Amid San Antonio Spurs All-Star Victor Wembanyama's height conspiracy theories, former NBA player and podcast host Gilbert Arenas says the young phenom isn't playing to his full potential. For Arenas, Wembanyama hasn't quite grasped the magnitude of his stature that gives him a significant advantage amongst his competitors.
Arenas discussed how Wembanyama is such a unique talent with the kind of natural-born abilities that needs to use to his advantage more often, Arenas said, per Gil's Arena.
“It’s like he wants to be a guard so bad, but he gets into this mode when, yo, just turn, face, shoot from here. It’s like anybody can block you,” Arenas said. “Like you’re talking about just that move alone, that move alone. There’s only a few people that can even contest that jumper.”
Shooting over everyone is what makes Wembanyama one of the more unique talents the NBA has ever seen, which is why Gilbert Arenas believes it's not a skillset that's being taken advantage enough.
“He doesn’t really understand his advantage,” Arenas added. “His advantage is he’s taller than everyone by far. So most of the time he gets the ball, and he will squat all the way down to do his move.”
Wembanyama and the Spurs' 5-0 record is the best start in franchise history. However, after a 130-118 loss to the Phoenix Suns, Wembanyama finished with 19 points on 5-of-14 attempts, eight rebounds, and three assists in Wednesday's 118-116 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Wembanyama is averaging 25.6 points on 50.8% shooting, 12.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 4.1 blocks, and 1.3 steals for the Spurs this season.
Victor Wembanyama's admission after Spurs' loss vs Lakers
All-Star Victor Wembanyama responded to losing to the Lakers in a two-point gut-wrenching loss that could have gone either way, as the Spurs are 0-2 throughout the first week of November. After the loss, Wembanyama addressed his personal shortcomings against the Lakers, per ESPN's Michael C. Wright.
“Personally, I haven't seen this kind of defense from teams,” Wembanyama said. “So we need to adapt as a collective. In the Phoenix game, it was the case as well. We got stalled out sometimes. We're learning.”
The next opportunity for the Spurs to return to the win column will be in their NBA Cup matchup against the Rockets on Friday.
