The results of Victor Wembanyama and the Blues at the quarter mark of the season

With 14 players on the starting line, France is once again among the main international breeding grounds for the NBA. With the regular season reaching its quarter, it is time for the first assessments. While some have started their exercise well, others have had a more mixed start. In any case, everyone remains behind Victor Wembanyama, both in terms of impact on the league and in the stats lines.

Rather successful takeoff

Four matches to get started, and Victor Wembanyama resumed his march forward. After an outing like never before he had experienced since his arrival in the NBA on October 30 against the Thunder, “Wemby” put the turbo back on. Over the last 12 games, interspersed with an absence of three games, he has averaged 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.8 blocks, with a 49% success rate including 36% behind the 3-point line.

Certainly, he still loses a lot of balls and we can wonder about his volume of 3-points (9.3 per game), which places him between Stephen Curry (9.6) and Damian Lillard (9.2) in the category, especially when we have the feeling that he is shooting from afar to save himself and avoid making contact. But when it comes in, the French Alien is simply indefensible, as illustrated by his 50 points at 8/16 from afar against the Wizards. And what’s more, San Antonio wins, joining the play-in race in the West for the moment.

His friends from the French team Guerschon Yabusele et Bilal Coulibaly cannot say the same. Within the two worst provisional records in the league, the Sixers and the Wizards, the two players do not deserve anything. The first has thus established himself as a player who counts in Nick Nurse’s rotation both through his activity and his ability to spread the game (9.9 points at 43.5% at 3-points, 5.4 rebounds in 23 minutes). The second does even better since he is the player most used by Brian Keefe in Washington, flirting with the 25 highest average playing time in the entire NBA. Always assigned to defend on the opponent’s best outside, the guard made real progress in attack, reaching 20 points four times, two more than in his entire rookie year.

It should still be noted that his last matches have been less convincing but, in his defense, it is not helped by the context, with the Wizards who remain on 13 consecutive defeats…

Moussa Diabatéhe is not really a fan of scoring cards. But the interior takes advantage of the injuries in the Hornets racket to make a hole, he who is only a signatory of a “two-way contract”. The former Michigan man is quite simply one of the best offensive rebounders in the league, playing just 19 minutes on average (8.2 rebounds, 3.6 under the opposing circle). Enough to get a longer term lease in Charlotte?

In full adaptation

Numbers one and two of the last Draft, Zaccharie Risacher et Alex Sarr sign a rather decent start with certain flashes of talent, but also obvious room for improvement.

Be careful, however, for the first whose playing time is declining since the return of De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic to the Hawks rotation. And who is struggling to continue shooting after his explosion against the Knicks (33 points on November 6, 23.8% from 3-point range since), even if he shows in sequences, like with the Cavaliers, everything he can bring. Alexandre Sarr has also been invited into the starting five, in Washington, and alternates between the good like his two 20-point outings or his quality against (1.9 per game, 11th in the NBA) and the mediocre with a percentage on still very, very random shooting.

Rudy Gobert does not have these problems of clumsiness but is struggling, like his entire Wolves team, at the start of the season. The Frenchman must digest the departure of Karl-Anthony Towns and the arrival of Julius Randle, and he has never weighed so little on the mark (10.5 points on average, compared to 14 last year) since the 2015/16 season. , almost ten years ago. As illustrated by the sequences where he asks for the ball, without success, from his new partner inside, there is work to find a balance within this group in difficulty.

Limited roles

Back in Los Angeles, Nicolas Batum is no longer really a Clippers executive though. The newly retired Blues saw his averages drop with his lowest playing time in his career and very reduced offensive figures (3.7 points to 36.8%). But his defensive knowledge is still there and the Clippers bench is holding up.

In a fairly similar register regarding stats, Ousmane Dieng et Rayan Rupert have at least the merit of having generally made a place for themselves within the rotations of the Thunder and the Blazers.

Problem for the first, a stint in the G-League in recent days ended with a stay of several weeks in the infirmary for a broken finger. The timing is bad, he who had managed to scrape off minutes to help out inside, and who risks returning to form when OKC has recovered all his injured near the circle.

Ignition delay

Sixth choice of the last Draft, Tidjane Salaün However, he started the season with visibly limited confidence for the Hornets, not even coming into play at all in the first two games of the season. However, things seem to be improving for the former Choletais, in the five against Orlando then against Miami. Enough to achieve his best career match with 17 points at 7/12 including 3/7 from afar, against the Heat.

Another member of the French colony in the first round a few months ago, Pacôme Dadiet must for the moment be content with express passages on the floor with the Knicks.

Constant identical and even more expected for Sidy Cissokoseven appearances with Spurs, and Armel Traoretwo games with the Lakers. The latter at least takes the opportunity to show off in the G-League, with a peak of 22 rebounds on Tuesday, before signing his first points in the NBA against the Spurs.