Why isn’t Victor Wembanyama playing in the season finale against the Pistons on Sunday April 14?

On Sunday, the NBA concludes its regular season. The league’s 30 teams face off in 15 games with several playoff spots and play-in positions still up for grabs. Also at stake are the final standings for a dozen or so teams. Plenty of nerves. Tension will fill many an arena, even in San Antonio, where the Spurs host the Detroit Pistons with calculators at the ready to determine who has a better shot at securing the top pick in the upcoming draft.

Wembanyama says farewell to NBA season

It’s a matchup that closes a disappointing season for the Michigan franchise. For the Texans, it hasn’t been a walk in the park either, but at least they depart with smiles on their faces, absolutely certain that Victor Wembanyama was everything they dreamed of. And that’s saying a lot.

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The 20-year-old Frenchman, standing at 2.24 meters, won’t be playing at the Frost Bank Center due to an ankle issue, after competing in 71 games in his NBA debut season and clinching the Rookie of the Year award. And of course, he made a huge impact on the court, where this basketball prodigy has exceeded many of the expectations built around him. His impossible wingspan, his even more impossible ball handling for someone of his stature, and his ability to score from any corner of the basketball court have impressed opponents, coaches, and fans alike.

His stats are out of this world for a rookie. Averaging over 21 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks per game are unique figures for a first-year player. Specifically, he averages 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 3.6 blocks. Only nine players before him had ever averaged 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 3+ blocks in a single season. Ewing, Hayes, Lanier, McAdoo, Mourning, Shaq, Olajuwon, and David Robinson are his companions on this journey. And in under 30 minutes of play (29.7), no one else joins him.

And among that elite group is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of course. The legendary center for the Los Angeles Lakers is the only one to surpass the French international’s marks in a single season. He achieved this feat at the age of 28. Wembanyama is only 20.

How has Wembanyama’s season been?

The resemblance between them doesn’t end there. Kareem, Olajuwon, and Robinson had been the only ones to finish a season with 1,500 points, 250 assists, and 250 blocks. After this season, the Spurs center has joined the family... with a twist: he is the only one with those numbers who has also knocked down more than 100 triples, with a 46.2% accuracy on step-back shots, a percentage that no one in the NBA has achieved with that volume of accuracy this year, with Darius Garland at 45.3% and Donovan Mitchell at 44.7%.

Statistics that boggle the mind. That leave one speechless, but have not been consistent over time, but rather through weekly and monthly evolution, breaking the rookie wall, that affliction that causes rookies to falter as games progress. His season’s start was more than sluggish; it raised concerns. In the first three months of competition (the last of 2023), only in November did he reach an average of 20 points, and Chet Holgrem’s pace with the Oklahoma City Thunder cast doubt on the Rookie of the Year award that everyone had bestowed upon him before his NBA debut.

However, with the arrival of 2024, everything changed. Four months averaging over 20 points, with a 30% accuracy from beyond the arc. More than 9.5 rebounds and 3 blocks. He accumulated his only two triple-doubles and 29 of his 43 double-doubles.

His consolidation as the season’s best young player would come with the All-Star break because there was a “Wemby” before Indianapolis and another after. In the 49 games before the Indiana event, he averaged 20.5 points (32% from three), 10 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 3.2 blocks in 28.4 minutes. In the following 22 games, with legs (very) weary and no collective objectives, the Frenchman surged to 23.5 points (3 more) with a 33.3% three-point shooting (up 1.1%), 12 rebounds (up 2), 5.3 assists (up 2.1), and 4 blocks (up 0.8) in 32.5 minutes on the court. A notable growth that does not set its limit in the sky. That’s impossible because he’s an alien.