Wembabyama is a center

[Chinook]

gotta give DAF86 his props on this one

After that first Summer League game, I had a fight with a friend about where Wemby would play. I came away from that game confident that Wemby would be a five sooner than later. He was adamant that Wemby would play PF and thought PATFO should be deferred to. On the way back from the arena, I showed him this thread. He got really pissed about it. It's crazy how strongly some folks believed in Wemby at PF considering how PATFO didn't even feel the need to give it as long as they did not starting Tre Jones.

[spurraider21]

After that first Summer League game, I had a fight with a friend about where Wemby would play. I came away from that game confident that Wemby would be a five sooner than later. He was adamant that Wemby would play PF and thought PATFO should be deferred to. On the way back from the arena, I showed him this thread. He got really pissed about it. It's crazy how strongly some folks believed in Wemby at PF considering how PATFO didn't even feel the need to give it as long as they did not starting Tre Jones.

to me i just didnt think he'd be able to deal with it as a rookie until he really got his legs under him, but he's proven that wrong. i still thought he would mainly operate near the paint on offense, which is why i thought collins was a good match in theory because he could still provide spacing on offense while also being strong enough on defense, like a worse brook lopez (also why i was a fan of targeting BroLo in free agency). just turns out wemby was ready to handle the paint on defense

summer league was interesting because even back then he was almost exclusively playing alongside another big, whether it be barlow or bediako

[Chinook]

to me i just didnt think he'd be able to deal with it as a rookie until he really got his legs under him, but he's proven that wrong. i still thought he would mainly operate near the paint on offense, which is why i thought collins was a good match in theory because he could still provide spacing on offense while also being strong enough on defense, like a worse brook lopez (also why i was a fan of targeting BroLo in free agency). just turns out wemby was ready to handle the paint on defense

summer league was interesting because even back then he was almost exclusively playing alongside another big, whether it be barlow or bediako

I still think Lopez would've worked. Collins on paper seemed to do some of the same things, but the experience, IQ, shooting and defensive ability is just way higher. Victor's numbers probably wouldn't be as high with him, but I also think Wemby wouldn't be on a minutes restriction now if he didn't have to play center. I just thought Wemby's game was more center-like rather than perimeter oriented. He and Brook could've worked out just as Duncan and Splitter did. I think a lot of people were hoping for a guy closer to KD's skill level. MAYBE that happens eventually, but expecting him to be that guy isn't playing to his strengths.

That video DAF posted kind of hints at Wemby calling his own number less and moving with more coordination. Those are things that a center is expected to do, but they're less normal for a forward to do. Like Wemby has to run PnRs now just as part of a normal offense rather than him running it as an uncommon action to get him points. This means he actually has to hold his screens more than used to to avoid an offensive collapse. He's pulling opposing centers now by default, which means if he starts out on the perimeter, he's forcing the center to keep up with him on his dives. There's just a lot of cascading changes that happened because Wemby is playing center, because Collins is not starting, because Sochan had to slide in to play PF, because the team is finally able to have three perimeter players on the court rather than hoping Vassell and to a lesser extent Johnson could hold it down by himself.

[RC_Drunkford]

it just doesn't make sense to play him at PF with how bad our pick & roll defense is. You need someone who can guard both players at once to offset that. Now in the future I think you could try to overwhelm certain match up with size by playing a 2 big line up, but Wemby should always be the rim protector. His length just changes everything when he protects the rim instead of blocking an occasional 3.