PHILADELPHIA — Monday night's big story in Philadelphia was supposed to be the Unicorn Clash, the first matchup between Victor Wembaneyama and Joel Embiid. That was supposed to be why San Antonio Spurs vs. Philadelphia 76ers was a must-see game. Embiid then took his place, dropping 70 points and having the kind of night that thrust him into the class of legend.
It was a great performance from Embiid. Of course, getting 70 points was a shock. Something like this has only happened 13 other times in NBA history, but Embiid's dominance should have been expected. He played in big games when the other team had another star big man. In Wenbanyama's case, it was the Ascendant.
“I know Joel, any time there's another good opponent, he's got to make a statement,” Sixers center Paul Reed said. “That's what he did tonight. He made his statement.”
Wenbanyama's exceptional performance was lost to history. He had 33 points and two blocks. Embiid also seemed impressed with the rookie's size and length.
“I walked past him and thought, I He was tall,” Embiid said. “The guy just towered over me. I don't know who he is, but I just know he's a great basketball player. … He's the future and he can do anything on the basketball floor. It is.”
The 7-foot-4-inch-tall Wenbanyama is a sight to behold when you see it in person for the first time. He is so long, so skilled, so fluid that his mind sometimes gets confused. Let's take away two plays from him. They represent the type of problem Wembane Yama presents to defenders.
The Sixers used Tobias Harris' big wing to protect Wembaneyama, but Wembaneyama made a half-shot fake and then dribbled past him. Once Wenbanyama gets his foot in the door, he can take off further than many players and is difficult to stop as he draws fouls or flies around the lead as soon as he gets up in the air.
His length causes so many problems. Look where he got this finger roll from. He's about halfway between the restricted area and the foul line. What to do with it?
Should I go big or wing to protect Wenbanyama? Before I knew it, Embiid was guarding with a finger roll. Once he bottled him up, Wembaneyama created shots from around him. The Sixers also experimented with Harris and other large wings at Wembaneyama, with the center roaming in the background.
That was a problem Sixers coach Nick Nurse sought to solve because of Wembaneyama's skill set and lateral agility for a player of his size. The nurses had an interesting perspective on some of what makes Wenbanyama so special. Everyone focuses on length, handle and shot, but Naas was impressed with Wenbanyama's cut and change of direction.
“He'll put a lot of backdoors into you. He'll come off screens with the pace of a wing player and move across the floor to the other side of the lane with some pace,” Nurse said. “And I was also impressed with his stop-start for a guy his size. He's going one way and when he hits the brakes, it goes the other way.”
Wenbanyama showed that on Monday. He got a lob dunk on a strong cutback from Nicolas Batum in the first quarter, then swerved for Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson to flip off the cornerback. Batum had no chance to recover, and no Sixers defender was close to protect the whoop even after Wembangyama worked himself open, forcing a fake out of the lane and to the outside.
Wembangyama could have made another lob late in the second half if he had seen Jeremy Sochan backcut Embiid from the corner. No matter where Wenbanyama was, he showed how dangerous it was to turn your back on him.
Part of the beauty of Wembaneyama is that he's the right player at the right time for the NBA. A player of his size might have been forced to play differently in the next generation, and might have been more limited by the league's physicality and hand-checking rules. It doesn't diminish his skills, but this era helps him develop them even more.
Wembaneyama may have arrived at the right time in Gregg Popovich's career. Popovich is a legendary basketball coach, but he can also be short-tempered and difficult. He seems to have mellowed out a bit in recent years, at least if what he says in public is to be believed.
Popovich admitted Monday that he took a more hands-off approach to Wenbanyama during his rookie season, trying to understand him rather than direct him. That's something he learned from his experience with Manu Ginobili more than 20 years ago.
“At first, Manu did some crazy things that scared me,” Popovich said. “He taught me to tighten my lips here and there and let him be a man, because if I try to make him everything I think he should be, he has Because you can't have it all. With Wembang Yama, it's watching him. First of all, whether it's 15 games, 20 games, 25 games, we're just going to let him play. If he makes a hell of a shot. If he hits or anything, we're going to coach him. In general, let's see where he ends up.”
Wembaneyama, who turned 20 earlier this month, came to San Antonio at a younger age than many of the Spurs' future stars. Tim Duncan is a 21-year-old rookie who spent four years at Wake Forest. Ginobili was 25 years old. Tony Parker was 19 years old and in a similar place to Wembangyama when he joined Spurs.
But Popovich didn't want to delve too deeply into that analysis. When asked if he thought Wenbangyama arrived at the right time rather than at the beginning of his career, he was quick to respond. “I'll be in Portofino by now.” If you want to know what kind of wine it is, drink Brunello.
WWE raised a few eyebrows within the NBA ecosystem on Tuesday when it announced it would be moving its flagship show Monday Night Raw to Netflix in a 10-year deal that will make it a blockbuster starting next year. The NBA plans to conclude a new media rights agreement starting with the start of the 2025-26 season, and negotiations will begin in earnest this spring. The league will likely have a streaming component, as well as new media partners. The question is which one.
While Amazon is considered a potential landing spot and is also looking to get into the local broadcast rights acquisition game, there was always the question of whether Netflix would also emerge as a potential partner. Despite reports of interest from Netflix, the company continued to say it would not get into live sports. But the deal with WWE seemed to signal a shift from that strategy, even with the caveat that professional wrestling, unlike professional sports, is scripted and held year-round.
However, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said that the deal with WWE could mean that Netflix could be interested in global sports rights in the future, including the NBA in terms of this year's market. It did not suggest that it does not imply that. When asked during Tuesday's earnings call whether the partnership with WWE meant Netflix would make a bid for the NBA or UFC, Sarandos denied that.
“WWE is sports entertainment like no other,” he said. “So this is as close to our core as you can get out of sports storytelling. So in terms of the deal itself, we have options and the protection that we're looking for in a general licensing agreement and the global We have economics that we are very happy with. Therefore, I do not see this as a sign of other changes or changes in the sports strategy.”
The caveat to all of this is that Netflix has changed its policies in the past. The company is adding ad-based pricing tiers and working with WWE to acquire semi-live sports venues. Let's see what happens when the NBA bid heats up later this year.
With just two weeks until the Feb. 8 trade deadline, the NBA is already well into trade season. (Hello, Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets!)
We'll see what else happens, but it's important to note that this is the first trade deadline under the new collective agreement. If you want a complete primer on what's in there, go here. One thing to keep in mind is that some of the old rules no longer apply.
For example, consider the old-fashioned way teams rely on the buyout market to replenish their rosters late in the season. Typically, it's the contenders who add veterans after the trade deadline, but this year will look a little different. Teams above the first apron (which is approximately $172.3 million) cannot sign players who are under contract in excess of the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($12.405 million this season). Can not. The teams currently passing through the first apron are the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Heat.
Potential buyout candidates are much harder to predict, but players like Kyle Lowry, Gordon Hayward and Joe Harris are worth thinking about. They are both in the final year of their contracts, and if they were to consider what's next, there would be a limited number of viable options. We are making acquisitions from their teams.
And-1
• The Knicks have been pretty good since trading for OG Anunoby just before the start of the new year. They were 10-2 with a plus-13 goal differential and a plus-12.9 net rating, his second best in the league at the time. Their defense looks much more favorable to coach Tom Thibodeau and Anunoby. The Knicks' defensive rating has dropped 11.2 points since the trade. Even more ridiculous is Anunoby's on-court impact. While Anunoby was on the court, the Knicks allowed just 99.9 points per 100 possessions (yes, all the proper qualifications regarding individual player defensive ratings apply. That's a decent statistic, so take a look at it with a grain of salt.) please).
• There have been 85 games in NBA history in which a player scored 60 points or more. Wilt has 53 games if he wants to exclude Chamberlain from consideration (don't do that, but wow). But since the NBA came out of the Orlando bubble, we've seen a real individual scoring boom. There have been 12 games with 60 points or more over the past four seasons. That's 14.1 percent of games with 60 points or more in NBA history since the start of the 2020-21 season. If you want to exclude Chamberlain, he's scored 22.6 percent of all games of 60 points or more over the past four seasons. That equates to almost a quarter of his 60+ games outside of Wilt.
• Today's fun note (unless you're an NBA coach who wants your team to play defense) on the NBA's scoring surge: The league's average effective field goal percentage is the highest it's ever been. Not surprisingly, of course, that percentage is currently 54.6%, according to Basketball Reference. It has increased in all but one season since the 2014-15 season. His record that season was 49.6 points, which tied the highest in NBA history. Including this season, there have only been four seasons in which the league's effective field goal percentage was 50.0 or higher, and all of them were either 50.0 or 50.1. Let's take a look at what's going on in the NBA right now. For comparison, this means the league has gone from shooting like Greg Monroe in 2014-15 to Chris Paul in 2014-15 in 10 years.
(Photo of Wembaneyama and Embiid: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
