Five storylines to watch as Spurs enter a new season<\/a><\/p>\nIt has little to do with what more Wembanyama can do with his arms, his legs or his 747-like wingspan.<\/p>\n
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It has everything to do with what Wembanyama can do with his brain \u2014 and his mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis communication,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHis ability to connect dots and teammates and the things he sees with other people on the court. A lot of times, he\u2019s back there where he\u2019s going to see the entire picture of what\u2019s happening. \u2026 How can he put out fires and anticipate things before they\u2019re happening?\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson envisions a souped-up Wembanyama capable of quarterbacking the entire Spurs defense from his post beneath the basket, directing traffic and snuffing out trouble before it starts.<\/p>\n
For a blueprint, Johnson points to a handful of NBA stars who have mastered the art of seeing the game unfold a step or two ahead of everyone else \u2014 Draymond Green, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and, yes, former Spurs great Tim Duncan.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThose guys can see plays coming from a mile away,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
For Wembanyama, developing that kind of foresight could become especially valuable.<\/p>\n
Opponents already have plenty of incentive to lure him away from the basket, where his extraordinary reach makes him the ultimate deterrent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he\u2019s guarding one-on-one, there\u2019s a bunch of different spots where teams are going to try and draw him out, make sure he can\u2019t be the low man (under the basket),\u201d forward Devin Vassell said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s down there, he discourages everything. So him just anticipating certain actions and seeing different things is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That level of anticipation doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from repetition, experience and learning to recognize an opponent’s next move before it happens.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama has spent three NBA seasons building that library of knowledge. Season No. 4 only figures to add more chapters to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe better you can communicate or identify stuff, you can get your whole team on the same page and it just uses your strengths best,\u201d Kornet said.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama, for his part, is eager to become a more commanding voice on the defensive end.<\/p>\n
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He understands, however, that knowing what to say and knowing when to say it are two different skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s easy,\u201d he said, putting air quotes around that second word, \u201cbut doing it repeatedly and precisely in the right moment and saying the right words — that is what’s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
For most players, becoming the NBA\u2019s best defender would qualify as a career destination. With Wembanyama, the Spurs see it only as a lofty starting point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s our standard or his standard, there\u2019s plenty of room for growth all around,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
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The NBA has already seen what Wembanyama can do with his extraordinary gifts. To hear the Spurs tell it, the league has seen nothing yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be better this season,\u201d Vassell said, \u201cand I\u2019m excited to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ball flies over San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) and Phoenix Suns forward Rasheer Fleming (20)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-930606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}