The NBA should be SCARED of Wemby! – Perk reacts to Spurs beating Raptors to move to 4-0 | NBA Today

The NBA should be SCARED of Wemby! – Perk reacts to Spurs beating Raptors to move to 4-0 | NBA Today

[Music] Chen, we’re one week into the season and I still can’t wrap my head around what we are from Victor Webbyama. He was doing a little bit of everything last night. He was a human highlight reel and I don’t know if anything embodied that more than this play right here. This 360 layup through traffic. What what’s wild to me is that you’re setting pin down screens to free him up so that you can get loose and then like what these types of finishes pouettes. Well, what I love is that we’re seeing his offseason work translate directly to his game. What do we know? Right, he worked out with Hakee the Dream on his post game over the summer. So, how exactly does that transfer over to the game? Well, we got to see it last night. The scariest sight in the entire NBA is the fact that Victor Webbyama has embraced the postgame. He learned from the best. That beautiful shimmy shake. You can see the side by side right here, the quick pivot and kissing it off the glass. Wow. But it’s not just the moves in the post, right? He also worked with Jamal Crawford on improving his handles. He’s considered one of the best ball handlers in the game. Bringing the ball up in transition. How do you guard that? Even the guy who blueprinted this is shot. Yeah, the student becoming the master there, Crawford tweeting out about it. And then they are just as bananas as the highlights. So, let’s go in the bonus here because WBY blocked a shot for his 89th game in a row. That passes Patrick Ewing for the fourth longest streak since blocks became official in 7374. He’s now six games away with a block from passing Mark Eaton for third all time. And then on the defensive side, he made 87.5% of his shots last night in the win over Toronto. That is the best shooting percentage in a game in his career. He was also plus 35, the second best plus minus in a game in his career. And his spectacular play has led the Spurs to a 4-0 record that’s tied for the best start in franchise history. Next up, they host the Heat on Thursday, seeking their first 5-0 start. as wild, right? When you think of all the greats that have walked through the San Antonio Spurs door here, but Brian, we have until Thursday to wrap our heads around this as they chase that record when we are talking about the single most telling mark of his evolution. You and I were chatting this morning. You said it’s not something he is doing. Victor is doing, but rather something that he isn’t doing. Can you explain? Yeah. So, last night he did something he’s never done before. He didn’t take a three-pointer. Not one. Didn’t even try one. And Malik, I just want to remind you that last year he was averaging nine attempts a game. So he’s averaging under three a game this year. He’s gotten rid of six three-pointers a game so far. These are all, you know, early season numbers, but he was doing this in the preseason as well. He’s So he correspondingly, not surprisingly, is taking six more two-pointers a game than he did a year ago. And so what does that mean? He’s averaging seven more points a game and he’s shooting 60% from the field instead of the mid-40s. That right there is the transition from an all-star player to an MVP candidate. And that is but with him focusing on taking higher percentage shots and using his advantage. And that is what the NBA should be worried about. I mean a Gatorade player of the year. You were in that was back in high school. You’re a number one pick. You’re the wooden award winner at Stanford. So I’m just going to say this for my girl. She’s played against a lot of talent gaps when she was when she was dominating the league. But have you ever seen a domination like this? Honestly, what it reminds me of, Malikica, is my favorite reality show growing up. Fear factor. There is a tremendous fear factor that is rippling through the NBA based off of what Victor Webbyama has decided to do. It’s very rare that we see a generational talent that makes you think he’s changing the game in real time. We got it with Magic Johnson, positionless basketball. We got it with Michael Jordan, you know, the new prototype of the wing. We got it with Steph Curry and what he does with a three-point shot. Now we’re seeing the alien, the fear factor in full effect. He is someone that affects the game. He can knock down shots, but he affects it on both ends. And he’s leaned into his strength. Literally, he shoots 45% at the rim so far this season. 81 actually, sorry, he deters people. He their opponents shoot 45% at the rim, which is tremendous. Top five defensively, but then offensively, he shoots 81% in the restricted area. Look at these numbers. This is just one week. This is the thing that has literally everyone in fear because he’s embraced the aspect that makes him unguardable and it’s very rare. I don’t know if we’ll ever see something like this again in the NBA. I don’t know what you can draw up, right? Like I I don’t know what you can draw up to try to slow him down for Kobe Bryant called him right the game’s greatest post defender. Is there anything that you can you can put on the whiteboard right now? If you do, you’re lying to yourself and you’re lying to the people that you’re presenting it to. I tell you that much. just nothing that you could do here. Look, check this out, y’all. 15 to 20 years from now, the GOAT conversation is going to go like this. MJ, Braun, and Wimpby, those are the three names that are going to come up in the GOAT conversation because if this man stays healthy, right, he’s going to be arguably the best defensive player we’ve ever seen. I believe he’s going to win five or six defensive player of the year awards. Can someone tell me a flaw that he has in his game already right now at the age of 21? I’ll wait. You can’t tell me cuz he has none. Offensively, he has the complete package. The Jamal Crawford handles. We saw that in the highlight. The pull up threes. We watching him knock that down on a consistent basis. He’s excellent moving without the basketball for as cutting, being a live threat at the basket. On top of that, he’s starting to go and and capitalize in the low post area, mid post area. He’s you could use him as a screener. It’s nothing that he can’t do. This man has arrived and he has the mentality of a killer. He wants to win. That’s what separates him. And that’s why I say in 15, 20 years, it’s going to be MJ, LeBron, and Wimpy for as the GOAT conversation. Malikica, I remember when LeBron was after his fourth season, which was in 20067, they 67 that my son would be excited about that. In in in that in that time frame, um they went to the finals that year and um he struggled. He shot under 40% in the finals and LeBron realized despite getting his team to the finals how much he had to improve. He dedicated himself to making over his game, taking it to the next level. He won four of the next six MVP awards. Might have been even able to win more if you ask him that one. Victor may have come to the realization about how he had to make over his game in year three because he’s making the changes to his game that make him unstoppable. LeBron found the mid-range and long range shot. Once he had that, he couldn’t be stopped. He was became a machine going to the finals. Now, I think we’re seeing Victor starting to put those things together as well. Well, with the hot start, the Spurs, they have an early hold at the top of the standings and you heard Victor, they’re going for that 5-0 start, but they are not alone. They share that top spot with the defending champions because the Thunder Chenet, they have been rolling. They took on the Dallas Mavericks last night. We’re going to pick this one up in the third quarter with the Thunder leading by five. Chet, watch him here. Catches the pass and then goes all the way to the paint, throws it down. Oh yeah, I love how Chad Homegrren is starting the season playing with authority. He is their separator. He’s their X-factor. Without JDub, you have to have someone step up and he’s been that guy over Cooper. So, did he capture the flag? Oh, he did. SGA fancy footwork. That tough fade away. He gets that one to go. And then later on in the third, SGA, watch him here. Gets the steal. Takes it coast to coast. You know he’s going all the way. Yeah. I mean, how do you stop him? He’s so crafty. He finds ways to finish off the glass left and right. No one can keep him in Brian. Finish of breakfast though. Chad pump fake drives, passes it to Hartinstein for the slam. Sharing is carrying. Honestly, I was like a little disappointed in the defense of the Maps. They were doing a lot of watching late. We’re going to talk about that. Davis does catch it, banks it in, plus the foul. Maps cut it to one possession here, but then SGA passes it to Hartinstein. Finishes the layup. The Thunder, they go on to win this one 10194 and remain undefeated. Now, the scary thing is the OKC offense, it’s not even clicking yet. The Thunder made just 20% of their threes. That’s actually tied for their second worst three-point shooting game since the start of 2024 2025, but they made up for it. They made it 60% of their twos. On the flip side, Cooper Flag, his struggles, they really continued. The number one pick, he also injured his shoulder in the opening possession of this game. You can see it right here. Yeah, he finished with only two points, one of nine shooting in this game, two rebounds, no assists in 31 minutes. And Jason Kidd made the decision to have him spend the majority of crunch time watching from the bench. The Mavs fell to 0 and3 on the season and they’re now the sole winless team in the Western Conference. So, let’s say howdy to our partner Tim McMahon who was out in Dallas last night. Tim, how concerned are the Mavericks about Cooper shoulder? Let’s start there. Howdy, Malikica. He’s going to get some scans on that today just to be sure, but they don’t think it’s a concern moving forward. He says he expects to get treatment, continue icing it, and to be available tomorrow night against Indiana. And you know, like you said, he played 31 minutes after injuring that shoulder. He thinks it’s just banged up. That was not the reason that he was on the bench for the vast majority of crunch time. It just was not Cooper Flags night. He looked like an 18-year-old who was really struggling in the first backtoback of his uh of his NBA career against the defending champions. Of course, it’s against the defending champs, so we should mention that, of course, as well. But Dallas has been trying out Cooper Flag at point guard. The returns though, Tim, while there were some flashes in the preseason, they really haven’t been great. The Mavs are dead last in offense. So, how committed are they to this experiment knowing that in the West every single night really matters? Well, Jason Kidd talks a lot about what he thinks will be long-term benefits to Cooper Flag going right into the deep end of the pool as a point guard to begin his career. And by the way, it’s a position he has never played. He didn’t play point guard at Duke or in high school. So, he’s not only learning on the fly at 18 year olds in the in the NBA, but it’s an unfamiliar position and the production. He look he had 22 points, four assists against the Raptors, but like you said, they ranked dead last in offense. I think what’s interesting will be to continue to monitor the role of D’Angelo Russell who was really a fringe rotation player in those first couple games. DNPCD in the second half of a loss to the Wizards. The Wizards. Now, last couple games, DLO has been the six-man. He’s not shooting it well, but it is a completely different offense with D’Angelo Russell bringing the ball up the floor. Whether they want to or not, I think they’re going to have to continue to rely on D’Angelo Russell to play a significant role. He’s the only experienced ball handler on the roster as long as Kyrie Irving continues to be recovering from that knee injury. Yeah. And when you look at history in the NBA, it tells you that young guards, young when you task a young player with doing most of your ball handling, oftent times it is a really, really difficult adjustment and teams like to go with that experience. Tim McMahon, adios, amigo. All right, let’s pick this back up with a little some highlights from around the league

The NBA should be SCARED of Wemby! – Perk reacts to Spurs beating Raptors to move to 4-0 | NBA Today