Victor Wembanyama can’t fix the NBA’s worst defense by himself

SAN ANTONIO — THE The Houston Rockets look to end their Oct. 27 win over the San Antonio Spurs, clinging to a 3-point lead with minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Spurs guard Devin Vassell misses a baseline jumper and the rebound is grabbed by Rockets guard Fred VanVleet, who starts Houston’s break.

Jabari Smith Jr., the No. 3 pick in last year’s draft, is charging toward the rim, the only thing standing between him and the basket is Victor Wembanyama.

Amen Thompson sends a bounce pass across the court to Smith, who catches it just inside the 3-point line. Right now, the 19-year-old rookie is facing the rim, his back to Smith.

But Wembanyama quickly turns around.

Smith takes two steps and leaps for what appears to be a thunderous dunk to extend the Rockets’ lead to five. But Wembanyama, standing at the top of the restricted area, also jumps. The 7-foot-3½ rookie with an 8-foot wingspan won the game, knocking away Smith’s dunk attempt with his right hand.

The force of the highlight reel block carries Wembanyama out of bounds as the ball bounces and hits the backboard again, then the rim, then backboard and rim. As the ball falls to the left of the basket, Smith scoops it up and goes back up for what he thinks will be an easy takedown.

Wembanyama, under the basket and out of bounds when Smith gets the ball a second time, steps back inbounds and blocks Smith again – this time with his left hand.

One possession, in his second career NBA regular season game, showed the kind of defensive promise that has many around the league predicting multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards. And Wembanyama’s defensive impact goes beyond the highlights, with some eye-popping individual stats.

There’s just one problem: The Spurs, who had the worst defensive rating in NBA history last season, still rank near the bottom of the league in team defense heading into the Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN). showing there’s still a long way to go before Spurs are considered a good defense – Wembanyama’s highlights of the night or not.

AUTHORIZED SPURS 119.6 points per 100 possessions en route to a 22-60 record a season ago. This is the worst mark since the league began tracking statistics during the 1996-97 season, according to NBA.com Advanced Stats.

The 1996-97 season was also when Gregg Popovich took over as Spurs coach after the franchise fired Bob Hill on December 10, 1996. Coincidentally, that was the last time the Spurs finished last in the league in terms of defense, a place Popovich’s teams are not accustomed to occupying: the Spurs, who over the years have been led by defensive stalwarts such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen and Kawhi Leonard, finished as the league’s best defense seven times under Popovich and was a top-five finish 18 times.

Popovich said during the preseason that anything the team did to strengthen the defense would help them improve — because it couldn’t be worse.

“I’m not a smart guy,” Popovich said Oct. 16. “I don’t know what else to tell you. We sucked.”

The addition of Wembanyama is certainly a remedy, but the arrival of the most heralded rookie in a generation has not yet been able to single-handedly fix the Spurs defense.

That much was evident Monday night, when the Spurs gave up 152 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers — the most ever scored on a Popovich-coached defense in an NBA game. After the loss to the Pacers on Monday, the Spurs are giving up 120.0 points per 100 possessions, worse than last season’s record. Only the Washington Wizards (120.6 points per 100) keep the Spurs out of the basement.

There is, however, growing evidence that Wembanyama is making a difference in his minutes on the pitch.

In Wembanyama’s 202 minutes played, the Spurs have a defensive rating of 110.9 – the second-best mark on the team. In Wembanyama’s 144 minutes on the bench, San Antonio’s defensive rating reached 129.4, the worst mark on the team.

“Size can translate into blocked shots, more rebounds, and it overall helps your defense,” Popovich said. “Length helps you with deflections and that sort of thing, keeping people out of the box. So, since the start of training camp, the focus has been that we need to get better defensively. “

For Spurs guard Tre Jones, who is in his fourth season with San Antonio, it became clear from the start of camp how much defense was going to be his focus.

“It was definitely in the first two days,” Jones said Oct. 31 before the Spurs won two games in Phoenix. “Coach has been tough on us about it, but they’re giving us a lot of freedom this year on defense and just trying to play with the ball and then recover from that. Just be active, as active as possible and let the rest take care of itself.”

During training camp, Vassell and Keldon Johnson said having Wembanyama behind them allowed the team to focus more on defense, but it was Vassell’s absence in the last two games due to from a groin injury that had a major impact on San Antonio’s struggles.

Through the first five games of the season, the Spurs had a defensive rating of 98.6 in the 100 minutes that Vassell and Wembanyama shared the court. So while Wembayana’s presence helps make the Spurs better, it’s clear that San Antonio will need a complete team effort to get to where it wants to be on that side of the court.

THROUGH ITS FIRST Through seven games, Wembanyama has 18 blocked shots, ranking second in the league behind Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis. Wembanyama leads the Spurs in deflections (21), ranking in the league’s top 15 in that category. He also added nine steals, making him the first player with at least 18 blocks and nine steals in his first seven career games since Kenyon Martin in 2000-01.

Beyond box scoring, Wembanyama’s presence alters several shots per game, whether it’s players second-guessing their shot attempts or immediately giving up on potential shots due to the looming presence of the recruit. Meanwhile, most of the shots attempted on him don’t fall.

According to Second Spectrum tracking data, when Wembanyama is the closest defender, opponents shoot just a paltry 33.3%, tied for the second-best mark in the NBA among players defending at least 60 shots this season. The best mark in the league last season (min. 500 goals defended) was Kevin Durant with 38.3%.

Opponents shot 60.0% on layups and dunks against the Spurs with Wembanyama on the floor. When he is absent, this figure rises to 71.2%.

In the 134 minutes Wembanyama has shared the floor with center Zach Collins, opposing teams are shooting 58.1 percent at the rim. As with San Antonio’s perimeter defenders, Wembanyama’s presence changes the way Collins defends since he knows he’s not the only 7-footer on the court.

“He allows him and I to be able to turn guys on and I know he’s capable of guarding the 5 if we do that,” Collins told ESPN. “And when it comes to who’s going to go to the helping side, if we’re both on the weak side, we can both communicate that. If I have a shooter, I can stay on the gap and we can still get that blocking at the rim. So it’s really huge to have that.”

Despite Wembanyama’s size, Spurs have used him in different ways to get the most out of his defensive abilities. He will usually guard the weakest perimeter shooter on the team, allowing him to roam freely. On the rare occasions the Spurs use the zone, they sometimes let Wembanyama fly around to try to make plays.

It’s a new opportunity for Wembanyama, something he relishes.

“On defense, I played a role I’ve never played before and I really like it,” Wembanyama said on the eve of the regular season.

“I love learning and I’ve learned so much, experiencing so many new things, even just in training. I’m really, really excited and it’s promising. I think we learned faster than expected, so The possibilities on defense are endless.”