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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.