For all the firsts he's already racked up this season–from becoming the youngest player ever to post eight consecutive double-doubles, to matching some of the game's greats as the first to accomplish certain stat lines since they did it–San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama is in the midst of another first right now. A personal first.
With 24 points in Sunday's 117-115 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the now 20-year-old star has scored 20 more points in five straight games for the first time in his fledgling NBA career.
Has Victor Wembanyama ‘turned a corner'?
Asked whether he's made substantial progress since earlier in the season, Wemby was quite clear.
“Of course. I think, yes, but I'm young, getting better every day and I think we can say that for every month to the next one. The good thing is my margin of progression – I don't know even know how big it is. I can get so much better. That's what I'm trying to do every game, every week and every month,” the 7-foot-4 big man said.
In that same postgame press conference following the Spurs' most recent setback over the weekend in Ohio, Wembanyama opened up about the biggest challenges to his growth. Growth, that is, on the court considering how much's he's grown off it.
“The hardest thing as a young player, as a 7-footer, and also as a young professional back in Europe, back in France, there was always that challenge–which was to stay true to myself, to my game because as a tall person, it's hard sometimes to move. Sometimes it's hard to shoot,” the top overall pick in this past summer's draft continued, “It's hard to learn everything on the court and [you've] just got to keep pushing. Now I'm in a safe spot, you know,” Wemby shared.
Perhaps, too safe a spot some have said.
Spurs star under minutes Restriction
The Silver and Black continue to monitor Wemby's game minutes as he recovers from a series of right ankle tweets that started in mid December and continued past that pregame incident in Dallas that involved an Mavericks ball boy.
“My hunger is bigger than ever to win and to compete. Now I've learned to get over that frustration of minutes restriction. It's how it is,” the generational prospect revealed. “My body needs to time to adapt to the load and to this long season. Once it's ready, it's go time. There's no need to be frustrated. I just keep my long term goals in mind.”
It was a bit of a change in tone for Wembanyama, who expressed frustration recently about being allowed to play only 25 minutes in approximation per contest. Additionally, in an 11-day span in late December, the Spurs held him out of three games.
“My whole body's going to be reexamined every once in a while, every couple of weeks or so. It's something we keep in front of our eyes. We can't be mistaken on this,” the youngster added.
In 31 games this season, Wembanyama is averaging 19.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, and a league leading 3.3 blocks per contest.
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