...can someone go back and find all the users who said Wemby would be a bust so we can make sure to never listen to them again. Screw Lebron and MJ - this guy is like Hakeem on steroids at this point. Hakeem was a far more graceful player but I have never seen another player besides Hakeem be so dominant on both sides of the ball like that. He really can be the greatest of all time if he stays healthy. Like for real - it's a notch above.
I don't know if anyone felt he would be a bust - the concerns were injury related with him, and whether he would become more aggressive in the post. He has had some injury issues, but seems to be getting better in that regard... he just played 50 minutes in a playoff game. I don't think he will be the best player ever, but I do think he will be in the short conversation. If he plays long enough, he can be similar to Kareem Abdul Jabbar, which is really high praise as Kareem at this point is very under-rated. Wemby also in the middle of this season started operating closer to the basket and his level of domination really improved.
I mean - the way he gets rebounds that would make sense. He can impact the game by scoring in the post or by cleaning up other's misses and giving his team another possession. All of a sudden Steph Castle's poor shooting doesn't hurt you THAT bad. It's kind of like if we genetically engineered a cross between Steven Adams's rebounding with KD's scoring accuracy and thew in some Hakeem rim protection and ability to come from nowhere to erase shots. I know he isn't yet at the maestro level of those guys - but he is good enough at each of those things that the net of it is he dominates in a way very few can.
I'm probably with you on him not fully making it all the way to GOAT status, but man the potential really is insane. As @glimmertwins said, he's like Hakeem on steroids with less grace in movement (which let's be honest, Dream is probably the most poetically smooth post player in history without much competition so obviously on the last point.) He's a legit stopper inside the likes hasn't been since since prime Dwight, and he's better. The other thing is, because he's so agile and slender he can be under the basket and still close out on the 3pt for the majority of guards because he flies across that court. It's like the MJ dunk at the end of spacejam with the mega long arms, **** looks like AI some of the stuff he does. If he actually gets a little stronger and starts banging inside whilst having decent 3's AND the defense? The only thing stopping him being the GOAT is the predictable health concerns.
Wemby already played at an extremely high level in his rookie year and yet it seems like he's taken a massive leap every season since. He's making Chet and Hartenstein look like kids and they're the best defensive frontcourt in the league. This isn't just a Sengun issue or Houston problem. Wemby is only 22 years old. San Antonio is poised to make life hell for the rest of the West for the next decade.
It will be interesting how the league morphs around Wemby tbh. When a Dynasty team comes around the entire league has to adjust to counter the style, which is why there's so few big powerful post playing centers and loads of long rangey wings (because they had to try and stop Steph and Harden) so a stiff is a target. Now we know the ONLY chance anybody really has against Wemby is if they beat him up, see more of your Stewart, Duren etc etc guys start to get better as teams add more weight back in the front line. You're not going to stop him just going up and down or being able to switch on the perimeter, everybody's a mismatch when you do that, like when you saw prime KD but half a foot taller...
Chet's shooting had absolutely no effect on Wemby's defense, because the Spurs just put a wing on Chet (who is incapable of punishing a mismatch), and kept Wemby on the weakest OKC shooter, and left that guy open while Wemby clogged the paint, and then tried to use his length to close out.
I would be very surprised. I hope he does but I'm just not expecting it. That team is stacked with much better talent than us. Each of their young guys is better than our young guys.
There are so few power post players because players that big and talented are incredibly rare. Embiid and Jokic came into the league during the Warriors dynasty and every team would have loved the opportunity to have them. Teams did the math and realized that no other bigs besides those two and AD were worth playing in the post. The long rangey wings aren't a response to Steph, that's just what's available. The median height in the NBA is 6'7" and has been for decades. In this year's draft there are only five prospects that are 6'11" or taller and more than three dozen between 6'6" and 6'10". And unfortunately Harden never won a ring with us and I don't think teams were specifically planning how to counter the Rockets with their roster construction while he was here. No disrespect to Stewart and Duren, but Wemby is facing much better defenders here in the West. He's gone up against Clingan, Gobert, Holmgren, and Hart without issue. Big strong centers haven't slowed him down, nor have long athletic ones. He's got KD's range and mobility and Yao's height while being the clear cut best defender in the league. On top of that SA has an extremely talented young core to support him. I'm not saying they're unbeatable but they're the clear cut favorites like GS were in their heyday. There isn't an obvious counter to them. You have out talent them and good luck with that.
Didn't Sengun score 42 on Wemby? Head-to-Head Stats (Career Averages) Şengün: Averages roughly 20.5 PPG, 10.5 RPG, and 5.3 APG on 51% shooting in their matchups. Wembanyama: Counters with around 17.5 PPG, 11.5 RPG, and 3.4 BPG in those games. [1] DD
They dont like facts. Is Sengun a superstar? NO. Does he give Wemby problems like he gives a lot of bigs in the NBA? Yes. Senguns problem is slowness against faster players and he was inconsistent in these playoffs so they labeled him the bad guy. You know how this forum is when they paint someone as a bad guy. He is always bad no matter what the stats say and a guy they like is always good no matter what the stats say.
Stats that include Wemby's rookie year, before he lapped Sengun. Sengun did diddly against him this season. DIDDLY!
What did Wemby do against Sengun and I mean specifically Sengun not the entire team? Didnt he have a 14 point game against the Rockets this year? lol Has he had a 14 point game in the playoffs? Didnt Wemby destroy Clingan who most people here want to replace Sengun? Our issue against the Spurs isnt Sengun.
I feel like Wemby got so much better within 1 Season that the whole league had no time to adjust. Meanwhile Sengün got a little worse. It would be more interesting to watch if Wemby wins a Championship or MVP, how quickly can he get back to that meteoric rise again because he would lose his Revenge Arc of proving people wrong. All of a Sudden he is the Hunted, he has to pivot .....
Wemby got more hype than Lebron James. His biggest negative is that people thought he would be injured all the time because he's skinny. Not sure how we're finding a way to compare him to a 16th pick no one knew about. lol Only Clutchfans.
