How Victor Wembanyama impressed Jamal Crawford in week’s worth of private workouts

The San Antonio Spurs have seen a couple of Hall-of-Fame big men walk through their doors and bring championships to the franchise. But Victor Wembanyama has a chance to be the greatest player out of the group, and of all time, if he lives up to his potential.

The 22-year old Wembanyama has already reached the NBA Finals in just his third season in the NBA, breaking league and franchise records in the process.

Two summers ago after his rookie season, former NBA player Jamal Crawford teased a couple of workouts with the Spurs star during the offseason. Crawford, a three-time Sixth Man of the Year and known for his shot-making and ball-handling, working out with the seven-foot-four Victor Wembanyama would spell trouble for the rest of the league if he picked up on those skills.

Ahead of the NBA Finals, ClutchPoints spoke with Jamal Crawford about that weeks worth of workouts with Wembanyama and where he’s seen him grow the most over the last few years.

“I was honored to get the call to work with Vic,” Crawford said. “What I have seen first off working with him is how quick he can download things. Things that took me years to learn. I could tell him, and he could have it done in five minutes. Like I got it, and he’d go out and do it. It was almost like fake, to be honest with you.

“The things I’m seeing him kind of apply right now is, when he gets a bigger player on him, he gets into a rhythm dribble and how he hops into it and how he covers ground, we worked on that.”

Crawford and Wembanyama worked on a number of areas of the game, including finding different angles to attack at seven-foot-four and footwork.

“The footwork transfers everywhere,” Crawford added. ” You look at Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady, they had two of the best footwork guys ever. People see their scoring, but the footwork they used to get to their score, different angles and different spots, I see Victor use that as well, because those were two guys we were studying.

“Different guys in the league, we studied Hakeem (Olajuwon), different guys, how they got to certain areas and different points on the court. To be honest with you, it was for these times, kind of knowing where he was going and knowing the areas he needed to get to dominate at the highest level when the competition was the toughest.

“Not to give away too much, but those were some of the foundations and basics we did the week I was with him.”

If Victor Wembanyama develops the Jamal Crawford dribble package, how on Earth will he be guarded?

(via @YahooSports)pic.twitter.com/ySpbu2UfUy

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 16, 2024

As one of the better scorers in the league and known for his explosive prowess, Jamal Crawford has seen multiple defenses in his time with the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and LA Clippers.

So how would he go about attacking a guy like Victor Wembanyama, or at least to find success against him on the offensive end of the ball?

“To score against him, for me, I would keep him in pick-and-roll because that’s where he’s taking away the paint because the mid-range is available, and I would try to get space all the time,” Crawford added. “So that point where he comes up, if I’m in the initial drive and I’m in the paint, get him to collapse so I can spread it out to a shooter, just maybe they can get a clean look. So it may not be me scoring, but hopefully the team scores.

“For me, I would try to move him side to side as much as possible, have him do close-outs as much as possible. I think Alex Caruso, with him making his shots, got him in a couple of those situations where he was able to attack the basket freely, but there is no clear-cut answer. I’m sure they’ve tried all this. [Thunder] Coach Mark Daigneault is the best in the business.”

Victor Wembanyama is now in the NBA Finals and is just four games away from winning his first NBA Championship and the sixth in Spurs franchise history. The only thing standing in his way are the New York Knicks, who have had a special playoff run.

The Knicks have not lost in 39 days prior to Game 1 of the NBA Finals Wednesday night, sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers after winning the final three games of their series against the Atlanta Hawks.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is set to tip off at 8:30PM EST on ABC.

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