The Map of Victor Wembanyama: Shooting Versatility
The Map of Victor Wembanyama is a series where I try to identify the smaller aspects that comprise each skill of the projected number one pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. I look at how Victor can utilize each micro-skill to contribute to winning at the NBA level and which micro-flaws opposing teams could utilize to gain an advantage whenever he’s on the floor.
Catch up with previous regions of The Map here:
Part Two: Catch-and-Finish Scoring
Part Three: Back to the Basket
This time I look at his abilities beyond the 3-point line and how he’s able to capitalize on his threat as an interior scorer and driver to convert jumpshots.
This is The Map of Victor Wembanyama, Part Five: Shooting Versatility
1. Statistical Profile
One of the first aspects that gets brought up when analyzing Victor Wembanyama’s offensive profile is his impressive shooting ability for his size. The praise Wembanyama receives as a shooter doesn’t necessarily correlate with his percentages, as he’s currently shooting 31% from 3-point range, proving that there’s more to projecting a player as an NBA shooter than his 3-point percentage.
When it comes to volume of attempts, when comparing Victor to two of the best stretch-big prospects in the last decade in Lauri Markkanen and Kristaps Porzingis, it becomes clear that while the shooting percentage isn’t quite there, Victor has both of them beat when it comes to the sheer volume of attempts.
Then, there’s also the difficulty of attempts and how Victor performs in each category. According to InStat, Pick-and-Pop and Catch-and-Shoot play types represent 21.4% of Wembanyama’s shot attempts and he has been solid in those types of plays, generating 1.12 points per possession, which is right around the NBA average for both play types combined.
Victor Wembanyama Play Types
While Wembanyama has an impressive statistical profile for his size as a spot-up and pick-and-pop shooter, there’s the other side of the coin which brings his shooting percentages down. According to InStat, Wembanyama is shooting just 25% from beyond the arc on the remaining play types, which include isolation, pick-and-roll and off-screen jumpers. Wembanyama attempts about 2.2 3-pointers per game in these low-percentage play types, representing 42.3% of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Victor Wembanyama Shot Chart in Isolation, Pick-and-Roll and Off-Screen plays
The numbers show that Wembanyama is a respectable 3-point shooter in spot-up and pick-and-pop plays, which are the type of shots he’s most likely to see at the NBA from day one. His percentages might fail to reflect that due to the high volume and, especially, the difficulty of his 3-point attempts, as nearly half of them come from low-percentage shots that require a high degree of self-creation and ability to shoot off movement.
2. The Importance of Shot Versatility
With Wembanyama being the focal point of the offense for Metropolitans, he generates a lot of gravity on offense, which adds yet another level of difficulty to his shot attempts. According to InStat, a whopping 84.9% of Wembanyama’s 3-point attempts qualify as contested, a number that illustrates the amount of defensive attention that he commands.
While the somewhat low percentages as a shooter can be attributed to the difficulty of the shots he attempts, this doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be taking those shots, as his threat as a shooter off the dribble is one of the reasons why he attracts defenders and generates such a level of scoring gravity.
As I write about shooting versatility, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention an incredibly influential piece from Cole Zwicker for the equally influential draft site The Stepien, in which Zwicker establishes the importance of not only the percentages and volume of attempts, but also the ability to convert different types of shots in order to project a prospect as an NBA shooter.
While the site and the piece are no longer available, Ben Pfeifer also did a great job of explaining the concept in his 2020 Draft Shooting Synopsis series, where he explains how the lack of shot versatility can make a player predictable and less threatening for opposing defenders.
If one shot is able to encapsulate how versatile Wembanyama is with his jumper, it’s the one-legged 3-point floater, an uniquely difficult shot which has rarely been seen at the NBA level, which I found Wembanyama has converted on at least three different occasions during the 2022-23 season. This shot requires an incredible level of touch but also elite balance: notice how the body is fully extended and at a near perfect 90° angle to the floor when he releases the ball.
Wembanyama does a great job of utilizing his threats off ball-handling and driving to catch defenders off-guard and set up his jumpers. If his opponent is low, in a defensive stance because they are expecting a drive, Wembanyama is able to take a few dribbles and then quickly rise to shoot over the defender who is generally not quick enough to rise and contest his shot.
Similarly, he utilizes his threat to post-up opponents to set up his turnaround jumpers inside the arc. Opponents generally have to stay low to be able to contain a 7-foot-5 player posting up, so he takes advantage of that by taking turnaround jumpers which prove to be really difficult to contest for smaller opponents.
3. Creating Space
One of the weapons that Wembanyama utilizes to create space for his jumpers is his impressively coordinated and polished footwork. His fluidity allows him to attack defenders off the dribble, then spin off of his pivot foot, creating enough space for a turnaround jumper.
When he’s facing up, he creates space for himself with his fluidity and his ability to change directions with the ball in his hands, utilizing a combination of convincing fakes and effective dribble moves such as crossovers, stepbacks and sidesteps.
One of the reasons why the spin moves and the sidesteps work is how long his legs are, and how much space there is between the pivot and the landing foot, which adds an extra level of difficulty for opponents to contest.
Beyond the incredible footwork and the handling ability, Wembanyama just has a ridiculous level of touch off-balance, which allows him to convert tough shots against heavy defensive pressure.
Final Thoughts
Wembanyama can be an interesting case study on projecting shooting to the NBA and, on a general level, about what we talk about when we talk about good shooters.
The percentages are one of many aspects to take into account when evaluating shooters, as well as the volume, difficulty and diversity of attempts, the ability to create space and other aspects that I will look at in future installments such as mechanics, consistency, shot context and decision making.
The point here is, let’s not miss the forest for the trees: Wembanyama’s shooting is uniquely versatile for someone at his size.
Wembanyama can be expected to be a capable day-one spot-up and pick-and-pop shooter at the NBA level, It might take a while for him to be an efficient shooter off-the-dribble in the league, but as every facet of his offensive game starts to translate, more and more pieces of off-the-dribble arsenal could materialize into consistent NBA threats.
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