What the Media is Hiding about Victor Wembanyama After the intro, skip ahead to 2:35 to bypass the ad. some comments found after the video: Victor's French team was bad before he arrrived. Now it's good (2nd place). He chose a lower-level team to guarantee playing time and usage. The coach of the Mets92 is Vincent Collet, who is the coach of the French Olympic team. The higher-level Villeurbanne team is not well-coached and finished last. Luka played for the best team in Europe. Giannis and Jokic also played in lower-level leagues. Giannis takes open threes, Victor will take contested threes.
Sure their are no guarantees with Wemby . But there aren't with Scoot either. Or any of these guys. Nobody will know until they go up against the best. It's a crapshoot. Always is. LeBron was already built like a tank. Carmelo was dominant in his only college year, leading his team to a Championship. But because of the freakish skillset of Wemby, and size, you have to take the chance.
Maybe in the 80s. But I remember in the 90s a rail thin high school Kevin Garnett getting drafted in the top5 then before winning anything signing a 120+million deal above any other player in the league that led to max salaries. So they've been paying for potential at least 30 years. I think more of it is MJ and Chuck just being old get off my lawn guys talking about how hard it was on them walking up the hill both ways in the good old days.
Nah, it's more true today and probably the last 10 years or so. KG like a small number of others came right out of HS and many good players played college till Junior or Senior year. The one and done has changed the average age of players coming in as compared to 90's and back...
Zero chance he goes up against other players in workouts. None. I'd imagine -- unless its really bad, the medicals will be allowed to get tested, but the guy is so far and away the #1 pick that there's no reason his agent would allow him to workout against other players. Potentially at all.
So he didn't get paid as the #5 pick as a kid coming straight out of HS? That wasn't drafting someone based on potential? STOMP
30% from '3'....not good. And the going from a very good team where he was getting multiple injuries, to a bad team where he doesn't get beat up as much, does at least bring up some concerns. Not enough to not take him if you get #1, but there are physical issues that could come up and his shooting certainly isn't what most would think from seeing all the highlight reels.
I just have a feeling he’s gonna be a bust. I never thought that about Oden before the draft. But there doesn’t seem to be a Durant in this draft.
I think a team like Portland would be a great situation for him if we keep Dame. There will still be pressure on him, but if he can be the 3rd or 4th option on offense he can be brought along "somewhat" slowly. He is still only going to be 19 when the season starts, some patience is going to be needed despite being the #1 pick. Not saying he can't be a factor by playoff time, but he is still going to be a young rookie who needs to adjust to a much higher level of competition while staying healthy. He might be a bust but he still has the highest ceiling in the draft. (Which he probably can touch without jumping) I just think expectations for him need to be realistic.....he is not going to dominate in his first year. But he can be a nice piece.
Is that based on his height or his past injuries? I can't say I don't worry about centers in general getting hurt, because I do, but why would he be any more vulnerable than anyone else over 7 feet? Maybe if he maxed out at 230 lbs it would help his feet and back in the long run??
How many guys that height haven't had health issues? Manute Bol didn't play many minutes (he averaged 16 mpg for his career) and he pretty much stopped playing full seasons at 29 years old. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bolma01.html Shawn Bradley averaged 23.5 mpg for his career but he missed a lot of games. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bradlsh01.html Yao averaged 32.5 minutes per game, and he only played 8 seasons. He did miss a lot of games as well. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mingya01.html There's just a lot of concerns for a guy that height, especially when he looks so frail.
I guess some of us have different definitions of bust. To me Michael Beasley and Anthony Bennett were busts. They weren't able to be highly effective NBA players. I don't consider injured guys busts.
And yet Oden is on most lists of biggest busts in league history. I agree that the standard definition is usually related to someone who doesn't live up to the expectations in terms of skill/production. But if you take a guy #1 and ignore potential warning signs about injuries, that's still a bust on the team. There were reports that our medical staff did flag some concerns about Oden.
