Wembanyama Is Copying Dirk's Fadeaway — And His Ceiling Just Rose
The NBA's #3 fantasy asset already posts 53.4 FPTS/G. Now he's adding Nowitzki's signature shot. Good luck to everyone else.
A finished mid-range game means an even higher fantasy floor.
- Wemby: 53.4 FPTS/G in 2025-26, our #3 overall
- Last 5 of 2025-26: +14.1 FPTS vs his own average
- 28% of playoff FGA were non-rim twos — hit just 35%
- 82% career FT shooter, 34% from three
- Turns 23 mid-2026-27, MVP favorite in our rankings
Victor Wembanyama finished 2025-26 as our #3 overall fantasy asset — the #1 forward on the board — averaging 25 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists across 64 games for a monstrous 53.4 fantasy points per game. Then he capped a Western Conference Finals upset of the defending-champion Thunder by heading into the summer and, per offseason workout footage making the rounds, adding Dirk Nowitzki's go-to fadeaway to his repertoire.
That's the terrifying part. Wemby was already the best defensive player alive and a top-three fantasy weapon, and the one hole in his offensive game was mid-range efficiency. In the playoffs, 28% of his field goal attempts came on non-rim two-pointers — but he converted just 35% of them. The touch is real (an 82% career free-throw shooter, 34% from deep), so the raw material is there. A repeatable, uncontestable fade is the missing piece.
Why the Dirk Shot Fits
The genius of the Nowitzki fadeaway for a player Wembanyama's size is simple geometry: it's essentially impossible to contest and it buys him the room to square up. He's now strong enough to win the positioning fight on the block, which makes the shot even nastier. He worked with Nowitzki's longtime trainer Holger Geschwindner back in 2021 on footwork and balance, and he's spent this summer around Hakeem Olajuwon. This isn't a gimmick — it's a methodical build.
The context matters for expectations, though. Wemby turns 23 midway through 2026-27 and is our early MVP favorite, but the league hasn't produced a repeat conference champ since the 2019 Warriors. LeBron James — our #23 player and #9 forward, who put up 41.4 FPTS/G across 60 games in 2025-26 — needed to leave Cleveland before reaching the Finals again in 2011, where Nowitzki's Mavs beat him. Dynasties are harder than they look, even with Stephon Castle (our #51, 35.2 FPTS/G in 2025-26) and rookie Dylan Harper (#157) alongside.
The Fantasy Takeaway
For managers, this is the clearest possible signal: buy Wembanyama anywhere you can, and stop pretending his ceiling is capped. He closed 2025-26 on a heater — his last five games ran +14.1 fantasy points above his own season average — and now he's plugging the last leak in his scoring profile. If the fade even approaches league-average efficiency, his mid-range volume becomes pure fantasy surplus on top of the blocks, boards and threes. He's a locked-in first-overall target for 2026-27, and the price only goes up from here.
