Zach Lowe

I'm going to talk about it with Andrew Schlecht about the Thunder and Chet Holmgren, the idea of bringing Chet Holmgren into the pick-and-roll if Wemby's on him.

Wemby doesn't have to cooperate in that.

The Spurs don't have to cooperate in that.

As soon as Josh Hart goes into a pick-and-roll, Wemby can just tag out, and I'm going to stay here in the corner, and if it's Mikhail Bridges, okay, he's a more dangerous shooter.

I don't care.

I'm Victor Wemby.

I'm an OGN at OB.

He might be the most dangerous corner three shooter in the league.

That's a different ballgame.

But I can cover so much space so fast that –

You can't manipulate Victor Wemenyama in the ways that you can manipulate every other big man who's ever tried this gambit.

They don't have to drag him in.

Now, sometimes they will, and I thought the Thunder, particularly in Game 5, found some ways to coax him up the floor a little bit when he was in that one-man zone, like clear his side of the floor completely of just two guys.

Everyone else is over on the other side, so he kind of has to defend in the pick-and-roll.

And I think that even applies to, like, you mentioned Shamit.

one of the big X factors in the series is going to be who does Victor guard when they put five shooters on the floor, when they flip Shamit or who do some McBride or whoever in the Josh Hart spot.

And that's troubling for any big man, but I don't think the response is going to be, well, now he just has to guard cat, you know, but there's no other option for us.

Sometimes he'll guard Cat because maybe that's working.

Maybe that feels good.

I think the Spurs have gotten more daring and have been rewarded for it by just saying, oh, we'll still park him in the corner.