Taking advantage of the Wemby vortex

As defenses continue to focus their attention on Victor Wembanyama, Chris Paul is showing glimpses of what a Hall-of-Fame orchestra conductor looks like.

Photo courtesy of SS&E

San Antonio Express-News columnist Mike Finger had to make an important clarification to Chris Paul following San Antonio’s preseason win over the Magic last week: “One reason why there might be so many lob questions, Chris, is because there was a time here last year when the question was, ‘Why don't they lob the ball to Victor (Wembanyama) more?’” he explained to the newcomer.

“It is more complex than that. And I think at the end of the day, everybody here, our first priority is to win games. And if the lobs come and we win, so be it,” Paul responded. “But I think there is a lot more to it at times. They're going to happen just because he is who he is. But fundamentally I know that everybody here is trying to make the right play.”

To hear this straight from the mouth of a future Hall-of-Famer who’s spent a large chunk of his career throwing oops to long, athletic rim-runners probably went further in the ears of Spurs fans than it would have had the messenger been, say, Tre Jones. Well, if Paul said it, than we’ll believe it.

But that’s not fair to Jones, and that particular discourse was way off beat for the entirety of Wembanyama’s rookie season. Because no matter who you are, throwing lobs is difficult when the roll man is being collapsed upon by swarms of weakside defenders nearly every time he turns downhill.

Of course, there were plenty of opportunities missed, too, and the purpose of this observation isn’t to relitigate the alley-oop conversation; it’s to point out a different byproduct of both Wemby’s roll gravity and Paul’s elite basketball IQ and passing vision, as well as the compromising position in which those aforementioned weakside defenders will find themselves going forward.

That is, if shooters shoot, and cutters cut. And it didn’t take long Wednesday evening for Paul to identify the major hole in Orlando’s smother Victor defensive gameplan — a common strategy for most teams who faced the Spurs last season.

In the first example, Paul and Wembanyama found themselves at a two-on-three disadvantage in transition as Jeremy Sochan trailed. With the defense clearly looking for the lob — notice how Paolo Banchero stepped up and jumped to cut off the passing lane while Jett Howard tailed the rim-running Victor — Paul lured them into the vortex before placing a jump pass perfectly into Julian Champagnie’s hands as he filled the opposite wing.

“He just makes your life easier, man. He's so good at manipulating things and knowing what he wants to do, and just having two or three setups confusing the defense,” Zach Collins said after the Orlando game. “Guys are getting open, looks left and right, and he's making passes that you don't know are there. And then all of a sudden the guy's ball is in his shooting pocket and he's wide open.”

But this isn’t all about alley-oops, or even Paul’s passing. It’s often the little things throughout the course of a game — the winning plays that separate the inexperienced from the experienced.

In the second example of CP savvy, he immediately noticed every Magic eyeball on Wembanyama at the elbow. Instead of remaining spotted up in the corner while Victor operated on his own with gates ready to close from both sides, Paul dragged Jalen Suggs toward the action and set a back pick for Champagnie. Suggs overplayed the setup and Franz Wagner (who gave Suggs the ol’ ‘What was that?’ look at the end) had no chance to recover to the corner.

This is the unique situation in which Paul and the rest of the Spurs find themselves: Sure, you now have a future Hall-of-Famer setting up the offense, but he’s not the main attraction.

“You don't see a lot of times a guy that can shoot it as well as (Wemby) can, [not just] off the bounce, but playing in pick-and-roll,” Harrison Barnes said. “So I think just in general, sometimes you are being a shooter spotting up — but with Victor's handling, maybe it's cutting, maybe it's finding different ways to occupy.

“I think that's just the good challenge that we have is just figuring out how do you maximize a talent like him.”

And that’s where Paul’s leadership comes into play, not just on the ball, but off it as well. He will be in everyone’s ear, directing movement and orchestrating the offense in a way these young Spurs haven’t experienced before.

“He just sees the game really well, and I think the other thing that helps us is he talks to us. He sees something and he talks to us straight away,” Sochan said. “So it helps to see the reads, see the way to screen him and help him out. Because you get him open, he's going to find you. It's been a blessing.”

There’s a sort of beauty in the give-and-take, full-circle nature of basketball and sports in general. If the defense shuts down one aspect of the game, then it’s critical for the offense to exploit the weaknesses created as a byproduct. With the roll gravity Wemby creates — that aforementioned vortex — Sochan has to keep running and cutting, Champagnie has to keep finding his spots along the perimeter, Keldon Johnson needs to continue playing aggressively in space, and so on and so forth with the rest of the roster. If they do, opposing defenses will have to start accounting for all the easy scoring opportunities.

Then guess what — the lobs will come in bunches.

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