Scoot Henderson and Victor Wembanyama Live Up to the Hype in One of Best Prospect Matchups Ever
Breaking down every play from Scoot-Wemby I in Las Vegas with NBA draft prospect analysis from both games.
Warning: this piece contains potential hype-rbole.
Between his lightning-quick burst, body control, and explosiveness, Scoot Henderson has a truly elite skill: unlimited nitrous.
He appears to be as athletic as any guard prospect before him, falling somewhere in the range of super-speedster prototypes with varying degrees of bulk and bounce from Wall, Fox, Rose, Russ to Ant, B.Davis, Oladipo, D-Wade. Once Henderson’s fully capable of punishing defenders for going under screens, there won’t be many ways to stop Scoot from scoring without sending multiple defenders.
Henderson creates advantages for himself and teammates by beating his man on the perimeter and drawing extra attention in the paint. Scoot covers the rock on drives like a running back plowing through the gap, keeping the ball safe when bee-lining for the rim while keeping his head up for kickouts. Scoot’s willingness to use his burst off the ball on well-timed cuts is a wonderful sign for his team to find easy buckets.
Henderson shows off his primary playmaking chops with vision, awareness, and the decision-making abilities to create shots for others by attacking first, bending the defense for drives, kickouts, and setups.
Between his otherworldly speed, burst, bounce, explosive turbo button, and start/stop body control (acceleration/deceleration), Scoot is putting up a guard prospect draft profile as exciting as any seen before. Combine those athletic gifts with his mind, ball-skills, and feel for the game, and a potentially generational talent enters the frame.
Has there been a shot release as unblockable and fluid as Victor Wembanyama’s since Kevin Durant’s? If Karl Anthony-Towns was reading this, he might raise his hand. The main difference here is that Wembanyama stands ~5 inches taller than either one of them, making his release point that much harder to reach, let alone contest.
No offense to legendary draft prospects that have come before like KD, KAT, AD, Zion, and Mobley, but Wembanyama looks like he’s playing a different sport entirely, volleyball-spiking shots at the rim, guarding the perimeter and paint simultaneously, hitting contested fadeaways without even jumping.
Even if he doesn’t wind up the best basketball player to ever pick up a ball, he’s the best basketball prospect I’ve ever scouted. His starting point of skill and length is extraordinary, truly unique, allowing for all sorts of positive outcomes.
While Luka and LeBron were more well-rounded, better basketball players entering the league, Wemby’s touch at his size offers him an extremely high floor with all the room to grow. His tough shot-making skills, deep range, and natural rim-protection instincts are a safe bet to translate to every level of basketball; combining that floor with his unique mix of measurables and developable ball skills creates one of the highest ranges of potential developmental paths any prospect has seen.
There’s few shots as hard to defend, or as beautiful to watch, as the baseline fadeaway.
When Wemby’s shot is going, there’s no blocking it. The release is too damn high!
Maybe if a strong, pesky defender gets up under Victor Wembanyama like Jrue Holiday, he’ll get lucky swiping at the ball on the way up or on the dribble moves before the gather begins without fouling. Similar problems that Holiday gives Kevin Durant, who credits Jrue as the toughest defender for him to score against.
Wembanyama pulls off Greak Freakish moves with the point-center transition push. A seven-footer going coast-to-coast doesn’t make someone Giannis as much as Giannis serves as the ultimate example of a grab-and-go fast break force of nature. Victor would have to level up from “being able to bring the ball up” to “forcing the ball up the floor with breakneck speed” to reach that level of impact in transition.
The hype-rbolic potential ceiling for Wembanyama involves a 7’5” human being with an 8’ wingspan who can dribble, pass, and shoot the lights out of the gym; whose shot release looks as unblockable as Durant’s; whose grab-and-go abilities give him modern point-center powers that ideally emulate a Giannis; whose defensive energy seems endless, like a longer Gobert who blocks everything in sight. Taking some of the best things these all-stars do and forming his own game in his own frame.
Weight management will be key in forming Wembanyama’s path at the NBA level, for determining his body’s strengths and weaknesses. Putting on too much muscle could reduce his graceful mobility; not enough weight and he’ll be pushed around the paint like a rag doll. Maybe Wemby staying on the slimmer side accentuates his proven movement skills, even if that reduces his back-down potential on the block, perhaps a good tradeoff to make since he doesn’t specialize in post-ups anyway.
Maybe a more realistic floor is a taller Jaren Jackson Jr., a floor-stretching perennial DPOY contender, but six inches taller. Contesting without fouling, creating off the dribble, and making clean rotations could be a challenge for Wembanyama at the highest level, yet the world could still wind up witnessing one of the most active shot-blockers and lethal three-point snipers to ever play the game, and someone who can literally get his shot off over any defense.
Flashing ball skills never seen before in the history of the sport for someone of his height and length, Wembanyama’s development paths feel endless.
the motion threes. the deep range. the clean shot release.
the footwork. the body control. the proprioception (spatial awareness) to keep track of all the moving parts, yet still be able to pull off these impossible moves at that size?
LeBron’s right, “everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years, but he’s more like an alien. He’s for sure a generational talent.”
Victor Wembanyama, the first space jam monstar living among us. Maybe all this praise is too much pressure for the eighteen year old, but he’s taken the spotlight in stride, focusing on his goals of staying consistent and getting drafted:
Scoot-Wemby I
Breaking down every play involving either top prospect in Scoot-Wemby I, while understanding all forms of shot deterrence can be hard to capture.
It’s not every day two of the top prospects in a draft class, or perhaps the decade, face off before the draft, let alone show off all the tools that make GMs drool over what makes them such tantalizing talents.
While other bouncy prospects like Cam Whitmore and the Thompson Twins can always leapfrog up the big board in the process before draft day arrives, this Scoot-Wemby matchup became an instant classic, joining the likes of other legendary pre-draft prospect matchups like Magic-Bird and LeBron-Melo.
In his first official game affiliated with the NBA, Victor Wembanyama becomes the only player in the history of the league not named Danny Green to rack up 7 threes and 5 blocks in one contest. Shout out to transition defensive ace, Danny Green.
Q1 11:45 Scoot rises and fires for the elbow pull-up jumper in P&R. First he dumps to the big at the elbow, then sets the baseline flex/back screen, before running off a pindown, looking for the lob, and resetting for a clearout handoff into pick-and-roll
Q1 10:50 Wemby leaves elbow for help block at the rim, possibly recognizing Ignite running the same set as Scoot’s previous bucket, with enough time to make the block after the entry pass takes half a second too long to set up the cutter.
Q1 10:00 In a 30 second span, Wemby blocks his second shot, Scoot’s elbow pull-up, even though Wemby was in drop defense, taking pristine use of length and timing.
Q1 9:15 Scoot flashes his first step and explosiveness as he FLIES past two defenders before the up-and-under reverse finish past an outstretched Wembanyama. The fake pindown packdoor cut opens an inch of a driving lane for Henderson to attack.
Q1 8:40 Wemby is tough enough to stop as a lob threat for the rim roll alley-oop, only tougher when defenders are scrambling to match up in transition.
Q1 8:15 nice off ball movement from Scoot in double-give-and-go finish after elbow pindown frees teammate for first handoff into the quick cut from Henderson.
Q1 7:07
A Scoot-Wemby I Moment
Wemby and Scoot trading buckets.
Putting on a show.
Giving the people their money’s worth.
Wemby takes the handoff and walks into the one-dribble side-step pull-up three, Scoot matches him with the ISO burst-forward-before-stepping-back pull-up three after drawing Vic on the switch with the elbow screen.
Q1 4:42 good look on the potential assist by Victor Wembanyama to cutter, but broken up, maybe a little too much heat on the pass
Q2 10:45 Scoot Henderson fights through screen, rotates back to the wing, reaches and rides out for the steal and slam. “Remember the name” - game announcer
Q2 8:21 Scoot Scoot body control - board, burst, stop on a dime, pull-up middy
Q2 8:08 Wemby looks like he’s setting up on the right, quickly resets to screen opposite side, pops out open as both defenders leave him, rolls hard into the open paint, goes up strong and draws the foul on the his self-putback slam
Q2 6:00 SCOOT SCOOT goes GAMEBREAKER breaking out the crazy handles to slice up the defense and finish the reverse past Wemby.
Wembanyama comes out of the gates on a tear in the second half. In a 75-second span, Victor knocks down two C&S triples, draws a foul on a coast-to-coast drive, flashes vision with a potential assist, and defends P&R well in spite of the goaltend call.
Q3 10:10 Wemby steps back into the one-dribble triple after setting a pick in side P&R and slipping into the wide open corner — Ignite keeps leaving Victor open, they might want to stop icing the ball-handler in pick-and-roll and force Wembanyama’s teammates to make a play.
Q3 9:50 Wembanyama shows and drops back to the roller , contesting the initial roll, the counter-pump-fake, and blocking the final spin hook, but the refs call goaltend.
Q3 9:30 Wembanyama pick and pop knocks down another C&S triple. Another sign that Ignite should stop icing the ball-handler, as to stop leaving Wemby wide open.
Q3 8:43-8:15 floor general Scoot looking to create with two potential assists.
Wemby blocks/contests the first roller in help defense from the perimeter.
Henderson breaks free on the backdoor cut past a back screen from the top of the key, diving into Wemby and kicking to the open shooter.
Q3 7:30 Wemblockyama anchors the defense for another possession. First closing out on the corner threee, Wemby returns to the paint to contest the drive and SWAT the second attempt.
Q3 7:12 Wembanayama draws three free throws after attacking the closeout with the stepback pull-up triple, follows it up with a transition C&S triple off the dumpoff.
Q3 5:40 Questionable call from the refs as Wembanyama is called for another touch-foul on the contest, could have been a clean block. Nice use of defensive instincts at his height to not remotely fall for any shoulder fake, squaring his hips and shoulders up for the block the entire post-up. Maybe they called the foul for not being straight up, as his left arm swipes down toward the ball.
Q3 3:43 Victor contests Scoot’s elbow pull-up on the P&R switch, forces double-clutch jump pass, Wembanyama’s presence forces a bad offensive possession for Ignite.
Q3 4:56 This possession is a prime example of Scoot’s skilled athleticism.
Henderson flashes the first step to drive past his man while ignoring the screen to create a cutback gap, seamlessly shifting directions through the gap while going behind the back into a jump gather before bursting again into both his man and Wembanyama. Scoot decelerates into a full stop, sending both defenders flying, as Henderson looks up at an open four-foot fadeaway, releasing the shot before Victor extends for a second jump contest.
Q3 4:40 The only way defenses are stopping Wembanyama’s faceup pumpfake double rip-through side-step middies is by stacking defenders on top of each other’s shoulders while wearing a giant trench coat in hopes of confusing him.
Q3 3:22 Scoot shows off the incredible body control to hesi burst past the switch, drives his man into jumping off his feet towards the rim before stopping on a dime in time to turnaround for the open fadeaway.
Q3 2:22 Henderson snags the defensive rebound, pushes the pace, and sneaks a bounce pass through two defenders in transition to lead his teammate to the rim for the AND1. Scoot showing soft touch with precision passing through a tiny window.
Q4
Q4 7:44 Scoot potential assist in P&R vs Vic’s drop, hesi-drives towards paint to draw in corner help defender half a step, creates slight space for corner shooter kickout.
Q4 6:17 Scoot Henderson kick-ahead kick-back give-and-go transition C&S triple
Q4 5:40 Ooo Abogidi drops the hammer off the slick feed from Scoot. Henderson maintaining a threat to attack while manipulating defenders opens up scoring opportunities for the entire offense.
Q4 4:40 Abogidi breaks up the post entry lob, Henderson grabs and goes, drawing three defenders on the fast break drive as he makes a good decision to kick to the open corner 3pt shooter. The non-chalant release and running-back ball-cover on the drive could be a signal his plan was to attack, draw attention, and pass all along.
CLUTCH Fourth Quarter back-and-forth sequence, especially for Wembanyama
in a 75-second span:
Q4 4:16 Wemby rolls out of P&R into the post-up, shoulder shimmies around into a tough spinning flip shot
Q4 4:03 Scoot answers with the elbow pull-up in P&R as the defender hard hedges, leaving him open
Q4 3:45 Wemby answers right back with the quick pull-up 3 in transition. Let’s not forget that a 7’5” ball-handler is bringing the ball up the floor and making that shot.
Q4 3:30 Henderson rises up for a potential poster slam that would live on forever, the nail in the coffin; Wemby REJECTS the idea outright, sending Scoot packin’.
Q4 3:00 Wemby follows that up by contesting a closeout-attack drive (called goaltend) and hitting another catch-and-shoot triple on the other end
Q4 2:20 Henderson feeds big man roller in P&R through two defenders with live-dribble bounce pass, but roller mishandles the pass
Q4 2:02 Henderson barely beats the full-court trap before blazing down the court into Wembanyama at full speed, drawing the foul for clutch free throws.
Q4 1:31/1:19 Wembanyama closes out the game strong in a loss. Victor racks up his 5th block when swatting Scoot after closing off driving lanes throughout the possession, before contesting another attempt and racing down the floor for a C&S corner three in transition, scoring his 37th point and 7th three-pointer just a little too late for the comeback.
While Scoot’s Ignite team closes out the game, Wemby wins the box score dropping 37 points, 7 threes, and 5 blocks.
Two potentially generational talents showing off all the skills that built the hype, with both living up to the hype-rbole, at least for one memorable night in Vegas. Henderson would bang knees with Wembanyama early into their second game, ending their marquee matchup, hopefully not disrupting his season or draft process.
A high-flyin’ downhill force with great feel for the game, Scoot Henderson looks the part of a table-setting franchise-cornerstone who can consistently attack, score, and create for his team. The three-point-shooting tree with limbs as long as the eye can see, Victor Wembanyama is a cheat code only previously possible in 2K. Press L1 L2 R1 R2 left down right up left down right up to unlock Wemby’s unlimited potential.
As for “the alien”, Steph sees the vision.
Follow @BeyondTheRK on Twitter and YouTube for live video breakdowns, basketball scouting, and NBA analysis.