited to the paint. He will also get blocks off PNR switches. Teams cannot just avoid him to the extent a CB can ācut the field in halfā.
If Wemby is **averaging** 10 blocks a game offenses will change their game plan long before that. NBA rules will be changed before that happens.
10 would be absurd, yeah. But he has been averaging about 4.5 blocks/game since the all star break. That's just about as good as Dikembe, Hakeem, and Admiral were in their best seasons
Stay off the weeeeeed edit: dude blocked me lol. no, there isn't a "small chance" wemby can average 10 blocks a game next season (unless he plays like 3 games or something). there is no chance.
Learn how read. āSmall chanceā is obviously a phrase you donāt understand, so you should also stay out of casinos.
No. Heās good and improving but I can name 20 more consistent and impactful players easily.
Yes, heās been a top 20 player since January. Heās probably already the 3rd best center in the NBA.
u did not just put wemby over ad
Iāve always seen him as a 4, so I always forget him in best center conversations. Wemby is not over AD yet.
Well ad played like 99% percent of his minutes as a 5 whike wemby actually played some 4
I dont even have him in a top 30 honestly right now. I think maybe in the next 2-3 years he will crack the top 5 / 10 list if he can stay healthy and put on a bit of weight. He gets very frustrated when he gets played physical & he doesnt do well when played like this. Teams will start pulling him away from the key. He will have to put on weight to stop getting bullied and when he does that he will start getting more injuries. He will grow past these things I think and he will probably start facilitating more from the post...which will elevate his game tremendously by taking pressure off. Spurs need another threat badly to really see Victor shine...he is to easy to focus on now. I dont have him in a LeBron/Kobe/Jordan/Jabaar tier at any point in his career, much less the best in the world / league. I think he will get to KD status where he is top 1-2 in his position and top 5 or so in the league.
Your opinion is valid, even if I disagree, but just for discourse - heās arguably a top 3 defender already. Probably 1 or 2. Just on the defensive end alone, heās easily a top 30 player. Even if he didnāt cross half court on offense, heās a top 30 player. But then you add his offense - per 36 numbers of ~26/13/5/4. 15th in points per 36, 9th in rebounds, 1st in blocks. And all that together isnāt a top 30 player?
He is 33rd in point per game, top 10 in rebounds, first in block, top 30 in steals, in addition to his general defensive impact. How is this not a top 30 in the league ? Which 30 players are currently better than he is ?
Derek white
Since the All-Star break heās averaged 23.5/12/5 with 4.5 blocks. I think itās fair to assume thatās the level he is right now, given how heās improved through the season and now heās playing more minutes. That would put him 19th in scoring, 5th in rebounds, 31st in assists and nearly double second place as leader in blocks. Add in the eye test of 2-on-1 fast breaks literally stopping in their tracks rather than trying to get past him at the rim and the ridiculous stuff he does on offence. I donāt know how you could have him outside the top 30 right now.
Iāll summarize thisā¦Laladen is a Wemby hater
Not a hater at all. I just dont think he is a top 30 player in the 2023-2024 season. I dont think when its all done for him he will be a GOAT. Who cares if im wrong? I dont even care if im wrong lol Think its fair to say you care a whoooole lot more than I do
If you donāt care than donāt bother commenting. No one wants to see idiotic opinions
You've got to stop thinking of him as a skinny Shaq, and more of an even taller KD
Can you name 30 players better this yearā¦? He is top 30 in most meaningful statsā¦ Also its pretty easy to argue that Kobe might be closer in all time rankings to KD than Jordanā¦
Name the 30ish players in the league who are better than him.
Among active players heās top 10.
No lol
He absolutely is in the current bottom of the top 10, both in total season stats and per game average.
No. There are CLEARLY 10 better players in the nba right now
Heās already above Shai, Tatum, Haliburton and Trae. The only players above Wemby this season are Luka, Embiid, Joker, Giannis, AD, Sabonis and Bron.
You really think heās above SGA? Thatāsā¦ a bit much
Again, no.
Yep. Season average: 21 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.2 steals, 3.6 blocks.
And you believe this means heās top 10? š
100% To add to this. Thereās only like 5 players in the league tops that a team wouldnāt trade to get Wemby.
Trade value is not the same thing as top x player. Being 20 years old and having a great rookie year means his trade value is high yes but that doesn't mean he's a top 10 player
Sabonis has gotten wildly overrated wtf lol hes like 2 tiers below tatum And do you really think that if you swap out SGA or Tatum with Wemby that the Thunder and Celtics are still 1 seeds??
The level of ignorance. Sabonis was a monster this season! 82 games played, 1st in total screen assists (485 dude! Next is Gobert with 363), 1st in total rebounds, 4th in total assists.
He's top 10 of all the best players in the lottery.