Is Victor Wembanyama ‘floating around the perimeter’ too much for the Spurs?

Kevin Durant didn’t sugarcoat it. After the Rockets held Victor Wembanyama to a rough 5-for-21 shooting night last week — including 3-for-18 on jumpers — KD offered some veteran wisdom disguised as postgame analysis.

“He’s still working on his jump shot. We made him shoot over us,” Durant said. “He’s more dangerous when he gets layups and dunks. That’s more his game than floating around the perimeter shooting 3s and jump shots. When they go in, it looks amazing. But when you put a hand up, he had a couple bad misses.”

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Translation? Pull up all you want, big fella. We like our chances.

Wembanyama is already one of the best players in the world at age 22, and he’s not yet in his prime. But does KD have a point?

(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

Wemby’s jumper a work in progress

Wemby is shooting a career-best 39.5% on midrange dribble-jumpers, but that ranks only 22nd of the 25 players to take at least 100 of them so far this season. It’s better than the 33.3% he posted last season and miles ahead of his rookie campaign’s 26.8%. But it’s not efficient yet.

Then you look at his 3-point shooting off the dribble, and the trend reverses: 25% this year, down from 32.8% last season and 37.7% as a rookie.

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Combine all his pull-up attempts from both midrange and from 3, and he’s shooting 34.5%, only a tick better than the 33% he posted in both prior seasons. This season, Wemby ranks 41st of the 46 players to take at least 150 of those shots. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is first (48.2%) and Durant is decimal points behind at 47.8%.

Wemby just turned 22. He’s the same age as a college senior. He can’t rent a car without paying extra. He’s not a finished product. The pull-up numbers have plateaued, sure. But he is much more fluid getting into his shots. Three years ago he looked like a baby deer learning to dribble. Now he’s crossing guys over while also turning the ball over less than he ever has. And he’s generating more of his own shots as a result: dribble-jumpers make up 31% of his total shots, up from the 25% in his…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/is-victor-wembanyama-floating-around-the-perimeter-too-much-for-the-spurs-165325130.html

Author : Kevin O'Connor

Publish date : 2026-01-28 16:53:00

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