San Antonio Spurs star rookie Victor Wembanyama has continued to post monster stat lines and make highlight-reel plays as the All-Star break approaches, but lately he's been doing so on a minutes restriction.
Since stepping on a ball boy's foot prior to Dec. 23's loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Wembanyama has yet to play more than 26 minutes in a game due to what the team has called an ankle injury. He's hardly looked limited in any way, including in Friday night’s 135-99 win over the Charlotte Hornets.
After the win, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talked about when Wembanyama could be reevaluated.
“I don’t have a date,” Popovich said on when Wemby could be off his minutes restriction. “I think it might be within a week-and-a-half or so.”
Popovich sat Wembanyama for last night’s meeting with the Chicago Bulls since it’s on the second game of a back-to-back.
Wembanyama tallied 26 points and 11 rebounds against Charlotte. This came after posting his first-career triple-double in Wednesday’s 130-108 over the Detroit Pistons when he finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
He’s done this all while not playing the minutes that franchise cornerstones typically receive. It then becomes a scary thought for the rest of the league and an exciting one for Spurs fans when they realize what he could do with 30 or 40 minutes per night.
This season, Wemby leads the Spurs in points (19.4), rebounds (10.2) and blocks (3.2) per game.
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