Victor Wembanyama might head into his lab again. The French big man entered the fresh season with expectations of taking another step toward becoming the NBA’s most dominant player. Instead, his opening-night performance against OKC raised questions about his offensive development. Carmelo Anthony, especially, didn’t hold back.

The San Antonio Spurs star managed just one field goal on 13 attempts. While he dominated on the defensive end, he struggled to find his rhythm offensively, shooting at a mere 7.69%.

Now, Melo has questioned whether Wemby made any offensive development this summer. “What have you worked on? Skill set-wise?” Melo said, speaking on his 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast.

“Ask somebody who went through that and always tried to figure out how to get better every summer. I have to work on. And that’s why skill set is so important, man. Like, I want to see, and again, this is his first game, but in that first game, I didn’t see any developed skill set. Like, I saw what he was trying to do. He was trying to get to the elbow, trying to get to the mid-post, face-ups. I see that. But, like, the skill set, I’m waiting to see that. Like, that’s what my eye is gonna be on this year for Wemby.”

Victor Wembanyama missed all his shots, except for a rare alley-oop dunk, dished out by De’Aaron Fox. He finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds, and six blocks in the season-opening defeat, 116-104.

Carmelo Anthony focused on Wemby not utilizing his physical gifts and instead making jumpers and middies.

“When I say skill set, you can’t be seven-whatever and not have that skill set. Yeah. Like, you can have the handles, and being able to do all the other shit is a plus. When you’re that. Or you look at it the other way. The post-up game is a plus.”

At the same time, Melo’s argument wasn’t that Wemby should abandon his perimeter skills. His words hinted that a player of that size needs traditional interior moves to fall back on when jump shots are not going.

Ironically, 7 of his shot attempts came in and around the paint.

He later pointed to fundamental moves that could give Victor Wembanyama another way to score.

“When I know that all eyes are on me, Wenby. So if I face up, did I work on that enough to make that a threat on the face-up? right? So now, as I work on that, and that’s gonna take time. Again, that’s gonna take time to develop that, right? But did I work on that enough to at least be a threat with that? Did I work on back to the basket traditional jump, right hook, left hook? Did I work on that enough to be effective? Just a little bit, just to add to my game.”

When Victor Wembanyam’s 7 ‘5 tall frame is his advantage, the Thunder Oklahoma City made those advantages difficult to exploit. Chet Holmgren challenged him defensively alongside the new big, Aday Mara.

“I missed lots of lots of shots, which I usually don’t miss. But after that, I didn’t go back to these shots. I wasn’t decisive. I might be overthinking it, and I feel like it’s a chance for me. What I have to do is really let go. I don’t need to do more. I need to think less, probably,” Wembanyama said, addressing his poor shooting night.

There is a useful contrast in Walker Kessler’s Lakers debut.

Kessler scored 26 points on a perfect 12-for-12 shooting night against the Warriors. It was filled with scoring built around interior finishes and dunks.

Still, one game is not enough to determine whether Victor Wembanyama’s development has stalled. Wemby has already recognized the need to play with greater decisiveness. The next step is translating that into his shot selection and execution.