ON HIS FIRST On training camp day as a rookie in 2023, Victor Wembanyama explained how the San Antonio Spurs could best position him and the franchise for success.

It took about 90 days for the French phenom to be selected No. 1 in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Conventional basketball wisdom says that the 7-foot-tall Wembanyama should live near the basket and take his shots. He should screen, rebound and defend. Block shots. Pass the ball to the guards to facilitate the attack. That’s what most great men do.

But Wembanyama is no ordinary big city. He knew it. So the 19-year-old sat with the Spurs team and they discussed how conventionality would stifle his creativity and therefore limit the team’s ceiling with him as the centerpiece.

“The best way for me to help is not to put myself in a box,” Wembanyama told the Spurs before his first NBA season. “(Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) knows it. He got to know me and I get to know him. We know we will create something original, something special.”

It didn’t take long.

Wembanyama led all rookies in points (21.4), rebounds (10.6) and blocks per game (3.6), ranked fourth in assists (3.9) and second in steals per game (1 ,2). He became the first player to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks in less than 30 minutes per game and finished his rookie season as the first player in a season to amass at least 1,500 points, 700 rebounds and 250 assists , 250 blocks and 100 3-pointers on the way to being unanimously voted Rookie of the Year.

He averaged the most points per possession of any rookie since Michael Jordan (at least 1,000 minutes). He also recorded two triple-doubles, one with assists and one with blocks. Wembanyama completed a 5×5 game against the Los Angeles Lakers with 27 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 blocks and 5 steals, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to be recognized.

This season was no different – ​​a testament to the power of his unrivaled versatility on multiple occasions.

When Wembanyama recorded his first triple-double of the season in a 127-125 win over the Sacramento Kings on December 1, he scored 15 of his 34 points on three-pointers. He made seven three-pointers in his first 10 attempts and only two from 5 feet or closer.

But with San Antonio trailing 97-92 in the final frame, Wembanyama returned to convention.

Instead of continuing his 3-point barrage, Wembanyama moved inside and scored 13 points for Sacramento on 4 of 5 shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. None of those five shots came from outside the arc. Three landed from 7 feet away or closer.

The performance offered one of the first glimpses of this season as Wembanyama learned how – and most importantly – When to use his enormous abilities. And how ruthlessly effective it can be. After the game, Wembanyama again warned against putting him in a box.

“Don’t,” he said.

“I won’t pass.”

Although WEMBANYAMA drilled As he hit four of six shots from distance in the first half of the win over the Kings, Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson pointed out that his sophomore “had some very bad moments in the first three quarters in terms of fundamentals and solidity basketball concerns”. “

Johnson said Wembanyama committed four turnovers in that period and finished the game with five turnovers, due in part to missed catches and errant passes.

“He can do anything,” Johnson said after the game. “So when you have so many options on the menu, it’s hard to believe that you’re going to choose the right one every time. He is a young player who is learning to use all the weapons he has. There’s obviously a tremendous amount of belief there and.” “It’s a huge support for him as he learns when and where to use all these weapons.”

Wembanyama’s diverse skill set can sometimes make it difficult for him to decide how best to utilize his talents from game to game.

Among players who have taken 350 or more shots this season, Wembanyama ranks 13th in jump shot percentage made (63.4%), putting him on a roster full of guards and wings. Wembanyama has a higher percentage of jumpers than Tyler Herro (62.9%), Jalen Green (61.7%), Darius Garland (59.2%), Kyrie Irving (57.7%), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (56). .4%) and even Trae Young (55.2%). ).

Wembanyama has an average shooting range of 17.7 feet, almost the same as Donovan Mitchell and Luka Doncic.

Internally, the Spurs are often amused to hear so much talk and consternation about their young star’s shot diet – one team source believes Wembanyama is closer to Kevin Durant than, say, Hakeem Olajuwon, which explains why nearly half of his shot attempts come from beyond the arch.

“It doesn’t surprise me because it’s conventional wisdom,” Johnson said of criticism of Wembanyama’s penchant for shooting threes. “It’s our job to respect someone who is as in tune with who they want to be and who they can be as Victor and somehow work with them to become who they are. I think that’s just an element of.” Sometimes he understands when and how. The more experience he gets, the better he gets at it.”

And while such variety in Wembanyama’s game gives Spurs options, it creates unpredictability for the opposition.

“You can tell he knows his players really well,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said before Wembanyama recorded seven assists in the Spurs’ comeback win over the Trail Blazers on Dec. 13. “He can just drive it and throw it, knowing a guy is going to cut.”

Despite this, Wembanyama said he is still getting to grips with the game design.

“With a large number of double teams, it is my responsibility to give my teammates the opportunity to capitalize,” Wembanyama said. “Before I came into the league I never really had 10 or more assists and rarely had seven or more. So that’s in my development and I’m ready to take that step because I’m trying to force teams to guard me with more assists than a player.”

Veteran teammate Harrison Barnes said that despite all the growing pains, such as 3-point attempts with the logo at the start of possessions, everything was done for the right reason.

“So many people have so many criticisms that they want to talk about. ‘He should be this. That should be him. He should play like that,’” Barnes said. “My thing is, look, he’s going to play his style and do it his way. It may not be exactly the form people want it in or expect it to be in. But he will do it his way, and.” The most important thing is that he wants to win. That’s his north star.

IM AWAKE During the triple-double against the Kings, Wembanyama leaned back in a chair in a cramped, dark room and reflected on some of the changes he had already made to his game.

Wembanyama admits his immense ability confuses him at times, but he credits Spurs’ video team with helping him slow the game down. Before every game, the video team loads an iPad full of clips of the various defensive displays the opponent used against them in the last match.

“The real difficulty is adapting to the defense and the type of coverage in real time,” Wembanyama said. “Because the answers are always there when we watch a film afterwards. It’s easy to recognize them. But reacting in real time is very difficult.”

But thanks to his film study, Wembanyama begins to recognize all the patterns used against him. Billups explained before Saturday’s game that the only way to defend Wembanyama is with a defensive system as diverse as his skill set.

Ahead of Monday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV), Wembanyama put together two historic performances. On Thursday, Wembanyama’s 42-point performance against the Atlanta Hawks became the first NBA player to make seven 3-pointers and total 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks in the same game. And his 30-point, 10-block performance Saturday against the Blazers put him in rare air again.

San Antonio was trailing by three points in its 133-126 overtime win over Atlanta when Wembanyama came back into the game. He began the sequence with an 8-foot pull-up jumper, followed by a step-back 3 and a floater off the glass.

On San Antonio’s next possession, Wembanyama positioned himself near the free throw line while Hawks center Clint Capela defended. As the shot clock expired, Wembanyama took a quick step out, then drove back in before ducking under Capela’s outstretched arms and sneakily floating the ball high over the glass just as Spurs forward Julian Champagnie swooped toward the basket. Wembanyama caught his self-alley-oop off the backboard with a second left on the shot clock and hit a two-handed jam to tie the score at 101 as the 17,852 fans at Frost Bank Center erupted.

He then completed the sequence by throwing a seemingly impossible lob from beyond the 3-point line to Jeremy Sochan, who finished the play while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Dyson Daniels defended at arm’s length.

The 11-point run gave the Spurs a 103-101 lead, with Wembanyama scoring nine of those points and Sochan providing the basket shot. Wembanyama then scored eight of the Spurs’ 13 points in overtime by shooting 3 of 4 from the floor and 2 of 2 from 3-point range.

“Vic, I know I have to be careful not to take him for granted,” point guard Chris Paul said. “I missed a layup tonight and I was like, ‘Vic, where are you?’ He just covers up so many mistakes. I don’t know how many blocks he had tonight.

That’s perfectly fine for a Spurs organization that shares Wembanyama’s vision of what he could become. Coaches and teams have been telling Wembanyama what he should and shouldn’t do, what he should and shouldn’t be, for as long as he could remember.

“This everyday struggle that you are talking about, of course, I went through many times in my childhood,” Wembanyama said. “But now I’m experiencing a level of freedom I’ve never had the chance to before. And for me it is also the clearest way how I can get better and get to the top.”

“So it makes sense that we see creativity on the pitch because I think it’s the best way for me to help my team. You don’t put me in a box and I won’t.”