Victor Wembanyama is making a big impression in the 2023/24 NBA season. However, the young star of the San Antonio Spurs lost the race to win the “Best Rookie of the Year” title with Chet Holmgren, when the Spurs’ collective achievements can hardly compare with what the Oklahoma City Thunder are doing. show.

Currently, Victor Wembanyama is averaging 18.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3.2 blocks per game, but this player’s shooting efficiency is only 44.4%, as well as 28.9% at the 3-point line. However, this is not Victor Wembanyama’s fault, as he is lacking a teammate with good playmaking ability in the San Antonio Spurs squad.

Jeremy Sochan and Victor Wembanyama do not have a good enough combination

In the 2023/24 season, Jeremy Sochan is planned to become a player playing as a ball defender for the San Antonio Spurs. However, he was originally a player playing in the Power Forward position, with his playing style, skills and tactical vision unable to meet the position of conductor of the team.

According to NBA statistics, Sochan has only made 13 assists for Victor Wembanyama this season. That is a very small number, compared to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 39 assists and Josh Giddey’s 33 assists for Chet Holmgren up to now.

Even Jeremy Sochan’s passes to Victor Wembanyama are rarely “set-up” passes. The French player even has to take more time to manage each time he receives a pass, and it’s not surprising. when he only had 20% efficiency every time he made throws after Sochan’s pass.

As mentioned above, Jeremy Sochan is not a pure defender. Therefore, he did not have enough tactical vision to recognize the necessary spaces for Victor Wembanyama.

The San Antonio Spurs have also been aware of those things in recent games. That is also the reason why coach Gregg Popovich decided to withdraw Zach Collins, a center forward, from the starting lineup, accepting to sacrifice the height of the squad to use Malaki Branham more.

With decent passing skills, Branham is the right choice in theory. However, this player’s performance is not too impressive, as this is only his second year playing in the NBA.

Victor Wembanyama plays best when Tre Jones is in the lineup?

In the San Antonio Spurs squad, they have a player with the full skill set of a ball defender at a good level or better. However, Tre Jones is often only used in the reserve squad, due to limitations in height and body shape.

There is a statistic that shows that Victor Wembanyama plays most effectively when paired with Tre Jones. The playmaker’s skill set always helps Tre Jones see gaps to support Victor Wembanyama in attacking situations.

Victor Wembanyama’s statistics with and without Tre Jones (PBP Stats)

Yes Tre Jones Statistics No Tre Jones
284 Minutes played 519
33.4 Points per 100 situations 28.1
58.5 Actual pitching percentage 50.2
59.3 Performance 2 points 46.3
8.4 Number of free throws per 100 situations 6.3
3.8 Number of ball losses per 100 situations 5.9
If Wembanayam only had a 20% efficiency when receiving passes from Jeremy Sochan, he had a 53.1% conversion rate when receiving passes from Tre Jones. Not only that, this is also the only player who can throw alley-oop passes for Victor Wembanyama to score easily.

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According to PBP statistics, every time Tre Jones and Victor Wembanayam play on the field, they score an average of 5 points more than their opponents in every 100 ball possession situations. However, the two have only had 284 minutes of play together this season, an average of more than 10 minutes per match.

However, there are good reasons why Tre Jones is rarely used. Tre Jones is the type of player who does not have explosiveness, nor does he have a good 3-point shooting rate or better. The height of 1m85 also causes Tre Jones to encounter many difficulties in the NBA arena, where players have completely superior physiques.

Coach Gregg Popovich often uses Tre Jones in the third round, when Victor Wembanyam is temporarily sidelined to preserve his strength for the final round. With many years of experience in the profession, he also understands that Tre Jones has certain limitations, despite the fact that this is the most suitable player for Victor Wembanyama at the present time.

However, until the San Antonio Spurs find a good enough defender, not regularly using Tre Jones could leave Victor Wembanyama without support in the race for the “Best Rookie” title. year”.