He’s right. Teams literally don’t enter the paint when he is nearby. Crazy to see. He doesn’t have 5+ blockers per game only because nobody even tries to shoot when he is nearby

He’s basically a cross between a taller Gobert and KG defensively, like it’s hard to comprehend.

I assume A LOOOOOT of teams facing him in the playoffs will have to rough him up using Gortat screens etc with guys Hartenstein etc. It’s actually a pretty good news for him that Steven Adams is out since he’s basically the goat at that

Wemby’s defensive prowess is gravitational. He is the Sun.

This is why stats can be misleading.

Like, Wemby currently averages 4.0 STOCKS (Steals + Blocks) per game. This is the lowest of his career, which might lead you to believe that he is not as effective defensively this year if you aren;t watching the games.

But the truth is that the League has adjusted to his ability to shut down the basket, and is LITERALLY changing their offenses to adjust. We should develop a new metric that accounts for the number of drives ending in “F**K NO, MAN” and pull the ball back out to the perimeter.

I think Wemby’s defensive antigravity is like Steph Curry’s offensive gravity - unprecedented, and due to a player who can do things that no one else can.

They demand focus and change the shape of the game in ways that no one else does.

Thinking basketball said something like “He is to defense in impact what Steph Curry is too offense”

Lately I’ve seen a lot of players are learning to shoot high arcs against him. It’s obvious they have to change the way they practice shooting when playing him

One thing I can think of in other sports is when a shutdown cornerback doesn’t have many interceptions because no QBs throw his way. But that only shuts down one receiver and one part of the field. Wemby does this for the whole court.

For a 3 year peak stretch he’s already the 2nd best defender in the play by play era behind KG. But it’s a sizeable gap between him and KG on that stat (but again, that’s peak KG).

After every Spurs game, there’s an awesome poster who posts a compilation of all the times a team avoids Victor in the paint

The videos are sometimes like several minutes long of just guys noping the hell out

If he uploaded the entire season compilation, it would probably be hours of footage

Even when teams are successful scoring against the Spurs when Victor’s in, it almost always comes down to them successfully being able to pivot from what they typically want to do versus being able to execute their preferred offense

He single-handedly changes entire teams schemes and identities on the end of the Court

There’s never been anything like it

Rudy’s the closest I can think of, but even he didn’t affect teams like this

Mark Eaton never seems to get his recognition in these discussions. He’s still one of the most physically intimidating players I’ve ever seen play in the NBA, and you just did not go into the paint when he was waiting.

They didn’t call him “Space Eater” for nothing.

The angry coach guy on YouTube said it best: it’s like playing 5 on 6. He’s two defenders in one.

Are we sure this isn’t hyperbole? If Wemby is the most dominant defensive player EVER already, why don’t the spurs have far and away the best defensive rating in the league?

They have other good to great defenders on the roster like Castle too, it’s not like he’s a one man defense.

He should be the MVP.

it’s called the eye test

I forget what player said this, but it applies perfectly to Wemby:

“I never cared about stats, and I still don’t. My goal is to have an impact on the game. Sometimes, you have the biggest impact with plays that don’t show up in the stats. Those are the plays I live for.”

I know this isn’t the popular opinion but it’s why I honestly feel like he’s the best player in the league already and should be MVP.

Shai and Jokic are incredible players that control the game on offense at a historically great level. It doesn’t matter. Wemby on the other end is like nothing I’ve ever even seen before.

It’s also why I think the Spurs can actually win this year without ever being in the playoffs before. I know it’s basically impossible for a young team, and a young star, to immediately understand how to win in the playoffs. Ordinarily I would agree. But Wemby is just something I’ve never seen before. I think OKC are the rightful favorites, but I think you’d be insane to bet against him.

He really is. Suddenly even very good offensive players are getting gun shy around him. He is also doing this peekaboo block where he’s acting nonchalant or even turning his back but then boom… “surprised motherfucker” volleyball block. Players caught up, now they are even more gun shy lol. No one is safe really, his alien height, his skill, his relative speed, and his attitude to always contest and not afraid of getting posterized, he will be a perennial dpoy.

Even the uncles will have to admit that Wemby is on track to being the absolute, undisputed greatest defensive player of all time. Hell, I would say that he’s already, peak for peak, top 3 historically, he just needs to keep it up for 3-4 years and I’ll be comfortable calling him the GOAT defender.

It’s really the main reason I think the Spurs can win the title and take down OKC this year.

OKC is unbelievable but they’ve shown signs, even during this win streak of resorting to SGA iso’s to score. He’s obviously either the best or 2nd best scorer in those situations with Luka but it can look clunky. Maybe it won’t matter like last years playoffs and their defense will be enough, or maybe Jdub coming back will fix a lot of this.

RIght now though, post all star break, they have been a pretty average offensive team no matter how you break it up. Now add in Wemby on that floor defensively, with SA having one of the best offenses all year and those runs could happen quick.

Hopefully we get a healthy best of 7 because it has potential to be amazing.

He can go under screens and still contest 3s

Very, seeing him up close showed me tow things this year:

He’s not ready to have the responsibility on both sides of the ball yet because offensively hes still figuring himself out.

Defensively he will be so dominant by the time his career is done that he’ll make Hakeem seem average on that end of the floor because of just how aware you have to be as far as where he is at literally all times.

I dont think he will be greater than LeBron as far as a complete player but Bill Russell has always impressed me with his defensive ability AND more importantly his defensive mind…. I think Victor will be even better that Bill when his career is all said and done as far as pure defense is concerned.

Spurs also play sort of a zone where he just roams the paint and the other guys switch out if needed. Allows him to almost never get pulled out of the paint to guard the 3 point line.

Yeah Wemby’s stats don’t do his defensive impact justice. Every single game, the whole goddamn game, you watch people drive into the paint and then pass it out because Wemby is nearby.

Minimum 10 times a game he dissuades a shot that 99% of players would take if Wemby specifically wasn’t there. You literally can’t statistically measure his impact.

Some of my favorite highlights on this sub are the clips of entire possessions being spent driving to the rim, noping out of Wemby’s airspace, kicking it out and moving the ball for 23 seconds until someone has to take a bad shot. It’s interesting watching teams have to problem-solve every possession

Not enough teams tanked for this man. He’s like Neo at the end of The Matrix levels of defensive awareness.

I think one really understated advantage with Wemby is that pump fakes are basically useless for 99% of opponents, because he rarely needs to jump to contest anything.

That’s something that really hurt Dwights’ overall defensive impact after some dominant years. Most guards just attacked the rim, stopped, pump-faked, DH would always jump and go for a block, and it would be 2 FT + foul.

Wemby has the length and agility to just contest almost every shot in any paint situation.

https://youtube.com/shorts/KRfg7hUOFFk?si=JU3H1yzss5pSmLUf

This clip is from his rookie year but pretty much summarize his defense

He’s to paint defense the opposite of what peak Steph Curry was to outside shooting. One attracted traffic, the other one pushes everything away. And Wemby is like in his 3rd year lol

The real way he impacts a defense is by making people not attempt shots at the rim if he’s there. Even for how tall he is he is deceptively long, and its been shown to be damn near impossible to anticipate how he might be able to affect a shot, so guys just don’t shoot it.

This is why I have him as my MVP. He’s so much more valuable on defense than anyone else in the league, and still very good on offense, that it pushes him above Shai and Jokic/Luka to me. He’s got the gravity on Defense, of Steph Curry on Offense. Insane talent.

That’s exactly right, which is why I think he should win MVP (assuming he plays enough games). We normally don’t see dominant defenders also averaging 25ppg on offense. It’s just ridiculous.

I’m going to be so annoyed when he only wins like 3 DPOY, just due to voter fatigue. 

We’ve never seen someone with these dimensions able to move like this.

Not even close

Soon the Thunder Floppers will scatter and flee off into the void. Not even Dirty Dort can injure Wemby now.

you were suppose to be like that Zion! but you Dwight schrute’d your chance!

his aura plays good defense

Yea hes so deserving of that DPOY. But that’s all he’s gonna win

Game breaking

It’s gonna be interesting to see how he looks come playoff time.

It seems like every 4 years or so there’s a very polarizing star like him that enters the league but gets exposed come playoffs.

Ben Simmons is the first one that comes to mind.

Zach Lowe is a gamba shill idgaf about what he said. Sold out his audience for a few bucks.

NBA equivalent of Revis Island

Basically the only way to beat him in a 7 game series would be to be unconscious shooting the 3 as a team, or low key try to hurt him/ just out tough him for 7 games and hope he wears down by game 5 or 6.

i’ve thought he was the GOAT defensive player since last year basically

hes murasakibara except nba three instead of highschool

It’s a double effect. Teams take over 10% fewer of their attempts in the paint when he’s on the floor, and they convert at a significantly lower rate when they do attempt them. Most rim protectors get one or the other. Gobert shows a paint shot share drop of about 3 points (49.6% on vs. 52.7% off) with a paint FG% swing of ~7.6 points. Wembanyama’s deterrence effect (~10.7 pp shot share drop) is more than triple that.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The stat to track would be some calculation with:

1. Opp. Attempts per game <20ft wemby on/off
2. Opp. PPG from shots <20ft wemby on/off
3. Opp. FG% under <20 wemby on/off

Normally I would say conjecture and hyperbole but he might be right considering the era, style of play, and numbers.

There is no stat for guys refusing the even look at the rim or consider the paint. He’s not the first ridiculously tall guy but he is probably the first as coordinated, agile and athletic. If he isn’t the most dominate he is certainly already in the conversation after two and a half seasons.

And it’s a shame we’ll never be able to properly capture it because 90% of fans are doodoo brains that can only operate in ppg and triple double

In general offense is much more important than defense. You’d rather have the best individual offensive player in the world on your team than the best individual defensive player, and it’s usually not close.

Wemby is just so far above the field on defense that he breaks that rule of thumb, and he doesn’t even suck at offense.

https://i.redd.it/if7ruhmryf281.jpg

Shouldn’t there be a way to track this? If we can track “Gravity” as a metric, there should be a way to track anti-gravity, especially paint antigravity: how often are offensive players simply avoiding the paint when Wemby is playing? And what is the delta between that avoidance rate vs that offensive player’s typical game or even with wemby off the court

My only guess would be percentage of field goal attempts in the paint by opposing team when we wemby is on vs off the floor?

One of the funny things I’ve enjoyed seeing is when someone new goes up to lay it up, at least once a game, they get upset and call for a goaltend only for the cameras to show that it was a block by Wemby. No one’s blocked it at that level so they assume Wemby goaltended.

Wemby is the next ‘GOAT’ player. I even can not find a player who can defense him.

He should be two time dpoy

Hakeem was never an NBA player after all.

Wemby is just so fun to watch, especially when he decides he is going to defend the heck out of you and starts running around the court behind the tail of a desperate opponent wgo looks like he is in a horror movie. The ball suddenly becomes a hot potato and is being passed around when Wemby approaches. But my faves are the ridiculous blocks. Just swat, smack, thump and volleyball spikes.

Is it crazy to say he’s the most agile 7 footer ever? I’m a nephew so I’ve only seen highlights of Orlando Shaq and I know he was an athletic anomaly but in terms of quickly changing direction Wemby is just unreal. And that’s not even mentioning Wemby is in the top 10 tallest players too.

It’s like if you look at catcher Ivan Rodriguez stats in MLB for throwing out runners. They actual number would be low because noone ran on him.

I had marveled at his exploits on both sides of the ball watching on TV. Seeing him in person and being able to focus on watching him took that appreciation to a new level. He is gaining so much confidence on offense and the defense absolutely impacts the vast majority of half court possessions. You can see it in how the other team sets up, starts their rotations then after the dribble penetration is forced back out and Wemby follows and impacts well beyond the key.

The issue is, a player being great at Defense is very muted, they can just pass the ball away from you and shoot found the perimeter.

Well, it’s not completely true that your defense is as strong as your weakest link. There is some truth to it. 

Idk man, he is obviously altering opposing offenses, but I’ve seen him get cooked by dudes who just aren’t afraid of him. I think the threat of a guy with his reputation is doing as much work for the defensive metrics as anything he’s actually able to do on the floor. I fucking hate the hyperbole from casual sports media lol

Idk Dwight Howard was pretty much the same thing in his magic days. He just didn’t really do anything on the perimeter but the game was more driving to the hoop instead of shooting 3s

If only there was a metric called player running away from the paint in fear per possession then we would have an idea

Is there a stat for avg distance of shot for teams when playing vs wemby and vs other?

The only way to even have any hope generating offensive consistency against the Spurs is to have a center that can space the floor.

Wembanyama must be pulled from the interior to have any hope of not being forced to settle for threes.

If you can’t knock down the deep ball, it’s hopeless to beat the Spurs.

You either need a legitimate center that can shoot threes but also put the ball on the floor and drive or go with undersized small ball stretch center like a large small forward but then that leads to problems defensively.

Wembanyama is the greatest defensive talent this league has ever seen.

The future of the NBA is drafting and developing centers that have the mobility to guard both in the paint and the perimeter that can also shoot the rock and put the ball on the floor.

The NBA is going to need Wembanyama stoppers like the league once had stout centers as Shaq fodder.

Half of what he does is psychological warfare, you see players scared to shoot in the paint.

We all know the blocks and the altered shots and the shots that don’t even happen because players “nope” out of them.

But he does this other cool thing on defense where if he’s being put into a pick and roll, as the ball handler is probing towards the rim and wemby is retreating back towards the rim, he reaches and swipes at the ball handler. Since he’s an alien, it seems like ball handlers don’t expect the length and so he either swipes the ball or forces the handler to pick up the ball sooner than they were expecting to. It’s another way in which he blows up those actions.

Similarly, he just got Booker with this, but god help you if he comes to double and you pick up your dribble. It’s impossible for players to throw it out to the “open” man if Wemby and another guy are all over them.

This is like someone who made a virus that just came out saying that it is “the virus most successful at evading malware protection!”

He just entered the league. He brings something new to the table that the league has never really seen before. But these are professionals. They WILL figure it out.

Call me in 3 years when teams have some real experience against him and if it’s still the same, I might agree with you. But until then, I would be careful calling anything he does “the best I’ve ever seen!”

I’ve seen Ben Wallace play. He’s not even on that level yet.

Wemby locks down everything inside the 3 point arc? He’s Murasakibara!