The NBA regular season is about to reach the one-in-two stage, and this period will mean different things to teams in the league. Young teams that have been doing so badly since the start of the season will choose to rebuild further in order to get better draft picks. And for those "strong teams" who do not meet expectations, all they have to do is make timely transactions that are not strong. That was the case with the Lakers last season, who traded for Willis before the trade deadline and acquired players like Russell and Vanderbilt all the way from the play-in tournament to the Western Conference Finals. This season is very similar to the Lakers' situation is the Warriors, who have lost to the Raptors and Pelicans in the last two games.
Curry, who is the core of the team, has also had a lot of ups and downs in form recently, and Curry also said that the Warriors are in a bad atmosphere right now. Once the stars talk publicly about the atmosphere in the locker room, it's often time for management to start making trades, and the Warriors will really need to rely on trades to change the team's current situation if they want to make the playoffs this season. With the exception of teams like the Warriors, who are at the bottom of the league for more than half of the season, they still want to make the playoffs and compete for a championship. There is also a young team that has just finished the swing period and is in the run-in stage of the lineup. 16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists! No. 1 in the league! Change the style of play, the future of the NBA supergiant!
That's the case with the Spurs, who ended their rebuild after getting Wembanyama. The Spurs have had plenty of time to develop Wembanyama, and Wembanyama has lived up to the team's expectations, breaking multiple records in 36 regular season games so far this season. Although the team has suffered the longest losing streak in franchise history this season, for the Spurs, they have found the next player who could replicate the "Duncan era". Wembanyama is averaging 19.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game this season and is averaging a league-leading 3.2 blocks per game. In the game with the Pistons, the bottom team of the league, Wembanyama got a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in 22 minutes, which also made Wembanyama surpass Iguodala and become the youngest player in league history to score a triple-double with 0 turnovers in a single game.
At the same time, it is also the first triple-double of Wembanyama's career, and the 20-year-old Wembanyama also became the youngest player in Spurs history to achieve a triple-double. Wembanyama completed the feat in just 21:02, the second-fastest player in league history. The only person who reached a triple-double faster than Wembanyama was Willis, who was still with the Thunder. Head coach Popovich also spoke highly of Wembanyama, not mentioning Wembanyama's own offense or praising how good his defense was, because it was obvious. Popovich bluntly said that Wembanyama is a very good passer. This is all the more sudden, and Wembanyama's potential is very high.
Wembanyama has been partnered by Collins since the start of the season and has played the power forward position. But nearly two months after the start of the regular season, Popovich officially put Wembanyama in the center position. Wembanyama's assists per game have been increasing since changing his style of play. Wembanyama's average assists per game rose from 2.5 to 3.9 with almost three minutes less playing time due to an ankle injury, which is impressive for an interior player who is 2.26m tall. Wembanyama's on-court vision will also be better due to his outstanding height, and in many games Chinese Banyama can pass the ball to a better teammate in the tight gap between two defenders.
And Popovich insisted on letting defender Jones play as a substitute for a long time in order to better improve Wembanyama's ability to play the organizational tandem, and Wembanyama's progress in the organizational tandem is indeed very fast. Wembanyama uses his height and speed to take advantage of traditional centers to put the defense in a difficult position, and when he has the ball, he can use his basket threat to attract the defense. Creating plenty of open cuts for his teammates, Wembanyama is often quicker on the offensive end than his opposing defenders as a centre-forward.
That's why after Wembanyama switched to the center position, the overall offensive tempo of the Spurs was among the top five fastest teams in the league. Of course, playing the Pistons doesn't prove that the Spurs are out of the woods, but it at least lets the Spurs know that they're not in the same category as the Pistons. Wembanyama will be the centerpiece of the Spurs' next title race, but the Spurs' current roster is not even enough to make the playoffs. The most obvious point is that Sochan is simply not capable of playing as a starting point guard, and his vision on the offensive end is very limited. In particular, the tacit understanding with Wembanyama was insufficient, and Sochan's poor finishing ability ruined many Wembanyama's wonderful pass assists.