Victor Wembanyama needs to learn how to flop

Hey, hey! Put the pitchforks away, I know you read the headline and probably want to bite my head off, but I can assure you that I’m not saying Victor Wembanyama should become a WWE villain and start foul-hunting like some 7-foot-4 mutant version of Kyle Lowry. Though that would be funny.

I am merely saying that the Minnesota Timberwolves grabbed Game 1 against the San Antonio Spurs on their home floor because Victor Wembanyama was not getting to the free throw line despite getting whacked repeatedly. Even if he was dealing with league-average contact, he is, at worst, the third-best player in the world, played 40 minutes, and is also an alien sent to destroy basketball as we know it; there is no star system, moon or space station where he should be 1-of-2 from the free throw line!

Victor Wembanyama should be the league’s most fouled player

Wembanyama was 11th in free throw attempts in the regular season at exactly seven per game, a figure made all the more impactful by him playing fewer than 30 minutes per contest. In the playoffs, he’s careened all the way down to five per game and is 24th among postseason qualifiers. That is not going to cut it.

Let me lay out the theoretical global superpower that is a Victor Wembanyama who can figure out how to get to the line eight to 10 times per game:

1. He shoots 82 percent from the stripe, meaning that getting fouled (which is already the best play in basketball on average) is so ridiculously-inarguably the best thing Wembanyama can do on any possession.
2. He is 7-foot-4, meaning there is more Victor Wembanyama to foul than any other player in the league. Joel Embiid won an MVP award because he basically became a Shaquille O’Neal that could make free throws. Wembanyama is taller, more skilled and a better shooter than Embiid.
3. He’s also potentially the best defender in history even if he isn’t allowed to play offense. 

That does, however, give officials quite the challenge in deciding what is and is not a foul. Wembanyama’s limbs are so much longer than everyone else’s that the word “incidental contact” takes on a whole new meaning. He’s much harder to avoid than other players, and there’s probably an internal dialogue going on in every referee’s mind saying, “what was Julius Randle supposed to do there? I mean, look at the guy!” Wembanyama has to become the evolutionary Giannis Antetokounmpo (yes, such a thing can exist) and can't allow them to keep thinking that way.

The Timberwolves exploited Wembanyama’s flop-avoidance to win Game 1

With how big Wembanyama is, the fact that he only took two free throws is probably enough evidence to prove he doesn’t like to flop. But the Timberwolves were daring him to complain to officials, throwing him around as much as possible on both ends. Wembanyama mostly tried to play through it, but there’s one play in particular where I think he should have demanded a foul.

This was a critical moment in the game, and Wembanyama (who still notched 12 blocks, an NBA Playoff record) was neutralized as a rim protector because Julius Randle just … moved him out of the way. That’s a foul. I get we are in the era of the legal illegal screen, with screeners routinely “rolling” directly into some defender they’d like to get a switch onto/switch off of the ball handler (I call that The Bam Adebayo Special), but hip-checking a guy backwards three seconds before the shot is up so he can’t get in the paint is not a box out; it’s a foul.

Wembanyama has a few other moments where he just allowed himself to be moved. Watch how Naz Reid discards Wembanyama on this offensive rebound. This one probably wasn’t a foul, but rather shows him shirking contact, still unwilling to just go through people. By the time Reid gets the board, Wembanyama has been pushed five feet backwards.

There is so much flopportunity here if Wembanyama can just be more assertive with referees. I’m not saying he should start complaining about calls all the time or catapulting himself to the floor like Embiid or Karl-Anthony Towns (that series is the Flop Super Bowl), but advocating for yourself with referees is part of being a superstar. 

Wembanyama can become the champion of good flopping

Despite setting the playoff record for blocks in a game, the Timberwolves actually did a great job limiting Wembanyama’s impact as a rim protector down the stretch, from floaters and off ball actions to the aforementioned “just shove him out of the way” play. But Wemby cannot allow himself to be tossed around with impunity; I’m not saying the referees are missing calls, I’m saying Wembanyama isn’t playing physical enough. “Good flopping,” which exists in the NBA, is playing with enough motor where illegal contact legitimately happens; you just have to do a little hand-waving to remind the ref.

I see no reason why Wembanyama shouldn’t lead the NBA in free-throw attempts every year. The fact that guards like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Dončić, who are big … but they aren’t Wemby, lead the league in free throws constantly shows how some of the league’s premier big men like Nikola Jokić and Wemby don’t really want to finish through contact. For Jokić, it makes sense, since he is running a lot more than his own offense and isn’t always the biggest guy out there. But if I’m Wemby? Free throws need to become Me Throws. Your greatness has no ceiling, so don’t put one on yourself. 

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