Victor Wembanyama evolution Spurs fans are dying to see

Victor Wembanyama can still get so much better. A frightening sentence for fans of 29 teams, a fantasy for Spurs fans. The next step in Wemby's development? Like a quarterback in football, it's making the second and third reads on a play instead of going with the first option.

Spurs beat writer Jared Weiss said recently on The Athletic NBA Daily that, now flanked by De'Aaron Fox, Wemby will find himself with more space than he knows what to do with:

"Because he has De'Aaron Fox, there's gonna be a lot of times when Wemby is standing by himself because Fox is so fast... The big difference I think, this year, will be, he probably won't just launch for three. He's going to be making more reads. He's not just gonna take the open three just because it's there... If Wemby is gonna evolve, he's gotta look at 'Can I take a solid three look, or can I really really turn this into something else?'"

When Weiss said "making reads," I think he was mostly talking about reads on how to find the best shot for himself. I'm also giddy thinking about Wembanyama getting the ball on a pick-and-pop from De'Aaron Fox, the defense immediately focusing all of its attention on Wembanyama, and then Wemby deciding instead to use perhaps the most underrated aspect of his game — his passing — to get the best shot for a teammate, instead of himself.

I don't ever expect Victor Wembanyama to become Nikola Jokic (what a development that would be) but I do expect his passing to pop even more in year three. Every part of his statistical profile has been outrageous over the past two seasons, so it's easy to gloss over Wemby's 3.8 assists per game.

That's a pretty impressive mark for a 21 year-old 7-foot-4 forward; plus, raw assist numbers don't tell the whole story of a player's passing ability, and if you've watched Spurs games regularly, you'll probably agree that his passing ability is ahead of his numbers — which could well catch up in 2025-26.

Victor Wembanyama's playmaking evolution will change the course of the NBA

That sounds histrionic, I'm aware, but it's true. If Wemby can perfect the art of quick decision-making when he catches passes from De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and others, he will become even more of a matchup nightmare.

What's the defensive strategy against the tallest player on the court who can shoot 3-pointers at least average (at least) or get to the basket in one dribble or make the right pass to a teammate?

I dunno. But if Wembanyama does show improvement in his play-reading (his regular reading already seems elite) this year, defenses will have to figure it out quickly.