By now, you already know Victor Wembanyama is a 7’4” monster who opened the season by dropping 40 points on the Dallas Mavericks. Yes, he’s really good at basketball. This column won’t try to tell you anything new about that.

What it will do is highlight what San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson is doing to maximize the most fascinating player in today’s NBA - a center with the handle, flexibility, and creativity of a guard.

Johnson isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or impress anyone with innovation. When it comes to Wembanyama, the Spurs are keeping things very simple – and that’s perfectly fine. After all, he’s skilled enough to create shots even without any designed actions, just through spacing and transition flow.

Here, in a basic 4-out spacing, with Wemby and one player (Harrison Barnes) occupying the dunker spot, he simply reads the floor and scores in transition - no play needed.

In the half-court, the Spurs use Wemby in classic big-man actions - screening in pick-and-roll sets like any other power forward or center. Here, he runs a staggered ball screen, known in coaching lingo as 77, with Jordan McLaughlin setting the first pick for Ron Harper. The twist: after the initial pick-and-roll, Harper swings the ball to Wembanyama, gets it right back via a handoff, and Wemby immediately sets another screen – a re-pick. Harper drives, Anthony Davis helps off Wemby, and Harper rewards him with an easy dunk.

Wembanyama’s diversity makes him more than a roll threat. He can use a screen to create an isolation space as a creator. In this sequence, he screens for Stephon Castle, then pops to the top of the key for a pick-and-pop. It’s the kind of action you’d associate with Dirk Nowitzki or Kevin Durant – except Wemby is seven-four and can attack off the dribble just the same, if not better.

Wembanyama worked with Hakeem Olajuwon this past summer, and one of the simplest ways to leverage his gifts mirrors how the Houston Rockets used Hakeem back in the day. While Olajuwon would receive the ball in the low post, San Antonio isolates Wemby somewhere between the low block and the wing. Against a mismatch – here it’s 6’6” Naji Marshall – the floor is spaced with the point guard at the top and three teammates on the weak side, straight out of the ’90s iso heavy playbooks. One-on-one. Bucket.

The most common action San Antonio runs to create scoring chances is the inverted pick-and-roll – a guard screening for a big. It’s a relatively familiar concept with NBA offenses. Denver uses it at times to free Jokic; Philadelphia used it during Joel Embiid’s peak years, often with J.J. Redick as the screener; and Steph Curry routinely screens for Draymond Green. With Wembanyama, the high frequency of these sets stems from the fact that he isn’t just a forward-center with face-up skills – he’s a guard in a 7’4” frame.

Here, starting from a Horns set, Wemby sets a back screen for Castle, receives the pass from Vassell, and as Vassell moves to screen for him, Wemby rejects the screen, drives left, and shoots.

On a sideline out-of-bounds play, Wemby gets the ball from Dylan Harper. Harper screens for him, D’Angelo Russell jumps out with an aggressive hedge, then scrambles back. Dereck Lively panics and jumps as he is returning to Wemby, afraid of a pull-up three. Wemby smartly slips a pass back to Harper and immediately cuts to the rim for the dunk. As always, the key isn’t the play design – it’s the reads and decisions made by the players.

Once again, Wemby’s decision-making stands out. Same Horns setup: Wemby gets the ball, Vassell sets a flare screen for Castle, then moves to screen for Wemby. Dallas switches, and Marshall ends up on Wemby. Wemby signals for Julian Champagnie to run a ball screen from the left – but instead, he goes the opposite way, attacks the mismatch, and draws the foul. A classic read and react move.

In the final clip, Wemby operates as a point guard. He brings the ball up, Vassell screens, the Mavericks switch, and Max Christie picks him up. Wemby swings it to Vassell, cuts off-ball to a deeper spot, then gets it back, dribbles to the corner, and rises for a tough fadeaway over Christie – a whole foot shorter. On second thought, given his current form, there’s really no such thing as a tough shot for Victor Wembanyama. The ball swishes, of course,