Wemby goes off again! Last 8 games: 24.6/12/5 with 5.25 blocks and 42% from 3!

[ImKobe]

How many wins? LeBron at 20 won 42 games. And Averaged 27/7/7 in the low scoring era.

Nah you don't get to move the goalposts here. He wasn't a rookie.

[1987_Lakers]

He's the real deal, completely took his game to another level this past month or so. He's basically Ralph Sampson on steroids before he got injured. That will be the only thing to worry about throughout his career, the injuries. We all know big men that size are usually injury prone, but if he can somehow stay healthy then the sky is the limit.

[Im Still Ballin]

Plays much bigger than Ralph, who wasn't nearly as tall as advertised. Sampson was more like 7'1.5" to 7'2" and had a proportionally weak wingspan and standing reach due to short arms and a longer neck.

Former Sacramento Kings coach and announcer Jerry Reynolds said Bill Russell had a bigger standing reach than Ralph when they compared measurements. This was when Russell was the coach of the team in the late '80s.

I can confirm this story is told by Jerry Reynolds. It’s from Bill’s time as Head Coach of the Kings. According to Jerry it happened in Bill’s office and Bill ask Sampson to standup and put his hand in the air. Bill stood next to him and put his hand up. Jerry says most of Bill’s hand was over the top of Sampson’s hand. Jerry says that’s when he realized Bill wasn’t like other 6’11’’ guys and things started making sense around his dominance.

There was a similar story about Bill and Kareem too. And 7'3" Swede Halbrook. Russell had an absolutely freakish standing reach.

[r0drig0lac]

In retrospect is it better to have had Yao Ming play 26 to 28 minutes if it gave him an extra few seasons? Of course you never truly know it would have but I’m getting to the point I understand the caution. At least when you aren’t managing by sitting out. load managing with less minutes feels like a compromise. People say nobody is meant to be that big and be an athlete. Is it worth getting his raw numbers up a bit so he wins a few more awards at the cost of thousands of more jumps on those long ass feet? Rik Smits played till he was 34 and he was 7’4” 270 or so. And played 79 games his final season.

Rather have 15 years of 22/10/4/3/2 or 7 years of 28/13/6/4?

If you can be sure what happens you take the lower minutes. Is it worth the risk to find out?

if I’m the Spurs, I might prioritize a really, really good defensive back up center and keep his minutes low for a couple years. If he gets hurt anyway you look stupid, but at that point, nobody can really blame you for trying to put it off as long as you could. Great backup defender even if he can’t score would help minimize the difference when he sits. Won’t do his plus minus numbers any favors but the team being bad when your star sits doesn’t actually mean he’s better. It’s usually a reflection of the total team and his back up. You’re trying to build a strong team not build his case for goat.

Go twin towers with one off the bench, draft the best point you can find this year, the best available player next year and hope he’s got 15 years of health at 28-30 minutes a game.

Sarr

[Phoenix]

In one game 6 minutes isn't a big difference. It is the cumulative effect that can be a problem, especially at his size.

It isn't like they are competing for a playoff spot.

No, but I wonder how many games they may have had a shot at winning if he was playing more. Obviously not enough for a playoff push but its pretty clear the Spurs are positioning themselves for back to back high draft picks because they have zero assets around Wemby to flip into anything decent. That's probably playing as much into his minutes restrictions as trying to preserve him healthwise because 'at his size' will always be a thing whether its now or 5 years from now, especially if they add any weight on him.

[Xiao Yao You]

No, but I wonder how many games they may have had a shot at winning if he was playing more. Obviously not enough for a playoff push but its pretty clear the Spurs are positioning themselves for back to back high draft picks because they have zero assets around Wemby to flip into anything decent. That's probably playing as much into his minutes restrictions as trying to preserve him healthwise because 'at his size' will always be a thing whether its now or 5 years from now, especially if they add any weight on him.

teams with the top pick generally suck. This is expected and nothing new

[Phoenix]

teams with the top pick generally suck. This is expected and nothing new

I'm not sure your post refutes anything being said.

[Xiao Yao You]

I'm not sure your post refutes anything being said.

many have been acting like he should be playing more and that the Spurs should be winning games

[Phoenix]

many have been acting like he should be playing more and that the Spurs should be winning games

Many has nothing to do with my post. I clearly said they wouldn't be making a playoff push even if he was playing normal starter minutes. I just put it out there as a speculatory comment as to how many more games they may have won if he wasn't being minutes restricted. Nothing suggests I'm not aware they're a bad team in any context.

[Phoenix]

In retrospect is it better to have had Yao Ming play 26 to 28 minutes if it gave him an extra few seasons? Of course you never truly know it would have but I’m getting to the point I understand the caution. At least when you aren’t managing by sitting out. load managing with less minutes feels like a compromise. People say nobody is meant to be that big and be an athlete. Is it worth getting his raw numbers up a bit so he wins a few more awards at the cost of thousands of more jumps on those long ass feet? Rik Smits played till he was 34 and he was 7’4” 270 or so. And played 79 games his final season.

Rather have 15 years of 22/10/4/3/2 or 7 years of 28/13/6/4?

If you can be sure what happens you take the lower minutes. Is it worth the risk to find out?

if I’m the Spurs, I might prioritize a really, really good defensive back up center and keep his minutes low for a couple years. If he gets hurt anyway you look stupid, but at that point, nobody can really blame you for trying to put it off as long as you could. Great backup defender even if he can’t score would help minimize the difference when he sits. Won’t do his plus minus numbers any favors but the team being bad when your star sits doesn’t actually mean he’s better. It’s usually a reflection of the total team and his back up. You’re trying to build a strong team not build his case for goat.

Go twin towers with one off the bench, draft the best point you can find this year, the best available player next year and hope he’s got 15 years of health at 28-30 minutes a game.

Yao and Rik Smits had alot more weight on them than Wemby though, so despite being similar size hopefully he won't have the same nagging issues. I didn't realize Yao was over 300( per basketball ref anyways) but I remember he had some tree trunks for legs.

[SATAN]

[RRR3]

Watch the games. He was in foul trouble and Popovich was being a moron as usual and not running good offense on the other end. He still blocked him a ton of times

[SATAN]

Watch the games. He was in foul trouble

I was loosely watching it while watching another game. He started off good. Got a few blocks and hit some 3s. Being in foul trouble is his own fault. Monster game from Sengun.

[Manny98]

Sengun completely fried that skinny French Croissant

I never want to hear Emptyyama and DPOY in the same sentence

[fsvr54]

Watch the games. He was in foul trouble and Popovich was being a moron as usual and not running good offense on the other end. He still blocked him a ton of times

Sengun put him in foul trouble. Absolutely punked this rookie hypejob.