San Antonio superstar center Victor Wembanyama's incredible game is very well-known by Sixers forward Dominick Barlow, as the two were teammates on the Spurs a couple of years ago.
The 7-foot-6, third-year player has the perimeter abilities of a guard, blocks shots better than anyone in the league and can easily alter the game at both ends of the floor.
Barlow has seen it up close, and as his team prepared for a showdown with San Antonio and their gifted player on Tuesday, he sort of downplayed the first overall pick in the 2023 draft.
"He has a lot of strengths but like everybody, he has certain weaknesses," said Barlow. "You have to just try to exploit that as much as possible. He's a phenomenal player. One of the best I've been around. It's definitely going to be a challenge but we've got to be ready for it."
They'll have to be ready for it without Joel Embiid, out with a strained right oblique, and Paul George, who is still serving his suspension. Both teams are coming off Sunday losses, as the Sixers fell to the Celtics in Boston, while San Antonio (43-17) had its 11-game winning streak snapped by the New York Knicks. Tuesday will be the last of a five-game road trip for the Spurs. The Sixers will face the Utah Jazz at home on Wednesday. San Antonio currently sits as the second seed in the Western Conference, three games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Their success comes as no surprise to Barlow, who played in 61 games during his two seasons as a Spur.
"Learning how to play the right way," said Barlow of his experience with the Spurs. "They have a great structure there. All their guys play extremely good basketball, from Wemby to the last guy on the bench. They all know how to play. That and just a professional approach to every day. Those are the main two things I learned. I'm very grateful to that staff. Putting their time in and investing in me.
"It starts up top, R.C. (CEO R.C. Buford), Pop (former coach Gregg Popovich), all those guys when I was there. They did a great job of just not wavering the culture for any individual. Obviously, you have stars and guys at the top, but everybody is expected to do the same things every day - never be late, all that basic professional stuff that really matters. That, from a team building culture standpoint, is great. Everybody knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing. The discipline on the day-to-day approach was unbelievable. They're a really good team because of it."
And having Wembanyama, who is averaging 23.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and a league-high 2.9 blocks a game, certainly helps. Like he did against the Celtics' Jaylen Brown on Sunday, Barlow is looking forward to the challenge of covering his former teammate.
"That's what I want to do," said Barlow of his defense. "We (he and teammate Kelly Oubre Jr.) take pride in that assignment, getting the best guy. It's a compliment to you but you also have a very important impact on the game. I think it gets you involved, I think it makes offense easier when you're doing that. The feel of the game, you're just involved in the game more. I take a lot of pride in that. I want to do that every night. The more nights I can, the better."
(Since that quote, Oubre has been ruled out for Tuesday's game against the Spurs with an illness.)
Certainly, Wembanyama will see many different defensive looks from the Sixers Tuesday as they look to improve on their 33-27 record and their current standing as the sixth seed in the East.
"I think our focus should just be to win the next game that we have on our schedule and see what happens from there," said Barlow of not observing the standings too much. "Looking at it doesn't do us any justice. Just win the games that we can win."
