Kendrick Perkins didn’t shy away from ripping into Victor Wembanyama.
The former NBA player and ESPN analyst eviscerated Wembanyama for his play in the Spurs’ NBA Finals loss to the Knicks during an appearance on a Yahoo Sports show Wednesday.
“Wemby was soft… let’s keep it real, he was soft and he was scared, especially in the big moments,” Perkins said. “He did a whole lot of barking in the interviews, but he did no biting whatsoever.”
“If I’m in the locker room and they bring me in, the first thing I’m going to do is actually tell him to embrace being the big man first with guard skills,” Perkins added. “After Game 1 and Game 2, they made an adjustment and started hiding Wemby so that he didn’t have to guard Karl-Anthony Towns. We’re talking about the Defensive Player of the Year… you’re [7 foot 5], you can be the most dominant player in the league by just embracing being a big man.”
Perkins wasn’t the only person critical of Wembanyama’s offensive play in the Finals, however.
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor also believed the Spurs star was exposed offensively in the Finals.
“The inability to create a shot, the strength, it does go to show how far he still has to come as a player, particularly on the offensive end of the floor,” O’Connor said on his show. “He does not have a go-to move, he does not have a go-to spot that he wants to get to on the floor.
“Too often, I still feel like he falls in love with the jumper.”
Wembanyama, who finished third in MVP voting this season, averaged 26 points per game in the Finals, but shot just 42 percent from the field and around 27 percent from downtown.
The Frenchman went just 9-of-25 shooting in the Spurs’ historic Game 4 collapse and 7-for-19 in Game 5.
