Wembanyama revelation paints picture of what kind of monster he'll be

Victor Wembanyama is a shooter, and everyone better accept the idea that we may be looking at the league's first Steph Curry-like center. In his rookie season, he got up 394 threes. That was the second-highest number for centers in the league. The only player who attempted more shots from deep was Lauri Markkanen (439), and he did it in 55 games to Victor's 71.

This season, Wembanyama doubled down on his three-point output, and the Spurs were better for it. Analysts and fans were confused by his approach. His size ordinarily would dictate he plays in the paint, but the game is different now, and Wemby isn't trying to be slow to the party.

Wembanyama will become one of the league's best shooters

He has already put forth some extremely special shooting performances in his young career. He's made five three-pointers six times, six three-pointers five times, seven three-pointers once, and eight three-pointers once. We've seen this man pull up and drill shots from the logo that barely tickled the net on their way through the basket.

He's only in year two, and he's shown a touch we've only seen from a few players. Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, and Trae Young are the only players who come to mind that routinely take shots from that distance with success. Wembanyama is the next player on that list.

The league has been trending in this direction for a while now. Once Dirk Nowitzki unlocked a new archetype of big man in the NBA, it was off to the races, and the Alien is the culmination of the advances we've made to the game of basketball.

Since 2020, centers have been taking threes at an accelerated rate. Nikola Vucevic led all centers in three-pointers attempted with 440. Julius Randle was second that season 389. Two years later, Randle attempted 636 shots from distance. That was a little too much, and New York Knick fans were all over him about it.

Interestingly enough, no center has cracked 600 since that season, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next one to do it didn't reside in San Antonio. There's rarely any segment of life that doesn't require some sort of balance, and that will be necessary for the Alien as well.

While it's easy math to say three points is more than two, there's more to basketball than that. You don't want to let defenses off the hook by shooting quick threes all game. They need to exert energy by defending long possessions that result in those threes. Defenses must be forced into rotations that compromise the integrity of their strategy. If not, they get to expel all their energy on offense.

Defense will always be the calling card of the Spurs, but both sides of the court work in tandem. They'll make their jobs easier by forcing the opposition to work just as hard on defense as they do on offense. But don't expect that to mean Wemby will drop his attempts per game below five. And you shouldn't want him to.

If you remember the fear Curry struck in opponents during his prime, you understand where this could be headed.