Victor Wembanyama scored 40 points in just 25 minutes against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, and the San Antonio Spurs star says the biggest change in his game is not physical.
After the Spurs' 122-96 win, he told TalkBasket that his improvement is mostly in decision-making, the same curve most rookies climb as they become veterans. "When you first get here, you don't really know what to do," he said.
The more revealing part was how he framed his athleticism. Wembanyama said he wants to "keep the physically amazing things for the amazingly difficult situations and not the day-to-day." In other words, the rim-protecting length and off-script finishes are weapons to deploy when a possession demands them, not reflexes to spend on every action.
That is a useful principle for a player whose gifts can make ordinary plays look like improvisation. The leverage is obvious: opponents are forced to solve him, and the best version of his night comes when he doesn't give them a second, self-inflicted problem to exploit.
His own summary was blunt: "So now I have to all I have to do is not beat myself." For a 40-point scorer in 25 minutes, that may be the most important sentence in the interview. The raw production is spectacular. The next layer is restraint.
