I remember dude was absolutely glazing Shai his rookie year. In a draft with Luka, Trae, ayton etc.. I just didn’t see it. But he was completely spot on 

this sub hates on TNT guys for their discourse of the league while KD is a great spokesman and can tell he’s genuine yet KD is also hated by /r/nba

Is KD the all time biggest lover of basketball that has played in the NBA?

I can’t think of any other player who appreciates the craft and the process as much as KD.

KD over the years has just shown an absolute love for the next generation, it’s quite wholesome

He’s sweet

Hes a hoops old head that just happens to be an NBA all timer

Uh oh, don’t show this to r/spurs

I mean yes but i think that’s not necessarily the GTO thing to do. This seems accurate. Why give your own scouting report out for free?

Craziest early Wemby take was people saying him playing like KD would stifle his potential. At his height he can theoretically have even more to his game but as an offensive player KD is probably the most logical guy to emulate when he’s not just doing alien shit

He slowly but surely developed himself into complete scorer.

KD expanded his scoring game slowly over time, but he was a complete scorer by Wemby’s age. I think 20ish year old KD is the last time that man had any obvious fault in his scoring game.

Wemby is definitely an interesting situation. He seems to want to become a taller KD, but him messing around on the perimeter showing off his bag is just inefficient ball.

The biggest part of KD’s game which if Wemby was able to integrate would fuck the league up would be moving off ball. Getting Wemby some quick catch and shoot opportunities while navigating screens would be unstoppable.

From a pure basketball fan standpoint I hope we see Wemby develop like that but as a fan of one of the 29 teams in the league not named the Spurs, I kinda hope we don’t…

I got stats.

Midrange shooting percentages
He’s shooting 42% from 10-16 feet and 44% from 16-3pt line. About the same as last year. These are good percentages for that distance.

Shot selection, paint
44% of his shots are from 10 feet and under this year, which is +10% from last year. So that’s good. Though in his rookie year, the number was 49%. So he can do better.

Shot selection, jumpers
27% of his shots are from midrange (10 feet to the 3pt line), which is +8% from last year. Conversely, he’s shooting fewer 3s this year, dropping from 47% of his shots to 28%.

Overall the numbers show that he’s a good jump shooter who probably wants to take more shots in the paint and fewer middies. That said, just in terms of efficiency, he’s improved every year in the league and is now at 62%TS. Which is 7% higher than league average. That makes it hard to knock what he’s doing, though it’s scary to note that he can potentially inflate that even more if he takes fewer jumpers and gets more paint touches.

For more see here: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wembavi01.html#all_adj_shooting

I mean last year he shot 35% on 9 attempts per game, at this point he’s just pretty well established as at least a good three point shooter.

He’s never ever going to bang in the paint, just doesn’t make sense with his body type. He needs space to drive and cut to the basket, and right now the Spurs don’t have the other consistent shooters to provide that, especially with Vassell out

The numbers are interesting.

So rookie year he started off about 30% then took a noticeable jump the second half of the year up to about ³⁴⁄₅%.

Year 2 he had a terrible start, first 10 games it was 23% from 3. Next 34 before the blood clot it was like 37% on 9 attempts a game.

This year was a slightly slow start but he’s at the 38% mark now. (Was actually at 40% before this terrible rockets game).

He’s been somewhere in that 35-38% range since basically the second half of his rookie year, so I don’t think it’s any particular “hot streak”.

I think it may always be “difficult” for him in the paint given his height. He’s just so damn tall that strong post players may be at a positioning “advantage” with lower center of gravity+strength. I think the game planning/timing from his guards needs to me much better to catch Wemby early on post seals, because he can be moved out of position by strong big men.

Than all but maybe 150 people out of 8 billion*

One of those times 99.9999% would’ve been more accurate

I hope he doesn’t become a coach

Or if he does, he’s still able to make appearance on Inside the NBA and other stuff

Or a commentator w Harlan

Idk if there’s a player who loves the game more than KD

I dunno. Mid-late 80s had these superstars:

MJ Bird Magic Hakeem Barkley K Malone M Malone King Dantley Zeke Nique Drexler Stockton English

Then aging KAJ and Dr J, up and comers like Pippen etc

Honestly he might be on that level. Sure he’s not top 3 on offense but he’s top 2 on defense. I think teams would already be fucked if he already had a complete team built around him. Second in the west and look at the roster with obvious holes in it and imagine they weren’t there. Only guy that’s in the top whatever conversation that can put in work like that on defense is Giannis the rest either don’t play defense or they’re small like SGA. I think if his shot selection gets a little better, they tone down the games where he’s honestly just chucking and get little more spacing and this guy is going to be running the regular season at the very least. I think the shot selection/chucking/spacing are all kind of intertwined because sometimes his team just isn’t putting him in a good spot

Doubt he’s going to mentor one of his biggest roadblocks to one last chip before he retires

And in the game before the Rockets he went ⁷⁄₁₂ from 3, ¹⁰⁄₁₈ overall, had 80% TS, and had for 33 pts in 26 mins.

And 2 games before he went ⁴⁄₉ from 3, ¹²⁄₂₃ overall, had 67% TS, and had 39 pts in 31 mins.

And 3 games before he went ⁵⁄₆ from 3, ⁷⁄₁₂ overall, had 83% TS, and had 22 pts in 22 mins.

His average for this season is 60% TS.

KD is not wrong - Wemby is very much a developing player both offensively and even defensively. But from a couple bad games suddenly you have people talking like he’s some defensive role player still learning to shoot a basketball. Wemby is inconsistent. That’s it. There’s a few reasons for his inconsistency, probably including coaching, and it’s still an open question on how you fit the freakiest of all freak players into a basketball game. But let’s not pretend all Wemby should be doing is camping the paint.

Yeah, I think KD’s criticisms come from a place of love, so to speak. I think he genuinely loves to see the game evolve (as opposed to a lot of the old heads who seem to be trashing the new players every chance they get to pump themselves up)

“Just put your hand up” says KD while playing basketball

Yeah no, obviously he’s still young but there’s constructive criticism to be taken from this. Wemby is an incredible player, but he should be using his strengths to his advantage. He shouldn’t be sitting at the 3pt line or the wing as much. He should try and find spots in the elbow or low post more often.

Almost like different people can think different things. 

The system doesn’t want him in the paint because it allows other teams to build a wall and that leaves Fox, Harper, and Castle as ineffective. The spurs have tried everything to get him paint looks but the opposing defense rather give up the 3 from others rather than give Wemby in the restricted area looks. Kenny Atkinson even said he’s not going to allow Wemby get a touch in the paint, he rather leave the rest of the team open from 3 than give Wemby paint touches.

It’s wild cuz people are expecting him to have all-time GOAT levels of offense, and his body type really isnt built for that. Like do they think hes gonna storm into the paint like Shaq? The only advantage his body really has is having open shots above defenders, but that only gets you so far. Like he has to pair his height with KD-level shooting, and why would anyone assume that he can just acquire that level of skill?

what the fuck does this mean and why are you commenting the same thing on multiple threads?

Because he is a 7’5’ guard/wing, he will never ever be a post player with his lower body strength and length unless he puts on 150 pounds and half of that goes to his ass and legs which is what you need to post up

At best you give the ball to him on high post and he takes players on the dribble

I’ve watched damn near every game he’s played and I’ve seen him do everything on offense except a simple post hook lol

Its funny cuz KD has like 2 moves and he does them flawlessly. When you’re tall and can move, its really not complicated. Thats the whole point