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Wemby to the Spurs, but is VW 1st Round in Fantasy Basketball

by with No Comment BasketballFeatured HighlightsGaming

Wemby to the Spurs, but is VW 1st Round in Fantasy Basketball

The San Antonio Spurs landed the top NBA Draft pick which will be held on the 22nd of June. The top pick will be Victor Wembanyama. There will be no drama regarding the choice. After Wembanyama is named at the Barclays Center in New York, the audience could get a surprise regarding the selection of the number two pick which seems to a decision between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller.

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When the San Antonio Spurs took David Robinson in the 1987 NBA Draft they improved by 35 wins in his first season, this after only winning 28 games in the 86-87 season. When the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan in the 1997 NBA Draft, their win total during an injury plagued year for Robinson in the 96-97 campaign was 20 wins. The Spurs won 56 games in Duncan’s first year and made it to the Conference Semi-Finals when they lost to the Utah Jazz.

The Spurs have had amazing luck being able to draft Robinson, Duncan and now Wembanyama. The question is how many games will they improve by during the 23-24 NBA campaign? San Antonio won 22 games this past season. A surge of 25 additional wins would not be shocking. Can the Spurs win 50?

An other interesting question many folks who play fantasy basketball are starting to ask is, will you be willing to take Victor Wembanyama in the first round of your fantasy league? Will he be good enough to make an immediate impact?

VW is certainly going to be entertaining, but are you bold enough to take him in the first round? You might be inclined to take Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Antetokounmpo before Wembanyama, but will you let him slide much past those fellows? It is likely VW will go in many first rounds of fantasy basketball this coming season, selected by fans who have been following his development in Europe. Folks who want to say Victor Wembanyama is only 19 years old should remember he has already played three years of professional basketball in Europe.

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NBA Draft Lottery and Victor Wembanyama #1

by with No Comment BasketballCultureFeatured Highlights

NBA Draft Lottery and Victor Wembanyama #1

You have likely heard plenty of talk about Victor Wembanyama if you are a basketball fan. Perhaps you still do not believe the potential talent the youngster may bring to the NBA for the 2023-2024 season, but rest assured NBA teams with the capability of landing the ‘definite’ number one pick in this year’s draft are paying attention.

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Whoever finishes with the Top Pick in this Year’s Draft will be Celebrating

The NBA lottery will be held on the 16th of May, and there are a handful of teams that have the potential to land VW with reasonable odds. Detroit, Houston, San Antonio, Charlotte and Portland have the best chance of landing the first pick in the lottery due to their respective finishes. There are an additional handful of teams with a very limited chance of miraculously coming out on top and winding up with the number one pick after those teams, but their respective odds are slim.

No one is going to consider trading the rights to this year’s NBA top pick. The team that is lucky enough to land the rights to Victor Wembanyama is going to become a more valuable franchise instantly when the lottery order is known. Likely by an extra half a billion USD, because television, merchandise and advertising rights will increase demand immediately in all facets of business for the lucky team. And Victor Wembanyama knows his financial value too.

The run up to the LeBron James draft in 2003 was special and teams anticipated the results nervously. Somehow and ‘magically’ the Cleveland Cavaliers finished first in the draft lottery. However, the Cavaliers did have a 22.50% chance of landing the top pick, even though conspiracy minded NBA fans still find it more than coincidental that the Ohio native found his way to the Cavaliers so easily while ‘fresh’ out of high school.

This year’s top three teams have a 14.0% chance each, Charlotte the number four team has a 12.5% opportunity, and the Portland Trailblazers have a 10.5% ability. Victor Wembanyama is from France and he has expressed no desire to play for a specific team in the NBA. Outside of the top five teams who could somehow have a ‘lucky star’ strike and land Victor Wembanyama next season are Orlando, Indiana, Washington, Utah, Dallas and a few others with a limited and dwindling chance in the lottery sweepstakes.

Victor Wembanyama’s Draft Rights will Not be Traded to Anyone

If you want hyperbole regarding how good Victor Wembanyama’s NBA ceiling could be, consider that there is likely no NBA player currently playing who could be traded for VW one for one. I am not kidding, this includes Giannis, KD, Steph Curry, Jokic and Joel Embiid. You might scoff and laugh at what has been written with derision, but I am willing to bet the team that lands the top pick for Wembanyama would not be willing to trade his rights, unless not only a Tier 1 top 5 player was offered, but an assortment of draft choices and other players were included too, besides a lot of cash.

Perhaps Wembanyama will fail miserably, perhaps he will get hurt in the future, but his ability to be productive in the NBA is hypothetically off the charts. I believe he will be one of the most productive NBA players of all-time and I have watched a ‘bit’ of basketball. A plausible combination of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kevin Durant as the hybrid is the amount of potential to consider. Wembanyama is a legitimate 7’4″ inches, he can dribble, shoot, run, cut, react quickly – twitch movement, moves his feet well and is balanced. He also plays defense while looking a bit like a praying mantis and possesses a ‘killer’ mentality. There is no doubt Victor Wembanyama will go first in the draft which will be held on the 22nd of June. The real story is who will land his rights next week on Tuesday, the 16th of May. You will hear the city that lands the top pick roar.

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Before Victor: The BV Year and Outlook

by with No Comment BasketballCultureSports

Before Victor: The BV Year and Outlook

By now almost every basketball fan knows who Victor Wembanyama is if they pay attention to the NBA. Simply type the first three letters ………..Vic…..into your Google search and his name will appear. The young man is 19 years old. He will certainly be the number one choice in this year’s NBA draft. He stands a legitimate 7’4″.

Folks are still creating adjectives and nicknames to give Wembanyama, and sincerely it is up to him to decide how he should be addressed. However, here is one prediction that I believe will legitimately occur over the next few years, the creation of the term BV in the NBA.

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Wembanyama’s impact offensively and defensively will change the NBA. He is likely to take on a number 4 role positionally while playing offense the first few years, and will certainly be used as a center on defense.

He can handle the ball and shoot from outside. Wembanyama’s ability to dribble in traffic allows him greater mobility to drive towards the hoop. He can clearly cause chaos in the paint offensively with a threat of dunks, put backs and rebounding. He is an effective passer when distributing the ‘rock’ to his teammates.

He will immediately make other teams change the way they attack and play offensively against him. The game of basketball has evolved into one that looks for open space, and shots from the outside dominate. One consideration is that teams may go into a hyper induced outside game in which they try to put four guys (maybe five) outside of the three point circle. This to try and keep VW away from the ball as much as possible as he plays defense, attempting to get him out of position.

Anybody with the ball inside of the arc has the potential to have their shot blocked by VW. Wembanyama’s closing speed, getting to an offensive player considering a shot, is almost always one step away. Meaning he can quickly attack, extend his arms, and either block an attempted shot or simply make a player change his mind and stop the motion of the offensive scheme.

Wembanyama is not God, but he can be a basketball god if he stays healthy. You have been warned. He is doing well in European basketball which has a smaller court, and more grabbing and pushing compared to the NBA. Whoever has the luck to draft Wembanyama likely has a generational player. The magic within all of this is the fact the young man seems to be genuinely a good person.

In this year of BV – Before Victor – basketball the East looks like it has three teams that can make a run towards the Championship round including the Bucks, Celtics and 76er’s. The West is full of teams with question marks regarding health and the ability to coalesce into competing units. Phoenix and Denver are the favorites, but potential problems lurk on both teams.

In the Western shadows looms Memphis which is being compared to the ‘Bad Boys’ of Detroit from the 1980’s, but the Grizzlies need to win something first. Due to their ‘talking’ and desire to try and intimidate folks – it would help if they actually won something significant and advanced to at least the Western Championships this year, which they likely won’t. Ja Morant has plenty of talent, all-world, but he also has put a target on the back of his team by talking a lot of smack.

Perhaps more interesting than the Championship run which is developing, is the race to the bottom in order to get into the NBA Draft lottery for the chance to take Victor Wembanyama. Because it is likely that the winner via percentages of probability, that one of the worst performing 5 teams will get the opportunity to change franchise history. How good is VW? Whoever gets him is likely landing an all-star during the 2023-2024 season, a giant marketing tool worth hundreds of millions USD, while creating global brand for a club and the ability to make playoff runs very quickly of stature.

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Is the USD Bullish Surge Coming to an End?

by with No Comment BasketballCultureNBA

Is the USD Bullish Surge Coming to an End?

The long and brutal bullish trend the USD has exhibited against many other currencies could be coming to an end, as behavioral sentiment begins to suspect the U.S Federal Reserve will have to consider halting its interest rates hikes sooner rather than later.

PMI and Consumer Confidence statistics from the United States on Monday and Tuesday has heightened the perception that the U.S is within a recessionary cycle which the U.S Federal Reserve will have to act upon – by not acting. The Fed is likely to raise interest rates in November per their hawkish rhetoric, but the notion that the U.S central bank will then sit back consider the statistical landscape is growing. In other words a halt of hawkish policy appears to be a legitimate prospect after November.

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GBP/USD 1 Year Chart

If recessionary data continues to be exhibited in the U.S, the USD fundamentally could lessen its grip in Forex and allow other currencies begin to gain ground. The GBP/USD has been hit extremely hard – yes, this has had just as much to do with the political environment in the U.K which has resembled a three ring circus. The idea of tranquility within the U.K politically could help the GBP/USD move higher, the prospect of a less hawkish U.S Federal Reserve should help the British Pound also.

The EUR and JPY also may have the ability to gain within the EUR/USD and and USD/JPY as financial institutions begin to change their outlooks. Yes, the walls could crumble unexpectedly and another round of chaos could ensue which could cause a shockwave in Forex. However, if the U.S enters a recession which has to be officially recognized by the government and thus the Federal Reserve, the USD will be affected.

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EUR/USD 1 Year Chart

This is not written to suggest a weaker USD will bring upon a great fix for the ailing global economic outlook mid-term. But it is certain that a weaker USD which trends in a bearish manner may be rather interesting to retail traders looking to gain an edge via Forex speculation. Equity indices may continue to struggle if corporations report weaker than expected earnings, but the downward trajectory in many stocks also means that PE ratios are becoming more realistic and a potential buying opportunity for long term investors. Warren Buffett can be your imaginary friend.

It has been a dynamic year of results in Forex as the USD has created stark trends with the USD/JPY, USD/ZAR, EUR/USD, GBP/USD and the USD/INR. Results in Forex and their volatility have created trading opportunities for speculators that have been likely better than wagering on cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to stagnate and wait for the next great upheaval.

The past year has seen major equity indices suffer stark losses. Traders who have a constant bullish perspective because being positive is part of the human psychology have likely suffered if they have tried to be day traders via CFD’s of equity indices on the buy side constantly. Choppy conditions in the stock markets may continue for a while. Certainly in the long term many indices will rebound upwards, but buying individual stocks with leverage in anticipation that widespread bullish momentum is going to be a constant remains a nervous bet.

Forex via a USD pairing is beginning to look opportunistic for speculators. Picking the exact time a true solid reversal is going to become a constant is difficult and dangerous. There are no guarantees that we have seen the lows for the GBP, the EUR and JPY along with others currencies versus the USD, but if the U.S is truly going to have to admit recessionary pressures are taking hold, this may have an impact on inflation as demand decreases which the Fed would react to.

Things can wrong, more war breaking out, viruses bursting forth can be transmitted, political upheavals are a possibility in various locales, but from a risk reward perspective perhaps we are drawing to a close regarding the dominance the USD has shown the past year.