When the Sacramento Kings traded Harrison Barnes to San Antonio in a three-team deal to make space for DeMar DeRozan, there was a lot of confusion in basketball circles. Everyone knew the Chicago Bulls wanted to move off DeRozan’s contract, and the Kings made no secret about their wish to add talent to their team, but it seemed obvious that the situations weren’t right for each other.
Eleven games into the season, they’re worse off from three than they were last season—meanwhile, the Spurs heated up from deep and set the nets in the Frost Bank Center ablaze en route to a 20-point victory over the space-challenged Kings. They tied a franchise record with 22 threes made, led by Victor Wembanyama’s 34 points—a season-high—14 rebounds, six assists, and three blocks.
The Kings weren’t the worst 3-point shooting team in the league last season, but they weren’t lighting it up either, ranking 16th in the league. DeMar does not help with that problem.
Barnes, while not a six-time all-star, can spread the floor and knock down open threes—services the Spurs benefitted from tonight when Sacramento came to town. Barnes finished with 10 points on 3/6 FG against his former team.
There’s no shot more important than the three these days, and it seems the California-based hoops squad opted to ignore that for more star power. Unfortunately for them, fit is more important than star power in today’s NBA. Too many teams are deep enough to offset hero ball. There have to be threats all over the court, and most of them must be able to drill an open three.
Wemby understands that, and it’s why he continues to take threes. He was shooting terribly through his first eight games, but dare I say, he’s turned a corner after two straight games, making six threes per game. It only took him nine shots against Utah and 12 attempts versus the Kings.
That’s a ridiculous percentage for a player his size, but Mitch Johnson was steadfast in his declaration on Wemby’s skill before that Jazz game.
Victor Wembanyama routinely displayed immense offensive talent last season. He often left everyone, from fans to analysts, speechless because of what he could do. Many of us are old enough to remember the shock so many felt because his offense was way ahead of what was expected in his rookie season.
Yet there was panic surrounding the Alien as if he had forgotten how to score, despite what he showed the world in the Olympics just a few months ago. When you mix high expectations with impatience, you set yourself up for outlandish statements like the one an anonymous scout made about Wemby right before he woke from his offensive slumber.
“He’s absolutely awesome on defense, and not impactful at all on offense. He just looks like he’s playing without a whole lot of direction.” -Anonymous scout
Anonymous sources are necessary. The reality is that not everyone wants to deal with the backlash of their opinions, and sometimes, there are real consequences they want to avoid. That’s fine. Surely, this person is thrilled by their decision to remain unknown because that’s the kind of statement the internet never lets you live down.
