Victor Wembanyama is one of the league’s rising players, and he showed just a glimpse of what he can do during his rookie season. At his size and what he does on both sides of the floor, it’s hard not to imagine him being a top player for years to come. Even though Wembanyama already surprised people last year, he’s still amazing people in the preseason, including Tyler Herro.
After the Miami Heat’s preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs, Herro was asked about Wembanyama and what problems he presents on the floor.
“[Victor Wembanyama] makes you bring out different things to finish over him. His length is crazy… pause,” Herro said.
There were many times last year that when Wembanyama was in the paint, players would decide not to take a shot there because it would most likely get blocked. Guards like Herro will have to point their floater a little higher if they don’t want their shot blocked.
Victor Wembanyama showed the league last year what he can do, and this season he knows more expectations will be put on him. During Media Day, Wembanyama spoke about those expectations and how he plans to go about them.
“These expectations, I just manage them like I have for years. I just focus on my actual responsibilities because I don’t have any responsibility to any of you,” Wembanyama said. “I just focus on the guys in the locker room, that’s it.”
The Spurs finished the season 22-60 last year, and there will definitely be more expectations on them to win this season. Adding veterans like Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes will help, and if Wembanyama takes the next step, they could see themselves around the eighth through tenth seed.
“As always, my emphasis is going to be on winning and making my teammates better as much as I can,” Wembanyama said.
It may take another year for the Spurs to really make some noise in the Western Conference, especially if you factor in what the state of the conference looks like now. The Spurs are still quite young despite adding Paul and Barnes, head coach Gregg Popovich will probably be trying to develop the younger talent on the team at the same time.
It will be interesting to see where the Spurs finish at the end of the year, and what Wembanyama will look like as he gets more experience in the league.
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