San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama revealed that some players — including prospects — have messaged him about the possibility of joining forces in the future.
Wemby says he has received messages from NBA players and future prospects about wanting to team up.
Everyone wants to play with Wemby 👽pic.twitter.com/DePeZieA9f
— WembyMuse (@Wemby_Muse) April 18, 2024
“Yeah, I’ve received some messages, even from prospects,” Wembanyama said when asked if anyone has talked to him about teaming up. “But I choose to stay in my role. But it’s — yeah, it’s a whole new world for me. It’s a whole new world that I’m eager to discover. But for sure — one day or the other, I have to be involved in this, I guess.”
Wembanyama — who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft — has already taken the NBA by storm. During the 2023-24 campaign, he averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.2 steals and a league-high 3.6 blocks per contest on 46.5 percent accuracy from the field.
From a statistical standpoint, Wembanyama was one of the most effective rookie rim protectors ever. He averaged the third-most blocks per game of any first-year player in league history, behind only David Robinson (3.9) and Manute Bol (5.0).
Additionally, across five games played in the month of April, Wembanyama averaged an otherworldly 5.6 blocks per game. During that span, he blocked at least seven shots on three different occasions and totaled nine blocks in a loss to the Denver Nuggets on April 2.
Wembanyama saved some of his best offensive play for the final stages of the regular season as well, considering he averaged 25.0 points and 6.8 assists per game in April.
In his final regular-season game played as a rookie — against the Nuggets on April 12 — he accumulated 34 points and led the Spurs to a one-point victory over the defending champions.
But while the Spurs have an ideal player to build around moving forward in Wembanyama, San Antonio’s season collectively suggested that the team is a ways away from contending for a title.
San Antonio won just 22 of its 82 regular-season games, which earned the team the No. 14 spot in the Western Conference. The Portland Trail Blazers were the lone squad in the conference to finish with fewer wins.
The Spurs’ 22-60 record on the season marked a tie for the team’s worst record in decades. They finished with the same record in the 2022-23 campaign.
Perhaps Wembanyama’s historic regular season will be enough to convince another elite player to join the Spurs and help the franchise get back to its winning ways.
