76ers' Joel Embiid on Victor Wembanyama: 'I Think He's Trying to Live Up to the Hype'

Victor Wembanyama has been anything but a disappointment early in his NBA career, but some NBA superstars see the San Antonio Spurs rookie pressing to live up to his massive hype.

"Not trying to be too critical. Obviously, extremely talented. Right now, there's so much hype around him, I think he's trying to live up to the hype," Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid told David Aldridge of The Athletic. "That's what I see. And I watch a lot of games. I think, first of all, he has to figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever. It's not necessarily whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it's what he wants to become.

"Do you want to become KD, or do you want to become me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys — you want to combine everything. Right now, I just feel like everything kind of feels a little forced, in the way that he's playing. Which is not bad. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That's the only way. You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn."

Wembanyama is averaging 18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks over his first 25 NBA games, numbers that put him in a two-man conversation with Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren for Rookie of the Year. While Holmgren has been putting up numbers for a winning team in Oklahoma City, Wembanyama's Spurs sit at a disappointing 4-24.

Much of this can be attributed to their respective supporting casts. Holmgren is playing next to an MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a fellow young emerging forward in Jalen Williams. Wembanyama is playing on a team where the Spurs are throwing power forward Jeremy Sochan out at point guard and hoping for the best.

It would be borderline impossible for Wembanyama not to press given the miscast roster surrounding him. That has led to some bad habits—most notably turnovers and forced shots—but the Spurs are fine with allowing him to learn on the fly.

All parties involved are banking on these growing pains being part of a long-term building plan.