Open Thread: Better foe for Wemby: Chet Holmgren or Dillon Brooks

Building a solid rivalry can expose the best matchups

Last season Victor Wembanyama was the clear choice for Rookie of the Year. He was the obvious choice. In fact, the vote was unanimous for Wembanyama, getting all 99 first-place votes.

The rivalry between the two had been touted even before Wemby’s rookie season tipped off.

But during the preseason as the Spurs were playing the Houston Rockets I pondered whether Alperen Sengun created a better narrative for a rivalry. The grudge between the Spurs and Rockets is more prominent and Sengun played better against the Silver & Black scoring 25, 15, and a career high 45 in their March 5th meeting.

But after these last two games against the Rockets, I posit that the rivalry to watch this season with Wemby is against Dillon Brooks.

While the above play amounted to unnecessary shenanigans by Dillon Brooks, whose behaviors can best be described as a watered down version of Draymond Green, his defense of Wembanyama is something to be monitored.

Brooks is aggressive, preferring to use his body than to give his opponent any space. And while watching last night’s game, there were many moments when Wemby got the switch on Dillon despite starting on Sengun on many occasions. Sengun, on the other hand, rarely covers Wembanyama.

I found it interesting that Brooks covered the Spurs big man, but on the offensive side he was defended by Chris Paul.

The Spurs meet the Rockets four times this season (five if you count the preseason). They’ve played three times in the last eleven days and meet again November 6th.

So far this season, they split the two games, both teams coming back from 21 down to make it interesting until the final moments.

Let’s see how their next game shakes out, but I surmise we’ll be begging for the fourth and final meeting in late February.

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