The Spurs are a team in the midst of a rebuild, with a poor 4-25 record so far this season, placing them in the bottom of the West. Now they can be said to be hard to win, but for Spurs, the record is not under any pressure. Because they got the talented player Wembanyama by swinging badly. After winning the champion show, he cultivated the champion show to grow and lead the team to make contributions. This kind of drama is very familiar to the Spurs and Popovich, because Duncan led the Spurs to a dynasty in this way.
But Duncan and Wembanyama are very different. Duncan entered the NBA after finishing college, his basic skills are also surprisingly solid, and he has an excellent leadership temperament. Wembanyama's talent is not inferior to Duncan's back then, with first-class height, excellent athleticism, and good skills, but he is more like a piece of jade that needs more training and carving.
The Spurs are currently developing Wembanyama, giving him unlimited power, building a team around him, developing a strategy to match him, and controlling playing time to avoid injuries. In the last game against the Jazz, the Spurs lost 118-130 to the Jazz, and Wembanyama started the game, where he recorded 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks. Although he is not aggressive on the offensive end, his defensive performance is top-notch, especially the rim protection is top-notch.
As we all know, after entering the small-ball era, the league's defense and confrontation have weakened a lot, and the players' playing style also tends to float, so the traditional center has been slowly eliminated by the league, and the top interior line of defense is only the existence of blue-collar interior lines like Gobert.
However, the emergence of Wembanyama seems to change this trend. Wembanyama has played 26 games so far this season, averaging 30 minutes per game and taking 15 shots9 times, is a proper core treatment. Wembanyama also averaged 18 per game3 points 106 rebounds 28 assists 13 steals and 3 blocks, shooting percentage of 433%, and the three-point shooting percentage is 28%. Wemban's style of play is suitable for today's era, with strong inside offense and stable three-point shooting.
At the same time, his rim protection is phenomenal, averaging 3 blocks per game. He also surpassed the likes of Lopez, Kessler and Chet to become the league's block leader for the new season. Not only that, but in the 23 years of the 21st century so far, no rookie player has been able to average 3 blocks per game. Even super interior players like Howard, Duncan, Yao Ming, and Garnett can't do it. Maintaining this performance, Wemban will become the only rookie in the 21st century to average 3 blocks per game, which can be said to have a bright future.