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Bron and Durant still the best prospects I’ve ever seen
2025 NBA Draft Thread
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by addict4sneakers,
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Imagine being Emoni Bates having to see all this hoopla about two prospects when you were damn near a lock to be in this position a couple years ago 
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Tbh I just want the best for Victor.
He needs to get in with Dream.
He needs to get in with Dream.
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I swear I was thinking earlier today what if Emoni had developed the way he was projected to three years ago. Wembanyma, Scoot and Emoni would've been an insane top three.Imagine being Emoni Bates having to see all this hoopla about two prospects when you were damn near a lock to be in this position a couple years ago
If he gets himself straightened out, I still think he can sneak into the first. If Peyton Watson and Patrick Baldwin Jr can be first round picks, no reason why he can't.
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Emoji Bates was never a lock type generational guy and I said it back then.
People just got carried away,
if you don't have freak physical tools you can't be a generational prospect.
Turns out he stopped growing and his athelticsm stalled out.
While it was unexpected, it was certainly within the range of forseeable outcomes.
People just got carried away,
if you don't have freak physical tools you can't be a generational prospect.
Turns out he stopped growing and his athelticsm stalled out.
While it was unexpected, it was certainly within the range of forseeable outcomes.
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* Diff
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The Wembanyama Effect: How the buzz about Victor will influence NBA tanking and front office thinking this season
There is nothing more amazing than an event that not only lives up to the hype, but also exceeds it.
We all had high hopes for this week’s Battle Royale in the Las Vegas suburbs between the likely top two picks in the 2023 NBA draft, French big man Victor Wembanyama and G League Elite guard Scoot Henderson. But nothing could have prepared us for the show we got from both players in the first game on Tuesday, and in particular for the breathtaking performance by Wembanyama on Thursday.
Over the two games, Wembanyama scored 73 points, shot 9 of 18 on 3-pointers, drew 28 free throws, blocked nine shots … and, less commented upon, only committed three turnovers. Beyond that, It wasn’t even the statistical accumulation that was so amazing, but the breathtaking way in which he accomplished it.
Put simply, we have never seen anything like this before. Wembanyama is a basketball evolution all his own, a unicorn even among unicorns, the unholy melding of the best traits of Ralph Sampson, Kristaps Porziņģis and Dirk Nowitzki.
Watch here as he does a completely normal thing for a 7-foot-4 player, calling for a screen as he runs pick-and-roll (!), getting a guard switched on to him, and then, instead of trying to bulldoze the smaller player toward the rim, pulling up from the hashmark next to the sideline to splash in a 3-pointer. This is Curry range!
Or watch here, as he starts at the 3-point line, attacks with his weaker left hand, does a letter-perfect imitation of Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Shake and makes a fading baseline jumper over a helpless defender.
In particular, Wembanyama’s ability to shoot on the move for a player of his size is something we just haven’t seen before. Porziņģis is an awesome set shooter with crazy range, but he’s not throwing a dribble 10 feet in front of himself so he can catch up to it on the move and launch into a feathery fadeaway. Yao Ming was even bigger, much stronger, and an awesome foul shooter, but he was strictly a set shooter once he got past 15 feet. You have to get down to Nowitzki’s size – a mere 7-footer – to find a real comparison.
Between the size and length and the off-the-charts skill level, calling Wembanyama a generational prospect feels somewhat like calling fire an important discovery; while true, it still comes across as a massive understatement. One can argue there hasn’t been a player who felt this “can’t miss” this young since Lew Alcindor. Look, I scouted Porziņģis and Luka Dončić in Spain, saw Greg Oden play in the Final Four and watched John Wall fly past overmatched opponents at the Hoop Summit. None of them had observers slobbering and guffawing like this; not even close.
That takes us to the other big piece of the discussion: This was an event. Kudos to the NBA for getting the French team over here to play these games and, in the process, massively helping to market a generational talent for next season.
While we’ve had other years where the draft class got everyone excited months ahead of the actual event — the 2003 LeBron James-led class, certainly, and the 2007 Oden-Kevin Durant draft — we’ve never had a single showdown between the probable top two picks like this since Larry Bird and Magic Johnson went head-to-head in the 1979 NCAA final.
Watching both this week’s games from courtside, as well as Wembanyama’s pre-game shooting work, I had to catch myself even as I was critiquing some of his areas for improvement. “I think he could have attacked to his left on that pick-and-roll,” I’d think, and then quickly remind myself I was picking apart a 7-foot-4 teenager running point against American pros.
What in the actual hell did I just witness?
I just want to emphasize in my loudest possible voice that THIS IS NOT NORMAL:
The combined impact of the two games has been to create a truly rare event in league annals: Major buzz about the draft before the NBA has even begun its season. Usually, we need the college season to get underway before that happens, but this year the likely top three picks in the draft all play outside the NCAA system. (This could be a sign of the times as well, with insurgents G League Ignite and Overtime Elite rostering the likely second and third picks, Henderson and forward Amen Thompson.)
While we’re here: The competition level in this game was significantly higher than what Wembanyama or Henderson might have faced in, say, the Big 10 or SEC. Actually, the fourth-best and fifth-best players on Wembanyama’s team were recent All-Conference players in those two leagues. For those old-schoolers who wonder if the French prodigy could be doing this at Duke or Gonzaga, donnez moi une break.
We don’t know exactly what Wembanyama will be, and it’s possible that it ends up being not quite everything we’ve built it up to be. We’ve seen hot prospects short out for all kinds of reasons, whether it is failure to improve, failure to stay healthy, or failure of our own evaluation. Maybe he ends up being merely “really good,” a la Sampson and Porziņģis.
On the other hand, maybe he’s an unbelievably ridiculous superfreak who will be the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of this century. In addition to the off-the-charts skill level for a player of this size, Wembanyama seems to check all the other boxes — he’s competitive, composed, mature, already speaks English fluently, and unlike some other hyped giants (such as Oden, notably) has no obvious movement or structural oddities in his elongated frame. There were 200 people here looking high and low for red flags, and they didn’t find any.
So … given all that, everybody should tank, right?
Especially since the second prize (Henderson) looks to be an elite player too and several other players in this draft (such as Amen Thompson, his twin brother Ausur Thompson and Arkansas guard Nick Smith) project as top-tier talents. Shouldn’t it be a no-brainer?
Not so fast.
First of all, there are so many layers to the tanking debate that it actually becomes a pretty complex calculation. Not just whether to tank, but what exactly we mean when we say “tanking.”
Let’s start at the top: in the wake of tanking accusations surrounding the stacked 2018 draft (who, me?) the NBA flattened out the draft lottery odds considerably. The teams with the three worst records each have the same odds of getting the top pick, at just 14 percent. Additionally, the teams with the fifth- and sixth-worst records don’t have appreciably worse odds of getting the top pick: 9 percent for sixth, versus 14 percent for the league’s worst team.
This is an important distinction, because you don’t have to be that bad to give yourself a realistic shot at a generational talent. Most people think of the abject humiliation of “The Process” Sixers when they talk about tanking, but the league awards no extra bonus points for finishing 7-75. Because of that, “Quiet Quitting” works just as effectively. Finish with one of the seven-worst records and you’re in the game; even at ninth or tenth worst you’re not totally out of it. (My Grizzlies, for instance, got Ja Morant in 2019 after finishing in a three-way tie for the seventh-worst record.)
There are other benefits to out-tanking your opponents, of course; if you finish outside the money in the lottery drawing you’ll still pick higher than your fellow unlucky brethren, and your second-round pick will be higher too. Nonetheless, the bulk of the value distribution in any tanking scenario lies in the prospect of landing one of the top four picks in the draft, and in particular the top one.
If that’s the case, and if it’s also the case that the greater probability distribution of landing in the top four has removed the most brazen tanking scenarios, then the NBA can probably relax, right? I mean, the league’s executives already knew about Wembanyama, and by my count at least 23 of them were pretty much full speed ahead on trying to win this year.
So …. here’s the thing people forget about NBA teams and how they operate.
The decision to tank isn’t just made willy-nilly by a general manager. This is one of the big-picture moves that absolutely, positively requires buy-in from ownership to pursue. And that adds another variable: Some owners are more than willing if the moment is right. Some are dead-set against it, and some in the middle are reluctant but persuadable.
And this week, the persuadability factor just went up. Waaaaay up. A general manager’s opinion on whether to tank might not have changed, but his owner’s receptiveness to the proposal sure as hell did. Not because any owners were there watching Wemby in person, but because, like I said above, this was an event.
Put yourself in the owners’ shoes: The buzz factor is now through the roof. No longer is your team tanking for some unknown quantity playing halfway around the globe, a maybe stacked upon the maybe of winning the lottery in the first place. Forget that; now you’re tanking for the biggest whale in the ocean. Everyone is talking about him and everyone knows who he is. And all your fans badly want you to tank, including all the VIPs you hobnob with at games and around town.
For owners, tanking just became cool.
I noted the distributed probability above, but that creates another tanking incentive that we haven’t really talked about: It’s possible to tank late. We saw it last year with Indiana and, more brazenly, Portland, both of whom maneuvered into bottom-seven draft positions despite beginning the year with ambitions of a playoff run.
We’re almost certainly going to get that again. Right now I have seven teams marked as “not really interested in making the playoffs” and 23 making at least a fairly serious attempt at winning games this year. Inevitably, a couple of these 23 teams will find themselves falling out of the playoff race in February and decide to shift gears into reverse. Offloading veterans at the trade deadline, strategically shutting down key players with vague injuries, and closing with a rousing 5-31 blitz to the finish (or whatever it takes) is very much in play for the right team.
Of course, limits remain. Teams are still going to try to make the playoffs; the four teams that lose in the play-in round only have a combined 1-in-20 chance of winning the lottery. Discussing tanking is fun and all, but even the league’s worst team has an 86 percent chance of not getting Wembanyama. You had better have some decent alternate plans if you punt the season.
So, getting back to the big picture, I think we’re basically OK on the tanking front. It’s not that nobody will tank, but it’s pointless for teams to outdo each other beyond a certain point. Additionally, the play-in carrot adds real costs to the decision for middling teams.
Nonetheless, here’s where I expect to see the Wembanyama Effect: Don’t be surprised if some teams go much, much earlier than they otherwise would have. Instead of waiting ’til February, somebody might pull the plug in December. One could easily imagine a team like, say, Charlotte or Portland starting the year 8-19 and figuring “to hell with this.”
Do the math: If you know landing in the bottom six or seven is the goal, and that at least three teams have basically planted their flag in the ground already, you realize there just isn’t a lot of real estate left on Tank Island. Get in early, everyone; they’re not making more.
Ultimately, that’s why the tanking incentive will never totally go away regardless of what optimizations the league makes to the lottery process. Superstars have disproportionate value in the NBA, so the potential rewards are simply too great.
In the case of Wembanyama, in fact, they’ve arguably never been higher.
There is nothing more amazing than an event that not only lives up to the hype, but also exceeds it.
We all had high hopes for this week’s Battle Royale in the Las Vegas suburbs between the likely top two picks in the 2023 NBA draft, French big man Victor Wembanyama and G League Elite guard Scoot Henderson. But nothing could have prepared us for the show we got from both players in the first game on Tuesday, and in particular for the breathtaking performance by Wembanyama on Thursday.
Over the two games, Wembanyama scored 73 points, shot 9 of 18 on 3-pointers, drew 28 free throws, blocked nine shots … and, less commented upon, only committed three turnovers. Beyond that, It wasn’t even the statistical accumulation that was so amazing, but the breathtaking way in which he accomplished it.
Put simply, we have never seen anything like this before. Wembanyama is a basketball evolution all his own, a unicorn even among unicorns, the unholy melding of the best traits of Ralph Sampson, Kristaps Porziņģis and Dirk Nowitzki.
Watch here as he does a completely normal thing for a 7-foot-4 player, calling for a screen as he runs pick-and-roll (!), getting a guard switched on to him, and then, instead of trying to bulldoze the smaller player toward the rim, pulling up from the hashmark next to the sideline to splash in a 3-pointer. This is Curry range!
Or watch here, as he starts at the 3-point line, attacks with his weaker left hand, does a letter-perfect imitation of Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Shake and makes a fading baseline jumper over a helpless defender.
In particular, Wembanyama’s ability to shoot on the move for a player of his size is something we just haven’t seen before. Porziņģis is an awesome set shooter with crazy range, but he’s not throwing a dribble 10 feet in front of himself so he can catch up to it on the move and launch into a feathery fadeaway. Yao Ming was even bigger, much stronger, and an awesome foul shooter, but he was strictly a set shooter once he got past 15 feet. You have to get down to Nowitzki’s size – a mere 7-footer – to find a real comparison.
Between the size and length and the off-the-charts skill level, calling Wembanyama a generational prospect feels somewhat like calling fire an important discovery; while true, it still comes across as a massive understatement. One can argue there hasn’t been a player who felt this “can’t miss” this young since Lew Alcindor. Look, I scouted Porziņģis and Luka Dončić in Spain, saw Greg Oden play in the Final Four and watched John Wall fly past overmatched opponents at the Hoop Summit. None of them had observers slobbering and guffawing like this; not even close.
That takes us to the other big piece of the discussion: This was an event. Kudos to the NBA for getting the French team over here to play these games and, in the process, massively helping to market a generational talent for next season.
While we’ve had other years where the draft class got everyone excited months ahead of the actual event — the 2003 LeBron James-led class, certainly, and the 2007 Oden-Kevin Durant draft — we’ve never had a single showdown between the probable top two picks like this since Larry Bird and Magic Johnson went head-to-head in the 1979 NCAA final.
Watching both this week’s games from courtside, as well as Wembanyama’s pre-game shooting work, I had to catch myself even as I was critiquing some of his areas for improvement. “I think he could have attacked to his left on that pick-and-roll,” I’d think, and then quickly remind myself I was picking apart a 7-foot-4 teenager running point against American pros.
What in the actual hell did I just witness?
I just want to emphasize in my loudest possible voice that THIS IS NOT NORMAL:
The combined impact of the two games has been to create a truly rare event in league annals: Major buzz about the draft before the NBA has even begun its season. Usually, we need the college season to get underway before that happens, but this year the likely top three picks in the draft all play outside the NCAA system. (This could be a sign of the times as well, with insurgents G League Ignite and Overtime Elite rostering the likely second and third picks, Henderson and forward Amen Thompson.)
While we’re here: The competition level in this game was significantly higher than what Wembanyama or Henderson might have faced in, say, the Big 10 or SEC. Actually, the fourth-best and fifth-best players on Wembanyama’s team were recent All-Conference players in those two leagues. For those old-schoolers who wonder if the French prodigy could be doing this at Duke or Gonzaga, donnez moi une break.
We don’t know exactly what Wembanyama will be, and it’s possible that it ends up being not quite everything we’ve built it up to be. We’ve seen hot prospects short out for all kinds of reasons, whether it is failure to improve, failure to stay healthy, or failure of our own evaluation. Maybe he ends up being merely “really good,” a la Sampson and Porziņģis.
On the other hand, maybe he’s an unbelievably ridiculous superfreak who will be the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of this century. In addition to the off-the-charts skill level for a player of this size, Wembanyama seems to check all the other boxes — he’s competitive, composed, mature, already speaks English fluently, and unlike some other hyped giants (such as Oden, notably) has no obvious movement or structural oddities in his elongated frame. There were 200 people here looking high and low for red flags, and they didn’t find any.
So … given all that, everybody should tank, right?
Especially since the second prize (Henderson) looks to be an elite player too and several other players in this draft (such as Amen Thompson, his twin brother Ausur Thompson and Arkansas guard Nick Smith) project as top-tier talents. Shouldn’t it be a no-brainer?
Not so fast.
First of all, there are so many layers to the tanking debate that it actually becomes a pretty complex calculation. Not just whether to tank, but what exactly we mean when we say “tanking.”
Let’s start at the top: in the wake of tanking accusations surrounding the stacked 2018 draft (who, me?) the NBA flattened out the draft lottery odds considerably. The teams with the three worst records each have the same odds of getting the top pick, at just 14 percent. Additionally, the teams with the fifth- and sixth-worst records don’t have appreciably worse odds of getting the top pick: 9 percent for sixth, versus 14 percent for the league’s worst team.
This is an important distinction, because you don’t have to be that bad to give yourself a realistic shot at a generational talent. Most people think of the abject humiliation of “The Process” Sixers when they talk about tanking, but the league awards no extra bonus points for finishing 7-75. Because of that, “Quiet Quitting” works just as effectively. Finish with one of the seven-worst records and you’re in the game; even at ninth or tenth worst you’re not totally out of it. (My Grizzlies, for instance, got Ja Morant in 2019 after finishing in a three-way tie for the seventh-worst record.)
There are other benefits to out-tanking your opponents, of course; if you finish outside the money in the lottery drawing you’ll still pick higher than your fellow unlucky brethren, and your second-round pick will be higher too. Nonetheless, the bulk of the value distribution in any tanking scenario lies in the prospect of landing one of the top four picks in the draft, and in particular the top one.
If that’s the case, and if it’s also the case that the greater probability distribution of landing in the top four has removed the most brazen tanking scenarios, then the NBA can probably relax, right? I mean, the league’s executives already knew about Wembanyama, and by my count at least 23 of them were pretty much full speed ahead on trying to win this year.
So …. here’s the thing people forget about NBA teams and how they operate.
The decision to tank isn’t just made willy-nilly by a general manager. This is one of the big-picture moves that absolutely, positively requires buy-in from ownership to pursue. And that adds another variable: Some owners are more than willing if the moment is right. Some are dead-set against it, and some in the middle are reluctant but persuadable.
And this week, the persuadability factor just went up. Waaaaay up. A general manager’s opinion on whether to tank might not have changed, but his owner’s receptiveness to the proposal sure as hell did. Not because any owners were there watching Wemby in person, but because, like I said above, this was an event.
Put yourself in the owners’ shoes: The buzz factor is now through the roof. No longer is your team tanking for some unknown quantity playing halfway around the globe, a maybe stacked upon the maybe of winning the lottery in the first place. Forget that; now you’re tanking for the biggest whale in the ocean. Everyone is talking about him and everyone knows who he is. And all your fans badly want you to tank, including all the VIPs you hobnob with at games and around town.
For owners, tanking just became cool.
I noted the distributed probability above, but that creates another tanking incentive that we haven’t really talked about: It’s possible to tank late. We saw it last year with Indiana and, more brazenly, Portland, both of whom maneuvered into bottom-seven draft positions despite beginning the year with ambitions of a playoff run.
We’re almost certainly going to get that again. Right now I have seven teams marked as “not really interested in making the playoffs” and 23 making at least a fairly serious attempt at winning games this year. Inevitably, a couple of these 23 teams will find themselves falling out of the playoff race in February and decide to shift gears into reverse. Offloading veterans at the trade deadline, strategically shutting down key players with vague injuries, and closing with a rousing 5-31 blitz to the finish (or whatever it takes) is very much in play for the right team.
Of course, limits remain. Teams are still going to try to make the playoffs; the four teams that lose in the play-in round only have a combined 1-in-20 chance of winning the lottery. Discussing tanking is fun and all, but even the league’s worst team has an 86 percent chance of not getting Wembanyama. You had better have some decent alternate plans if you punt the season.
So, getting back to the big picture, I think we’re basically OK on the tanking front. It’s not that nobody will tank, but it’s pointless for teams to outdo each other beyond a certain point. Additionally, the play-in carrot adds real costs to the decision for middling teams.
Nonetheless, here’s where I expect to see the Wembanyama Effect: Don’t be surprised if some teams go much, much earlier than they otherwise would have. Instead of waiting ’til February, somebody might pull the plug in December. One could easily imagine a team like, say, Charlotte or Portland starting the year 8-19 and figuring “to hell with this.”
Do the math: If you know landing in the bottom six or seven is the goal, and that at least three teams have basically planted their flag in the ground already, you realize there just isn’t a lot of real estate left on Tank Island. Get in early, everyone; they’re not making more.
Ultimately, that’s why the tanking incentive will never totally go away regardless of what optimizations the league makes to the lottery process. Superstars have disproportionate value in the NBA, so the potential rewards are simply too great.
In the case of Wembanyama, in fact, they’ve arguably never been higher.
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"In the summer of 2021, Bouna Ndiaye decided to send Wembanyama to the basketball academy of Holger Geschwindner, the mentor of Dirk Nowitzki. Geschwindner sees basketball as an art form, and it was all but written for Victor to learn new things from another artist. Wembanyama’s eyes light up while talking about his 10-day stay in Wurzburg, Germany.
'At first, I thought I didn’t spend enough time with him to gain anything, but after a few days, I started thinking about it and I realized that it’s not about the moves he taught me. The way he shows it is really weird, but it’s not about doing exactly what he tells me, it’s more about gaining what you can gain from the philosophy of why he shoots like that, why his knees are like that, why his arms are on the side instead of being in the middle. It’s more about the whole body philosophy of how to shoot the ball, it’s more mental than anything, it’s about balance,' Victor recalls.
Master Holger “Yoda” Geschwindner had found the perfect padawan in Victor—a big Star Wars aficionado himself—humble enough to listen and understand. Impressed, the German coach called Ndiaye and just had one thing to say: 'Victor doesn’t need any damn coach.” Holger also told his agent to stop the weightlifting and let Victor’s body mature in time. Victor was 17 and still growing.'"
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'At first, I thought I didn’t spend enough time with him to gain anything, but after a few days, I started thinking about it and I realized that it’s not about the moves he taught me. The way he shows it is really weird, but it’s not about doing exactly what he tells me, it’s more about gaining what you can gain from the philosophy of why he shoots like that, why his knees are like that, why his arms are on the side instead of being in the middle. It’s more about the whole body philosophy of how to shoot the ball, it’s more mental than anything, it’s about balance,' Victor recalls.
Master Holger “Yoda” Geschwindner had found the perfect padawan in Victor—a big Star Wars aficionado himself—humble enough to listen and understand. Impressed, the German coach called Ndiaye and just had one thing to say: 'Victor doesn’t need any damn coach.” Holger also told his agent to stop the weightlifting and let Victor’s body mature in time. Victor was 17 and still growing.'"
Victor Wembanyama is the French Cheat Code Coming to Shake Up the NBA | SLAM
You ain't heard? At just 18 years old, Victor Wembanyama is the most hyped international draft prospect in decades. Read his exclusive SLAM 240 cover story.
www.slamonline.com
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Remember a few weeks ago in here when a few dudes were trying to start a "he's not that good movement" on Wemby?
Somebody said something about Dereck Lively and Kelel Ware being better
Somebody said something about Dereck Lively and Kelel Ware being better
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I heard whitehead will return sooner than later though he’ll miss camp
This whitmore injury… Damb… some bad luck so far with this class
This whitmore injury… Damb… some bad luck so far with this class
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I may have partook. I repent for my sinsRemember a few weeks ago in here when a few dudes were trying to start a "he's not that good movement" on Wemby?
Somebody said something about Dereck Lively and Kelel Ware being better
jpzx
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You basically could just leave the thread title at what it is until the lottery
Except the Nets exist and will go extra turmoil to be the one to get him
Except the Nets exist and will go extra turmoil to be the one to get him
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I can’t lie and say I don’t still have some concerns about Vic’s long term durability in the NBA, just because so many really tall guys like him have had chronic health problems, but I still absolutely take him number 1 in the draft. Worth the risk.
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You basically could just leave the thread title at what it is until the lottery
Except the Nets exist and will go extra turmoil to be the one to get him
Nets don’t own the rights to keep the top pick. That Rockets trade will haunt them for a long time.
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Not good for cason
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NBA draft 2023: Takeaways from the Victor Wembanyama-Scoot Henderson showcase in Las Vegas
Matchups between projected No. 1 and No. 2 NBA draft picks don't often happen and usually don't live up to the hype. Be it overzealous referees, injuries or nerves, it's rare to see players rise to the moment and show what truly makes them special in the most pressure-packed environments of their young careers. LeBron James facing off against Carmelo Anthony in a high school showcase in February 2002 is the gold standard many NBA executives point to as the most memorable prospect matchup they've ever witnessed. Until this past week.
In front of 200 scouts and executives from NBA teams, Scoot Henderson's G League Ignite vs. Victor Wembanyama's Metropolitans 92 in Las Vegas ended up being just as good as its St. Vincent-St. Mary vs. Oak Hill predecessor 20 years ago.
Wembanyama showed everything that makes him the most highly regarded prospect in years, with two extraordinary performances that included 73 points in 70 total minutes, demonstrating the most diverse offensive skill set we've ever seen from a 7-footer this age.
No shot was too difficult for the nearly unguardable 7-foot-4 big man with an 8-foot wingspan, whether it was creating his own one-on-one; spinning with his back to the basket; finishing lobs well above the rim; making 3-pointers pulling up off the dribble; executing sharp step-back jumpers; or running, catching and releasing from impossible vantage points with incredible footwork, body control and touch. Wembanyama also handled the ball in pick-and-roll, pushed off the defensive glass and found the open man from the perimeter. On the other end of the floor, he showed exceptional timing and mobility while putting a lid on the rim, blocking several jump shots and causing Ignite players to think twice about attacking the paint anytime he was on the floor.
Victor Wembanyama is the best prospect we've seen since LeBron James
We've been scouting Wembanyama at ESPN since he was 14 years old. But even though former ESPN employee Mike Schmitz called him "the best prospect in Europe" in February 2020 and "the world's most intriguing NBA prospect" 18 months ago, it's still astonishing to see the progress the projected No. 1 pick from France has continued to make.
While Wembanyama, now 18, has always showcased unique versatility, shot-blocking instincts, coordination, feel for the game and perimeter skill, he wasn't always this ultraconfident, aggressive big man who looks to take a team on his shoulders like he did last week. Early in his career, he struggled to play through contact and maintain his intensity for longer stretches, even being deemed soft by some onlookers because of his tendency to float, settle for jumpers and have lapses defensively. While he still has stretches where he gets outmuscled and pushed around on the defensive glass, and he is still very much filling out his lanky frame, Wembanyama's mentality has improved considerably with his consistent engagement and willingness to put his imprint on games. After making seven 3s and only four rebounds in his first contest in Las Vegas, he showed different facets by unleashing a devastating post arsenal in the second one, dishing four assists and a game-high 11 rebounds -- many of which came from out of his area, and in traffic, while he showed real physicality and grit.
A bone bruise suffered by Scoot Henderson just 4½ minutes into the second game ended up knocking the projected No. 2 pick out of the remainder of the contest for precautionary reasons. But considering what Henderson showed two days earlier, with 28 points and nine assists, and combined with Wembanyama's fireworks, few came away disappointed from the overall experience.
Henderson has clearly taken a major step forward from last season with his body, explosiveness, intensity level, perimeter shooting, half-court playmaking and defense. He looks like he is going to be difficult to dislodge from the No. 2 spot. Every team in the NBA is looking for a guard in Henderson's mold who is electric when changing gears off the dribble, can rise up sharply pulling up in midrange spots or beyond the arc, finishes creatively around the basket and finds open teammates on the move with timing and vision.
Wembanyama himself put it best at a news conference, saying, "If I was never born, I think he would deserve the first spot," while also calling Henderson a great player and his favorite in this draft class.
Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday that an NBA general manager told him he anticipates a "race to the bottom like never seen before," while a team president said Wembanyama might add as much as $500 million to the value of a franchise due to the impact he would make on and off the court. Everyone knew prior to this week that Wembanyama is a significant talent and the big prize of what is expected to be a loaded draft class, but his career-best performances on U.S. soil with the entire NBA watching created a newfound sense of urgency, suggesting we might very well be looking at the best prospect to be drafted into the NBA since LeBron James in 2003.
There's already talk of signature shoe deals on the horizon -- a rarity for rookies -- either from Nike, which has Wembanyama under contract for two more seasons, or other companies vying for his services. This despite the old adage "big men don't sell shoes," which Wembanyama is looking to test with the incredible amount of interest he is generating on and off the floor.
That franchises with the three worst records in the NBA each have a 27.4% chance of landing a top-two pick should provide some comfort as teams begin to position themselves for lottery odds, potentially reshaping the trade market and giving the NBA's worst teams a license from ownership to tear down their rosters.
Wembanyama is in an ideal development situation in Paris
Many around Europe struggled to understand Wembanyama's decision in June to leave Tony Parker's ASVEL team, which competes in the EuroLeague, for the smaller Metropolitans 92 squad, rumored to be on the verge of bankruptcy. The primary reason lay with longtime French national team head coach Vincent Collet, who committed to staying with the team, to building the roster around Wembanyama and to allowing him to explore the depth of his talent by empowering him as the focal point of the offense. It's almost unprecedented for a European coach to give an 18-year-old the type of freedom Wembanyama has to bring the ball up the floor, initiate the offense and take virtually any shot he wants.
"When you are a coach, you always limit something," Collet said. "But you adjust to the potential of the player. I think it's two different things to explain to him that this thing he can do is risky and, perhaps, not the best option. You still can give him freedom, and I think it's better, because if he does it by himself, if he makes a selection himself, at the end of the day he'll be more responsible and that's also a way to get better."
And Collet seems to be having the time of his life doing so, looking just as astonished by Wembanyama's talent as fans in the building, cackling at times at some of the player's more outlandish exploits and engaging in spirited courtside conversation during the game with Rudy Gobert and agents Bouna Ndiaye and Jeremy Medjana, who represent the trio.
"I have never seen a prospect with so many tools and skills," Collet said. "It's very, very special. For France, but not only for France. He has huge potential, huge talent, and he is doing new things almost every day. That's talent. I appreciate that. I am a coach, but I am also a basketball fan. The sky is the limit for him."
Another reason Wembanyama decided to sign with the Metropolitans is the commitment the team made to developing his body and ensuring his long-term health. Wembanyama has met with countless specialists (including while in the U.S. last week), while the Metropolitans hired away highly regarded strength and conditioning coach Guillaume Alquier from a rival club. Alquier is tasked with monitoring Wembanyama's daily activities.
NBA executives saw Wembanyama go through long and rigorous stretching, flexibility and activation regimens before, after and during the games in Las Vegas. His serious approach to these sessions should offer some comfort regarding his ability to avoid the catastrophic foot, back and knee injuries that have plagued other giants in his mold historically. After working with Dirk Nowitzki's longtime coach Holger Geschwindner, Wembanyama was encouraged to forgo a heavy weightlifting routine and let his frame fill out naturally, giving NBA teams and their army of performance and sports science doctors a near blank slate to work with.
"We are always careful with how much time he is practicing and not to go too far and provoke injury," Collet said. "We worry a lot. Just before we came in, we had a meeting with our doctor. We are going to prepare a plan to increase what he is doing off the court to strengthen his body. We cannot avoid 100 percent, but we can do things and plan so that we limit the risk. But for sure it's something we think about."
Wembanyama said he has the utmost confidence in the plan that has been put forth for him: "The good thing is that I have complete trust in my coaches -- my physical coach. I have a complete trust in what I do," he said. "I don't have anything to worry about at all. I know that it's been like that all my life. If I just be myself and I work, I can do anything I feel. It's going to go well. So I just don't even need to think about it."
He also reiterated he has no plans to shut down his season, despite being encouraged to do so by NBA executives.
"I would not have gotten involved in this [Metropolitans] project if I wasn't going to go until the end," Wembanyama said. "I can't accept quitting. I'd like to make the best season with my team back in France, make the playoffs for sure, and hopefully go the furthest we can go. That's really what I want to get done right now."
Ndiaye, his longtime agent along with Paris-based Medjana, said his agency's singular focus is helping Wembanyama become one of the best players ever, not just the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
"With Victor, it's basketball first and everything else second," Ndiaye said. "The best thing about him is his character. He wants to compete and get better. [Imagine if you had told] Kobe Bryant he won't be playing anymore because of business reasons. He'd say, 'What are you talking about?' Victor is the same way. He just wants to play. With him, it's a learning process. Today, he was great. The next game he may struggle. He needs to learn how to be consistent. Repeat, be better, learn from the struggle.
"We did not come here to hide. We came for one reason: Expose Victor to everyone and teach him what the next 15 years of his life will look like in terms of managing expectations and the attention that's coming his way."
While it's dangerous to anoint players as Hall of Fame candidates before they even step foot on an NBA court, in Wembanyama's case, it feels completely understandable. Every NBA executive in the building immediately recognized the type of generational, transcendent talent he can become, in addition to being likely the most unique player we've ever come across in terms of style of play. On top of that, he comes from an ideal background and seems to have the right mentality, humility and maturity to maximize his potential.
Everything Wembanyama does defies logic and warps perception of what's possible to accomplish on a basketball court. He is going to be must-watch from the moment he enters the NBA.
Talk about him "shutting down" his season stems exactly from there: He really is so much of a can't-miss prospect that he could fall off the face of the earth for the next eight months and still be the no-brainer No. 1 pick. That's just not how he is wired though.
"I'm not going to be surprised by all this attention. If I was stunned or amazed by all of this, it would mean that I'm satisfied with it," Wembanyama said. "And I'm not. I want to get better every day.
"The state I'm at right now, it's not enough. I didn't do anything yet. I didn't play a game in the NBA. I wasn't drafted. So I need to stay focused to reach my goals, because it's going to be tough in time to get better every day and stay consistent."
G League Ignite is here to stay
It has been two and a half years since Jalen Green signed with the then-unnamed G League Ignite, signaling the advent of an alternative pathway to the traditional route of elite prospects playing a year of college basketball before heading to the NBA. After sending three top-10 picks to the draft, with another one on the way in Henderson, the G League has clearly carved out a niche in the now-crowded prospect development ecosystem. The program took another step forward with these showcase games, putting on display its sparkling new arena and its ability to create a platform that rivals college basketball's biggest games in terms of online buzz and attendance of NBA executives.
"That's what we promise our young players before they join Ignite," Shareef Abdur-Rahim, president of the G League, told ESPN. "The opportunity to bring the best young players in the world together and have them play within an NBA and G League platform. That's our commitment as a league. That's what you saw the last few days with Victor and Scoot. Having a platform to continue to develop. Helping players grow. It demonstrates the commitment that the NBA has made over the past few years in Ignite."
The resources the NBA is putting into this venture are unmistakable. From the huge coaching, performance and player development staffs, to first-class flights for players and opponents, to seven-figure contracts and the beautiful venue to a group of supporting veteran teammates that is as strong as ever, Ignite is clearly serious about maintaining and expanding its foothold in this space, over competitors such as Overtime Elite, the NCAA and the Australian NBL.
Five-star prospect Matas Buzelis and four-star London Johnson are already in the fold for next year, along with NBA Academy alum Babacar Sane. This NBA Academy signing, its fifth in three years, fortifies an important connection that previously brought in Australians Dyson Daniels and Mojave King -- the latter of whom quietly had two strong performances in his own right this week. Ignite has found creative loopholes in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement to sign high school players to two-year contracts and avoid them becoming automatically eligible for the draft after just one season in the program, and is exploring doing the same with elite European prospects next year.
"Being able to come and experience the NBA before they get there," Abdur-Rahim said. "Continuing to develop young talent domestically and around the world as well. Those are our goals."
It's worth mentioning that Ignite was playing its first games of the preseason, while the Metropolitans already played a full preseason slate and three regular-season games, meaning both teams were in very different stages of preparation in terms of their conditioning and level of execution. We'll get a better feel for how Ignite draft prospects King, Leonard Miller, Sidy Cissoko and Efe Abogidi are trending as the season progresses, especially at the G League Winter Showcase in December in Las Vegas.
Matchups between projected No. 1 and No. 2 NBA draft picks don't often happen and usually don't live up to the hype. Be it overzealous referees, injuries or nerves, it's rare to see players rise to the moment and show what truly makes them special in the most pressure-packed environments of their young careers. LeBron James facing off against Carmelo Anthony in a high school showcase in February 2002 is the gold standard many NBA executives point to as the most memorable prospect matchup they've ever witnessed. Until this past week.
In front of 200 scouts and executives from NBA teams, Scoot Henderson's G League Ignite vs. Victor Wembanyama's Metropolitans 92 in Las Vegas ended up being just as good as its St. Vincent-St. Mary vs. Oak Hill predecessor 20 years ago.
Wembanyama showed everything that makes him the most highly regarded prospect in years, with two extraordinary performances that included 73 points in 70 total minutes, demonstrating the most diverse offensive skill set we've ever seen from a 7-footer this age.
No shot was too difficult for the nearly unguardable 7-foot-4 big man with an 8-foot wingspan, whether it was creating his own one-on-one; spinning with his back to the basket; finishing lobs well above the rim; making 3-pointers pulling up off the dribble; executing sharp step-back jumpers; or running, catching and releasing from impossible vantage points with incredible footwork, body control and touch. Wembanyama also handled the ball in pick-and-roll, pushed off the defensive glass and found the open man from the perimeter. On the other end of the floor, he showed exceptional timing and mobility while putting a lid on the rim, blocking several jump shots and causing Ignite players to think twice about attacking the paint anytime he was on the floor.
Victor Wembanyama is the best prospect we've seen since LeBron James
We've been scouting Wembanyama at ESPN since he was 14 years old. But even though former ESPN employee Mike Schmitz called him "the best prospect in Europe" in February 2020 and "the world's most intriguing NBA prospect" 18 months ago, it's still astonishing to see the progress the projected No. 1 pick from France has continued to make.
While Wembanyama, now 18, has always showcased unique versatility, shot-blocking instincts, coordination, feel for the game and perimeter skill, he wasn't always this ultraconfident, aggressive big man who looks to take a team on his shoulders like he did last week. Early in his career, he struggled to play through contact and maintain his intensity for longer stretches, even being deemed soft by some onlookers because of his tendency to float, settle for jumpers and have lapses defensively. While he still has stretches where he gets outmuscled and pushed around on the defensive glass, and he is still very much filling out his lanky frame, Wembanyama's mentality has improved considerably with his consistent engagement and willingness to put his imprint on games. After making seven 3s and only four rebounds in his first contest in Las Vegas, he showed different facets by unleashing a devastating post arsenal in the second one, dishing four assists and a game-high 11 rebounds -- many of which came from out of his area, and in traffic, while he showed real physicality and grit.
A bone bruise suffered by Scoot Henderson just 4½ minutes into the second game ended up knocking the projected No. 2 pick out of the remainder of the contest for precautionary reasons. But considering what Henderson showed two days earlier, with 28 points and nine assists, and combined with Wembanyama's fireworks, few came away disappointed from the overall experience.
Henderson has clearly taken a major step forward from last season with his body, explosiveness, intensity level, perimeter shooting, half-court playmaking and defense. He looks like he is going to be difficult to dislodge from the No. 2 spot. Every team in the NBA is looking for a guard in Henderson's mold who is electric when changing gears off the dribble, can rise up sharply pulling up in midrange spots or beyond the arc, finishes creatively around the basket and finds open teammates on the move with timing and vision.
Wembanyama himself put it best at a news conference, saying, "If I was never born, I think he would deserve the first spot," while also calling Henderson a great player and his favorite in this draft class.
Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday that an NBA general manager told him he anticipates a "race to the bottom like never seen before," while a team president said Wembanyama might add as much as $500 million to the value of a franchise due to the impact he would make on and off the court. Everyone knew prior to this week that Wembanyama is a significant talent and the big prize of what is expected to be a loaded draft class, but his career-best performances on U.S. soil with the entire NBA watching created a newfound sense of urgency, suggesting we might very well be looking at the best prospect to be drafted into the NBA since LeBron James in 2003.
There's already talk of signature shoe deals on the horizon -- a rarity for rookies -- either from Nike, which has Wembanyama under contract for two more seasons, or other companies vying for his services. This despite the old adage "big men don't sell shoes," which Wembanyama is looking to test with the incredible amount of interest he is generating on and off the floor.
That franchises with the three worst records in the NBA each have a 27.4% chance of landing a top-two pick should provide some comfort as teams begin to position themselves for lottery odds, potentially reshaping the trade market and giving the NBA's worst teams a license from ownership to tear down their rosters.
Wembanyama is in an ideal development situation in Paris
Many around Europe struggled to understand Wembanyama's decision in June to leave Tony Parker's ASVEL team, which competes in the EuroLeague, for the smaller Metropolitans 92 squad, rumored to be on the verge of bankruptcy. The primary reason lay with longtime French national team head coach Vincent Collet, who committed to staying with the team, to building the roster around Wembanyama and to allowing him to explore the depth of his talent by empowering him as the focal point of the offense. It's almost unprecedented for a European coach to give an 18-year-old the type of freedom Wembanyama has to bring the ball up the floor, initiate the offense and take virtually any shot he wants.
"When you are a coach, you always limit something," Collet said. "But you adjust to the potential of the player. I think it's two different things to explain to him that this thing he can do is risky and, perhaps, not the best option. You still can give him freedom, and I think it's better, because if he does it by himself, if he makes a selection himself, at the end of the day he'll be more responsible and that's also a way to get better."
And Collet seems to be having the time of his life doing so, looking just as astonished by Wembanyama's talent as fans in the building, cackling at times at some of the player's more outlandish exploits and engaging in spirited courtside conversation during the game with Rudy Gobert and agents Bouna Ndiaye and Jeremy Medjana, who represent the trio.
"I have never seen a prospect with so many tools and skills," Collet said. "It's very, very special. For France, but not only for France. He has huge potential, huge talent, and he is doing new things almost every day. That's talent. I appreciate that. I am a coach, but I am also a basketball fan. The sky is the limit for him."
Another reason Wembanyama decided to sign with the Metropolitans is the commitment the team made to developing his body and ensuring his long-term health. Wembanyama has met with countless specialists (including while in the U.S. last week), while the Metropolitans hired away highly regarded strength and conditioning coach Guillaume Alquier from a rival club. Alquier is tasked with monitoring Wembanyama's daily activities.
NBA executives saw Wembanyama go through long and rigorous stretching, flexibility and activation regimens before, after and during the games in Las Vegas. His serious approach to these sessions should offer some comfort regarding his ability to avoid the catastrophic foot, back and knee injuries that have plagued other giants in his mold historically. After working with Dirk Nowitzki's longtime coach Holger Geschwindner, Wembanyama was encouraged to forgo a heavy weightlifting routine and let his frame fill out naturally, giving NBA teams and their army of performance and sports science doctors a near blank slate to work with.
"We are always careful with how much time he is practicing and not to go too far and provoke injury," Collet said. "We worry a lot. Just before we came in, we had a meeting with our doctor. We are going to prepare a plan to increase what he is doing off the court to strengthen his body. We cannot avoid 100 percent, but we can do things and plan so that we limit the risk. But for sure it's something we think about."
Wembanyama said he has the utmost confidence in the plan that has been put forth for him: "The good thing is that I have complete trust in my coaches -- my physical coach. I have a complete trust in what I do," he said. "I don't have anything to worry about at all. I know that it's been like that all my life. If I just be myself and I work, I can do anything I feel. It's going to go well. So I just don't even need to think about it."
He also reiterated he has no plans to shut down his season, despite being encouraged to do so by NBA executives.
"I would not have gotten involved in this [Metropolitans] project if I wasn't going to go until the end," Wembanyama said. "I can't accept quitting. I'd like to make the best season with my team back in France, make the playoffs for sure, and hopefully go the furthest we can go. That's really what I want to get done right now."
Ndiaye, his longtime agent along with Paris-based Medjana, said his agency's singular focus is helping Wembanyama become one of the best players ever, not just the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
"With Victor, it's basketball first and everything else second," Ndiaye said. "The best thing about him is his character. He wants to compete and get better. [Imagine if you had told] Kobe Bryant he won't be playing anymore because of business reasons. He'd say, 'What are you talking about?' Victor is the same way. He just wants to play. With him, it's a learning process. Today, he was great. The next game he may struggle. He needs to learn how to be consistent. Repeat, be better, learn from the struggle.
"We did not come here to hide. We came for one reason: Expose Victor to everyone and teach him what the next 15 years of his life will look like in terms of managing expectations and the attention that's coming his way."
While it's dangerous to anoint players as Hall of Fame candidates before they even step foot on an NBA court, in Wembanyama's case, it feels completely understandable. Every NBA executive in the building immediately recognized the type of generational, transcendent talent he can become, in addition to being likely the most unique player we've ever come across in terms of style of play. On top of that, he comes from an ideal background and seems to have the right mentality, humility and maturity to maximize his potential.
Everything Wembanyama does defies logic and warps perception of what's possible to accomplish on a basketball court. He is going to be must-watch from the moment he enters the NBA.
Talk about him "shutting down" his season stems exactly from there: He really is so much of a can't-miss prospect that he could fall off the face of the earth for the next eight months and still be the no-brainer No. 1 pick. That's just not how he is wired though.
"I'm not going to be surprised by all this attention. If I was stunned or amazed by all of this, it would mean that I'm satisfied with it," Wembanyama said. "And I'm not. I want to get better every day.
"The state I'm at right now, it's not enough. I didn't do anything yet. I didn't play a game in the NBA. I wasn't drafted. So I need to stay focused to reach my goals, because it's going to be tough in time to get better every day and stay consistent."
G League Ignite is here to stay
It has been two and a half years since Jalen Green signed with the then-unnamed G League Ignite, signaling the advent of an alternative pathway to the traditional route of elite prospects playing a year of college basketball before heading to the NBA. After sending three top-10 picks to the draft, with another one on the way in Henderson, the G League has clearly carved out a niche in the now-crowded prospect development ecosystem. The program took another step forward with these showcase games, putting on display its sparkling new arena and its ability to create a platform that rivals college basketball's biggest games in terms of online buzz and attendance of NBA executives.
"That's what we promise our young players before they join Ignite," Shareef Abdur-Rahim, president of the G League, told ESPN. "The opportunity to bring the best young players in the world together and have them play within an NBA and G League platform. That's our commitment as a league. That's what you saw the last few days with Victor and Scoot. Having a platform to continue to develop. Helping players grow. It demonstrates the commitment that the NBA has made over the past few years in Ignite."
The resources the NBA is putting into this venture are unmistakable. From the huge coaching, performance and player development staffs, to first-class flights for players and opponents, to seven-figure contracts and the beautiful venue to a group of supporting veteran teammates that is as strong as ever, Ignite is clearly serious about maintaining and expanding its foothold in this space, over competitors such as Overtime Elite, the NCAA and the Australian NBL.
Five-star prospect Matas Buzelis and four-star London Johnson are already in the fold for next year, along with NBA Academy alum Babacar Sane. This NBA Academy signing, its fifth in three years, fortifies an important connection that previously brought in Australians Dyson Daniels and Mojave King -- the latter of whom quietly had two strong performances in his own right this week. Ignite has found creative loopholes in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement to sign high school players to two-year contracts and avoid them becoming automatically eligible for the draft after just one season in the program, and is exploring doing the same with elite European prospects next year.
"Being able to come and experience the NBA before they get there," Abdur-Rahim said. "Continuing to develop young talent domestically and around the world as well. Those are our goals."
It's worth mentioning that Ignite was playing its first games of the preseason, while the Metropolitans already played a full preseason slate and three regular-season games, meaning both teams were in very different stages of preparation in terms of their conditioning and level of execution. We'll get a better feel for how Ignite draft prospects King, Leonard Miller, Sidy Cissoko and Efe Abogidi are trending as the season progresses, especially at the G League Winter Showcase in December in Las Vegas.
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Best since Lebron prospect gets thrown around yearly or too frequently.
See Andrew Wiggins etc
See Andrew Wiggins etc
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Best since Wilt
