A little more than halfway through the 2023-24 NBA season, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich spoke at length about his superstar rookie's progression.
The most hyped player to enter the league since LeBron James, Victor Wembanayama started well out of the gate in late October and has improved ever since.
While in Philadelphia – ahead of Joel Embiid's 70-point outburst – Popovich recounted his approach to his own superstar big man.
Pop's approach to Wemby
“It's a process. For me, I opt to go slowly rather than quickly to decide what he's going to be.”
Popovich then detailed the onset of his plan on coaching Wembanyama.
“With Wemby, it's watching him. That's what we did. I told our local guys for the first 15, 20, 25 games we're just going to let him play. I mean, if he takes some ridiculous shot, we're going to coach, but, in general, see where he ends up,” the Hall of Fame coach continued.
“Is he on the block? Does he like turning and facing upside to downside? How many three's is he going to take in transition? How often does he want to be in a pick and roll, either handling or getting a pick? Just randomly see where he gravitates and where he's successful and where he's not.
“For instance, in the beginning, he was putting the ball down and putting it down around his knees and everybody was just attacking him. He had six turnovers last game because he's not doing the Bill Walton thing and keeping it up in the air. That would educate me and the staff as to where we should go next.”
As he went on, Popovich sounded as if his coaching of Wembanyama has entered the next stage.
“So now we have a better idea where I think he can be successful. And when you do it that way then he”ll buy in also and understand, showing him film and that kind of thing. It's a process but you can't just decide ahead of time and put him in it.”
Coaching Wemby in relation to Spurs legends
During his extended thoughts on Wembanyama's progression, Popovich invoked two of the greatest players he coached. He referenced Spurs great and Hall of Fame guard Manu Ginobili in detailing why he didn't provide Wemby with much structure to start his NBA career.
“I kind of learned that from Manu. In the beginning, Manu horrified me with some of the crazy stuff he would do. He taught me to zip my lip here and there, let him be Manu because if I tried to make him what I thought he should be, you wouldn't get everything that he has,” the longest tenured coach in NBA history shared.
Ginobili helped Popovich win four NBA championships. Tim Duncan was with Pop for all five. And when he arrived in San Antonio, one of the greatest power forwards of all time – if not, the best – did so as much more of a polished product.
“When Timmy came, he already had four years of college with a very good coach. I didn't teach him his footwork. He had it already.”
Wembanyama is averaging 20.3 points, 10 rebounds and 3.2 blocks in the 37 games he's played as a rookie. Not bad for a newly turned 20-year-old who still has a ways to go.
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