Victor Wembanyama Embarrasses Raptors While Highlighting Toronto's Flawed Decision-Making

Victor Wembanyama showed how flawed the Toronto Raptors' decision-making was last season in a blowout victory for the San Antonio Spurs

How did the Toronto Raptors not try harder for Victor Wembanyama?

Maybe it wouldn’t have worked. Maybe the San Antonio Spurs were destined to win the lottery last year. 

But Toronto’s process was flawed.

There’s no reason Toronto should have been buyers at the trade deadline last season. In hindsight, it was a disastrous decision that cost Toronto leverage in trade talks for Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. But worse than that, was the fact that the Raptors knew there was a once-in-a-generation prospect coming and didn’t at least try to improve their lottery odds.

Wembanyama is the real deal.

He showed as much in an other-worldly 27-point, 14-rebound, and 10-block performance, terrorizing the Raptors at both ends in a 122-99 victory over Toronto. 

"A unicorn," Gradey Dick said as he attempted to describe Wembanyama. "You just don't see guys that size that can do what he does."

The Wembanyama buzz began early Monday night. 

Fans poured into Scotiabank Arena almost an hour before tipoff to see the Frenchman begin his workouts. It felt like Steph Curry, LeBron James, or Giannis Antetokounmpo were in the building. This wasn’t some MVP candidate, though, but rather a 20-year-old phenome still on his NBA ascent. 

Then came tipoff and Wembanyama didn’t disappoint. He blocked Jakob Poeltl on the very first shot attempt of the game and then ran down the court and nailed a three-pointer to start the night off. 

From there, the Wembanyama show was on. 

Tre Jones found him for an alley-oop dunk to put the Spurs up 8-0 before Toronto was forced to call a timeout. He posterized the Poeltl in the second quarter and looked completely unfazed by the somehow too-small 7-foot Austrian.

"He just makes the game so much easier," Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. "When he rolls to the basket there’s so many eyes that’s going there and when he has the ball in his hands, so many eyes, so much attention. So just feeding off him, playing off him today was easy. That's all I can say."

Defensively, the Raptors were afraid to even attempt shots in the paint against Wembanyama. Barnes refused to go up with a transition attempt with Wembanyama lurking and Poeltl probably would have been better off taking the same approach considering the Spurs rookie got to him with four of his 10 blocks.

"I guess it's not on the scouting report that he’s blocking shots," Vassell joked post-game. "I don't know. I guess they’ll learn one of these days."

None of this praise for Wembanyama is a slight against Gradey Dick, the prospect the Raptors did select with their first-round pick after their ill-fated play-in hopes came up short. 

After a rough start to the season, Dick has been much better lately. He spent a couple of weeks working to build his body with the Raptors 905 and it seems to have paid off with more strength and more confidence.

“When he walked in, he looked like he's 16. Now, he looks like he's 17 and a half,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković joked pre-game. “He'll get there. He is an amazing hard worker.”

Dick kept Toronto around in the first half despite San Antonio’s torrid start. He showed off that added strength in transition, scoring through contact from Keldon Johnson. Moments later, he nailed a corner three-pointer and then hit a mid-range jumper after curling around a screen from Kelly Olynyk, scoring 10 of his team-high 18 points before the break.

For Toronto, that was really the only bright spot in an otherwise embarrassing loss to one of the league’s worst teams. The Spurs scored 103 points through three quarters and shot 56% from the field and 40.1% from three-point range before garbage time.

"It was lack of effort. It was lack of intensity. It was lack of focus. All of that from the start of the game," Rajaković said. "You can miss shots. You can have an off night with shooting. But your effort, and defense, and rebounding, playing with pride, that has to be there every night."

Barnes was a no-show in the first half with 0 points before finishing the night with seven points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. Worse than that, though, was his attitude. He walked off the court and into the locker room with 20 seconds to go in the game.

"It is definitely a learning opportunity for all the players on the team. From young guys to all the vets. And this is not the performance that we want to have, the competitive spirit that we want to have," Rajaković said of Barnes' early departure. "So everybody is going to look in the mirror and figure out what we need to do."

Immanuel Quickley struggled, shooting 2-for-12 from the field, and mustered just seven points in nearly 26 minutes.

But these losses are just part of the process for the Raptors as they go through this rebuild a year later than it should have been. They’ve been embarrassed repeatedly this season and it’s going to keep happening until there’s an influx of talent on this team. 

Maybe help comes in this year's draft. Maybe Toronto will keep its first-round pick this season and drafts someone special. But it seems pretty certain that whoever they pick won't have the same kind of ceiling as Wembanyama who Toronto passed up taking a shot at this time last season.

Up Next: Indiana Pacers

The Raptors will welcome Pascal Siakam back to town on Valentine's Day when they take on the Indiana Pacers at 7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.