The Wembanyama Era is underway in the Alamo City after they won the vaunted draft lottery sweepstakes back in June. Having already successfully guided the likes of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, head coach Gregg Popovich will be licking his lips at the prospect of mentoring the league’s most hyped rookie in two decades. In these previews, we will take a look at each team’s key acquisitions, fantasy stars, and projected finish.
Key Acquisitions
The story of San Antonio’s season will revolve solely around Victor Wembanyama after he was drafted with the first pick in June’s draft.
Having taken home the LNB Pro A’s MVP, Best Defender Award, and scoring title as a teenager, the Frenchman’s NBA career begins with astronomical expectations.
Standing at 7-feet-4-inches and armed with an alien-like 8-foot wingspan, Wembanyama is one of the most physically imposing presences that the league has seen.
He moves in a way that a player of his height should not be able to and possesses ball-handling skills akin to a perimeter player.
He is adept at creating shots for himself or others from both inside and outside the arc and is a devastating dunker regularly throwing it down from outside the restricted area and barely leaving the ground.
Defensively, he is furiously dominant consistently swatting, altering, or completely deterring anything close to the rim whilst also showing an ability to disrupt passing lanes in a freakish manner on the perimeter and close out on shooters.
Putting Wembanyama’s skillset into words is difficult but there is a reason that front offices were falling over each other to try and get their hands on the top pick in this year’s draft.
Fantasy Stars
Despite having not yet stepped foot on an NBA floor, Wembanyama (39th overall, 13th PF/11th C) is the Spurs’ highest ranked fantasy guy with Devin Vassell (64th overall, 27th SG/20th SF) another drawing buzz.
Last year in France, Wembanyama averaged 21.6 ppg, 10.4 rpg, and 3.0 bpg on 56.4 TS%.
Vassell, who inked a five-year, $146 million extension with the Spurs several weeks ago, is coming off a year in which he averaged 18.5 ppg and 3.6 apg shooting 38.7 per cent on 7.0 threes nightly.
Projected Finish
Even with Wembanyama having arrived, the Spurs are still pegged to finish outside of the playoff race.
With Wembanyama, Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham and Tre Jones in the mix, their young core is one of the league’s most promising but expect the upcoming season to remain development-focused for Popovich’s squad.
The re-build could feasibly jump ahead of schedule and see the Spurs contend for a play-in spot, but Popovich and the front office will understand the importance of patience with both Wembanyama and the roster as a whole.
