National Basketball Association

NBA Roundtable: Analyzing Victor Wembanyama's Summer League performance

Updated Jul. 11, 2023 5:18 p.m. ET

Ric Bucher

FOX Sports NBA Analyst

Melissa Rohlin

FOX Sports NBA Writer

Yaron Weitzman

FOX Sports NBA Writer

The summer is about more than free agency when it comes to the NBA.

This week, our panel of NBA reporters — Ric Bucher, Melissa Rohlin and Yaron Weitzman — takes a look at which young stars-in-the-making shined most on the all-important first weekend of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

1. Describe Victor Wembanyama’s Summer League performance in one word. Why that word?

Rohlin: Exciting. It felt as though we were witnessing the early stages of the next LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan. Wembanyama can do things we’ve never seen before. He’s a game-altering player. If he adds some strength and muscle, he could be near unstoppable. Not too much stock can be put into his Summer League performances, considering he had only two practices with the Spurs before playing, he was fatigued after a long layoff (he didn’t play in Sacramento) and his nerves were clearly through the roof because of all the hype. Yet, even when he struggled in his debut before shining in his second game, it was clear his potential is unreal.

Bucher: Captivating. It’s too bad the term "unicorn" to describe a player with traits we’ve never seen before has been rendered meaningless thanks to over usage ("hater" and "GOAT" have suffered the same fate). Because in my 30 years covering basketball, I’ve never seen a player of Wembanyama’s size have his compendium of skills and maturity and basketball IQ. All at 19. I couldn’t care less about the box scores in either game; it wasn’t his stats that fired my imagination. It was watching a 7-foot-5 inch man diving for a loose ball, getting his fingertips on it and dribbling it inches off the floor, all while scrambling to his 20-and-a-half-sized feet. It was the ease with which he shot the ball from any range. It was the perfectly weighted passes, some intended for teammates who didn’t even know they were open. And, of course, the shots blocked, near and far, spiked at the rim and tipped at the 3-point line to the surprise of the shooter. It was captivating because there was so much to absorb, and I can’t wait to find out what kind of player the Spurs are going to be able to fashion out of all of it.

Weitzman: Riveting. I know his performance in his first game was, well, not great. But there’s still something incredible about watching someone this tall shoot and dribble and move the way that Wembanyama does. We’ve never seen anything like it.

2. Which rookie impressed you the most on the first weekend of Summer League?

Rohlin: Definitely Wembanyama. There were quite a few things he did that seemingly only he can do, such as when he missed a jumper Sunday and then somehow got to the other side of the basket to grab his own rebound before making a layup. The other side of the basket. That requires such a unique combination of height and wingspan and speed. In another play, he had a block immediately followed by a dunk on the other end. Wembanyama is incredibly fun to watch.

Bucher: Let’s put it this way — I wouldn’t use the word "captivating" to describe anyone else.

Weitzman: Scoot Henderson. I know he got hurt, and we barely saw him, but you could see the flashes of something special in the few minutes he spent on the floor.

3. Which performance from a rookie concerned you the most on the first weekend of Summer League?

Rohlin: The injuries were the most concerning thing we saw at Summer League. A lot of these guys come into the league with so much mileage already on their bodies after playing AAU basketball. Henderson, the No. 3 overall pick, suffered a shoulder injury. Amen Thompson, the No. 4 pick, sustained a sprained ankle. Wembanyama was shutdown after two games out of fear he’d get injured. Something has got to change if these guys are this susceptible to getting injured.

Bucher: Henderson and Thompson not being able to get out of their first Summer League games unscathed by injury concerned me. The top picks play, at most, two or three games before being shut down, anyway. It is startling to think that top talents are incapable of staying healthy even before they actually make it onto a regular-season NBA court.

Weitzman: Can I cop out and say nothing is too concerning because it’s Summer League and if there’s anything we’ve learned about Summer League over the years, it’s that it means VERY little? We’ve seen plenty of guys dominate Summer League only to eventually fail in the NBA (hello, Kevin Knox) and we’ve seen plenty of guys struggle and then go on to have great careers.

4. Which second-year player showed you that they are on the cusp of being a breakout player next season?

Rohlin: Jabari Smith Jr. has looked great. The Houston Rockets’ forward averaged 35.5 points on 48.8% shooting, including 33.3% from beyond the arc, seven rebounds and four assists in 32.3 minutes over two games. Smith hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer Friday against Portland, and then dominated Sunday against Detroit. It’s hard to glean much from Summer League stats, but Smith looks like he could be on the verge of having a breakout season.

Bucher: This is a hard one because second-year players have such a huge advantage in Summer League. Playing and practicing for an entire NBA season puts them light-years ahead of the rest of the competition; they should dominate. I’ll go with Shaedon Sharpe just because after playing 20-plus minutes in 80 games last season, he easily could’ve gotten a pass. That he’s in Vegas and leads in minutes per game (33.6 out of 40) suggests he just loves to play. Never a bad trait to have.

Weitzman: Jabari Smith Jr. He quietly had a strong finish to the season (14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game after the All-Star break) and has looked good in Summer League. It’s easy to forget that entering last year’s draft, many scouts had Smith ranked as the top prospect in the class. We’re seeing why.

5. Looking ahead: What is your take on the newly-introduced in-season tournament? Like it, love it or hate it?

Rohlin: It all depends on whether guys buy in. There’s a $500,000 prize per player for the championship team, as well as a trophy, an MVP award and bragging rights at stake. Will that be enough to incentivize the type of hard-nosed play the NBA is hoping to see? We will see. It could be a lot of fun if the stars decide to really compete. Or it could feel gimmicky.

Bucher: Too early to tell. I get why they’re doing it, and I’m all for anything that might persuade teams to take the regular season a little more seriously, but I’m not sure if this will do it, especially for the top teams that expect to be playing in May and June.

Weitzman: I’m VERY dubious. I like the idea of trying to figure out ways to add some stakes to the regular season, and think the NBA deserves credit for trying to fix this problem. I just don’t think a made-up tournament with random prizes is the way to go about doing so. If it were, I’d be trying to come up with more ways to incentivize winning games in the regular season.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds." He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He is the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.