The thought of Victor Wembanyama in the G League seems ridiculous. To everyone but Wembanyama. The San Antonio Spurs superstar rookie said as much following his team's 109-99 loss vs. the Atlanta Hawks on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“I like to be coached. I like to be threatened to be sent to the G League if I don’t play the right way,” Wembanyama said. “I like when there are consequences to my mistakes.”
The Spurs sensation made hardly any mistakes in a second half that saw him score all 26 of his points. For the game, he also grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked five shots in just 27 minutes.
Victor Wembanyama gets praise from Coach Pop
It sounds like Wembanyama's accomplished head coach won't be sending him to the franchise's G League affiliate in Austin anytime soon. Gregg Popovich went into great detail when asked about the biggest areas in which his young star has improved.
“Probably in aggressiveness. Rolling to the bucket and not being so concentrated on three-point shots, running the floor, being that target,” Popovich said. “And, of course, your team has leaned that they need to throw those passes. That's not something we were used to. He's really learned how to do that and understand that that sets the tone for everybody.”
“Defensively, he's becoming a really good rim protector,” Popovich continued. “Obviously, he's tall and long and he should be but he's figuring out how to make that a definite a priority. Everybody else has learned how to handle that by playing around him.”
Bouncing back from an 'embarrassing' first half
Down 35 points at intermission, Wemby and the other members of the Spurs' usual starting five began the second half on the bench.
“The starters needed some sort of a message or confusion or something,” Popovich added. “I felt the starting team in the third quarter made their point and the first team came back in and competed the way they're paid to compete so in that sense it made it a good night.”
A first half in which the Spurs shooting percentage was in the 20's and in which they allowed 69 points was especially disheartening for the Silver and Black because they had been playing well since the turn of the new year.
“The message was strong and obvious by Pop. He said were being embarrassed. We had probably the worst first half we've had so far,” Wembanyama admitted, “That's also why he changed his starting line up in the second half.”
“He wanted to put players he could trust to give one hundred percent on the court and to show us, the remaining starters how we should've been starting the game,” Wembanyama continued. “I appreciate also that he put Jeremy [Sochan] into the starting line up because he's been bringing just that energy all game and he's been that example tonight.”
Not only did the French phenom not take exception to not starting the third quarter, he welcomed it.
“I think it's important to sometimes learn a new role and be put in new conditions to realize what we should do because tonight the majority of the bench players showed us how to do it in the second half. It worked,” the first overall pick in this past summer's NBA Draft revealed.
It's music to the ears of a Hall of Famer like Popovich.
“He's receptive to anything in coaching, yes. Really high IQ. Understands the game intuitively. You explain something to him and he understands it,” Popovich said. “He's just a remarkable 20-year-old.”
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