Spurs writer proves why 'Wembanyama shoots too many threes' point is dead wrong

"Victor Wembanyama is 7-3. Why is he standing out there shooting threes?"

I've seen some variation of the above question just about every day on social media, sports television shows, and coming from my own mouth. At its core, it's a valid question. Although, point of order, Victor is not 7-3. He has to be at least 7-5, but that's an argument for another day.

Yes, I've had reservations about the French phenom's desire to fire away endlessly from the perimeter before. It's especially easy to criticize such a choice when he starts the season making just 14 of his first 62 attempts (23%) as San Antonio started 4-5.

But something changed on November 9th when the Spurs hosted the Utah Jazz -- he started making them. In fact, he hasn't been missing very often since. After the slow start from downtown in the first nine games, Victor Wembanyama is now shooting 40.3% on a whopping 10.3 attempts over the last 20.

It's not a coincidence that the chatter around Wembanyama's shot choice has quieted down recently, but, lost in the criticism is one crucial fact. Wemby might just know what he's doing.

Make or miss, Victor's shooting was always about the bigger picture

Something happened during the Spurs' December 1st visit to Sacramento that made a light bulb turn on in my head. The clip is pretty self-explanatory.

Yup. With a simple pump fake, Victor had Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis flying at him at the 3-point line as if he was Steph Curry reincarnated. I haven't questioned the strategy since. It was never about Wemby becoming an elite outside shooter (although he's starting to trend that way somehow).

Victor Wembanyama just had to become enough of an outside threat to open up the floor and completely change how teams defend this version of the San Antonio Spurs. Against the Denver Nuggets, one play in clutch time showed that's already starting to happen.

Spurs writer Matthew Tynan took to his Substack, Corporate Knowledge, after Friday's game to discuss how Wembanyama's game is now becoming more balanced. "Toward the end of the game, we saw the effects of what Victor Wembanyana's 3-point shooting has led to," said Tynan on his postgame show, CK: After Dark.

"Three guys ran at him on that pump fake, and [he] dropped down low to Keldon, who had a great lefty finish for the and-one."

As Tynan points out, it's hard to defend Wembanyama on the perimeter with just one guy. Just observe how 60% of the Nuggets on the floor all rush to contest his long-range jumper on the play. Given that Victor's basketball IQ is growing at three times the speed of the common man, he took advantage.

Wembanyama won't and shouldn't stop letting it fly

Yes, the guy is taller than everyone in the room. Yes, he can dunk standing up. But it's become clear that Victor Wembanyama is much more than just a man blessed with freakish height. He also has unbelievable abilities -- and one of those just happens to be worth one more point than the others. Besides, people are going to complain no matter what he does, as this ridiculous rant from Stephen A. Smith proved.

There are going to be more games in which Victor goes 2-for-12 or 1-for-11 from beyond the arc. It's probably going to happen dozens of times as long as the 3-point-happy league continues down this path.

Similarly to how they handled Manu Ginobili, the Spurs are betting that Wembanyama's positives will severely outweigh his negatives in the grand scheme. Judging from the past 20 games, all signs point to that being a pretty safe bet.

Next time you find yourself asking why Victor Wembanyama shoots so many threes, ask yourself what it would look like if he stopped.