Victor Wembanyama may be the most important Spur right now, but second year wing Julian Champagnie showed why he may be an important part of the Spurs' future during this years' summer league, averaging 29.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG and 2.0 SPG.
Measurements & Bio:
- 6'7.75" in shoes
- 6'10 wingspan
- 217.4 lbs (98.4kg)
- Born 29 June 2001 (22 years old, as of 07/24/2023)
- Undrafted in 2022
2022-2023 Statistical profile (for the Spurs)
Strengths:
1. 3-point shooting:
Julian Champagnie is a low usage, high-IQ offensive player who shoots the ball well. His form looks good, and he is extremely comfortable in catch and shoot situations, even coming off some movement, and evading closeouts. The video below gives a good sense of his comfort-level shooting the ball and his smooth release.
Statistically, he was a great shooter last season, hitting a 40.7% clip on 5.4 threes per game, (in an admittedly small sample size), and this is his most important and most impactful quality as an offensive player currently.
2. Basketball IQ:
Champagnie is almost exclusively an off-ball player, finishing 77% of his plays with zero dribbles, and 91% between 0-1 dribbles. Due to this lack of creation, it is important that Champagnie has some kind of versatility to his offence, and he generates interior looks through a great cutting ability, rather than by using his dribble. 29% of his looks came within 10 feet of the rim, and these were primarily generated by opportunistic cuts, as well as putbacks and offensive rebounds grabbed thanks to his size and athleticism. In the game against Sacramento shown below, his first four buckets come from his smart cutting against inattentive Kings defenders, demonstrating his ability to be a smart, opportunistic off-ball player.
3. Vertical Athleticism:
Champagnie is a good vertical athlete for his size, and especially at this years' summer league, his athleticism consistently popped as he attacked the rim and attempted to dunk over the hapless Summer League defences relentlessly, including yes, that dunk over James Najji which stole the show during Victor's debut.
Weaknesses:
1. Defence
Although his basketball IQ carries over to the defensive end, his athleticism doesn't. He consistently made the right rotations for San Antonio last year, but was unable to provide much rim protection, and his poor footspeed and lateral quickness made him a primary target in isolation situations, even for mediocre offensive players like DeAndre Hunter. In the first clip below, you can see that he makes the right rotation down to protect the rim, but is ultimately unable to make a difference, and it leads to an and-one for Okongwu. I'm not sure if his defensive ceiling is very high, due to the athletic limitations, but hopefully he can move beyond being a liability in future years, as he still has great size and length, especially if he shoots well enough to play at the 2-guard spot.
Long-Term Projection: Low-level starter/Key Reserve
Champagnie fits into a lot of places with his combination of size, athleticism, shooting ability and simply knowing his role as a smart, low-usage off-ball player. I don't see him ever truly becoming a credible on-ball threat, so I think his two main swing skills will be his shooting- can he become a great, not just good, shooter? And his defence- can he move from being a liability to being a solid team defender, if not a great individual defender?
Conclusion:
Overall, I think he's at a good spot right now in San Antonio- there is almost no pressure on him with them expected to be a bad team, and he can continue to work on his shooting and defence in an organisation well-known for developing undrafted and unknown talent.
