Tarris Reed Jr. on scoring over Wembanyama in practice: ‘You end up shooting like a moon ball’

SAN ANTONIO — Oct. 15, 2026 — Tarris Reed Jr. leads the NBA preseason in rebounding. In practice, though, the Spurs rookie center has spent a lot of his time getting his shot blocked by Victor Wembanyama.

At shootaround before San Antonio’s 123-103 win over Phoenix on Wednesday, Oct. 14, Reed described what it is like to try to score on Wembanyama every day, why he is still annoyed about the 17-rebound night in Utah, and why he thinks the NBA’s extra spacing helps him and hurts him at the same time. That night he played 21 minutes and had four points on 2-of-2 shooting, nine rebounds and three blocks. That gives him 38 rebounds in 71 preseason minutes.

‘A moon ball’ over Wembanyama

Asked how often Wembanyama has blocked him in practice, Reed laughed it off: “That’s a given, man.” He was more serious about what it has taught him. “Going up against him — I don’t know, everything just revolves around him,” Reed said. “He’s so impactful on both sides of the floor and it was tough. You got to get that little hard-style floater on him, and I’ve been working on my touch around him, but he’s just so, so talented, and guys like that are generational.”

On whether his jump hook works against the 7-foot-4 center: “Sometimes you really got to try to get into his body and try to shoot over that freaking — however long his reach is, plus him jumping. So you end up shooting like a moon ball and hoping and praying it goes in. Going up against him only could get you better with the right mindset.”

He also remembered the first time Wembanyama scored on him in practice: “like a one-leg mid-range step-back.” Reed said, “Sometimes there’s nothing you could do. He’s just so talented, and you got to live with it, man.” Seeing it up close, he said, is “way different” from watching on TV.

Still thinking about 20

Reed had 17 rebounds, eight of them offensive, in 24 minutes of the Oct. 12 loss at Utah, the highest single-game total of the preseason. Two days later he was still stuck on the rebounds he did not get. “Yeah … I could have got 20, 25,” he said. “I had like 10 rebounds in like the first eight or 10 minutes — I could have easily ended up with 20. So being even more persistent, more tenacious on that part, and keep going.” He said that habit comes from UConn: “It changed a lot about who I was as a person, who I am as a player. So really just having that multiple-efforts mindset and sticking with that in the NBA.”

More space, good and bad

Asked what has surprised him about the NBA, Reed pointed to the floor itself. “Everybody’s good here. That’s been the biggest difference between here and college — and then the space,” he said. “There’s a lot more space in the NBA, and that can be a good and bad thing. So really learning how to take up space and also get space, because we have a lot of elite guards that can get downhill whenever they want.”

He also praised fellow rookie Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who scored 25 off the bench at Utah: “He’s so quick and so fast, he could score at will. He’s very poised.” Reed said he has been asking veterans like Harrison Barnes for advice.

Whatever the role is

Asked about the open backup-center minutes behind Wembanyama, Reed did not talk about himself. “These guys made the Finals last year without any of us,” he said. “So whatever I can do to impact the team, whatever my role needs to be on this team, I’ll gladly do it — foot forward, going at it a hundred and ten percent. One of the biggest emphases was rebounding, so that’s been the thing — I can go out there and rebound. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning.”

Why it matters

San Antonio is coming off a Finals run, and De’Aaron Fox made his preseason debut on Oct. 14. A rookie big who rebounds at Reed’s rate and accepts a narrow role is the sort of player who gets regular-season minutes once the season opens next week.