Victor Wembanyama's destination will be decided
The NBA draft lottery hasn’t generated this much buzz and anticipation since the hometown Cavaliers landed the rights to select LeBron James in 2003.
Two decades later, the complicated pingpong process holds far more international intrigue due to the 19-year-old European wunderkind expected to have a transformative impact on the league and the team fortunate enough to draft him.
Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 French phenom with a guard’s handle, a deft outside shooting touch and an 8-foot wingspan, will finally learn his initial NBA destination when the draft lottery takes place Tuesday night in Chicago.
With the Knicks and the Nets both qualifying for the playoffs this season, neither local team has a stake in the Wembanyama sweepstakes, although the Knicks do have a vested interest in the results of the lottery because they will receive the Mavericks’ protected first-round pick — from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis deal — if it winds up outside the top 10.
The Knicks traded their own 2023 pick (No. 23) to the Trail Blazers in the Josh Hart deadline deal in February.
Victor Webanyama is the consensus top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft thank to his combination of size and skills. AP
The Nets are slotted to make the two picks immediately ahead of Portland, the Suns’ selection (No. 21) from the Kevin Durant blockbuster trade and their own pick (No. 22).
The teams with the three worst records in the league — the Pistons, the Rockets and the Spurs — each have a 14 percent chance at earning the No. 1 pick to officially tab Wembanyama at the June 22 draft at Barclays Center after the NBA implemented anti-tanking changes in 2019.
Prior to that year, the team with the worst record had a 25 percent chance to win the lottery, with declining percentages for the remainder of non-playoff teams.
The 7-foot-4 Frenchman has has scouts drooling for years. AFP via Getty Images
LeBron already has labeled Wembanyama “an alien,” while Stephen Curry likened him to a video game creation on NBA 2K, saying “everyone wants a 7-footer with point guard skills.”
Earlier this season, Knicks wing RJ Barrett offered the same comparison that Curry made, and Derrick Rose said Wembanyama has “the ‘it’ factor.”
“It’s like 2K, you make this giant guy and you want him to be shooting and all that stuff, and he’s doing it in real life,” Barrett said. “So it’s crazy.”
Rose added that he believes the best comparison for Wembanyama is Durant, though he’s several inches taller than the former Nets superstar.
“Like, how KD was the model for 6-10 guys, but for a dude to be 7-4, 7-5, he’s like the new model for guys over 7-2,” Rose said. “He’s moving like he’s a KD type of guy. You’ve never seen a guy move that light being that big. And skilled. And his feel for the game. I never saw it before.
“It’s a feel. I think that’s what a lot of people call the ‘it’ factor. You don’t know what it is. But it’s something. Something about him outside of his game. It’s something deep where you can tell he wants to be great.”
While scouts project Wembanyama as a can’t-miss prospect, the draft has been sprinkled with various busts in the No. 1 position.
The Blazers took Greg Oden over Durant in 2007, but the former Ohio State big man played in only 105 games over seven injury-plagued NBA seasons.
Wembanyama’s game has caused plenty of awe among the NBA’s biggest stars. AFP via Getty Images
Ten years after selecting James first overall — in a top-five that also included Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade after the Pistons took center Darko Milicic at No. 2 — the Cavaliers won the lottery again in 2013.
But their selection, forward Anthony Bennett out of UNLV, appeared in only 151 games over four NBA seasons.
The Cavs also had the first overall pick in 2011 and 2014, taking Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins in those years, albeit trading Wiggins two months after the draft to Minnesota with Bennett for Kevin Love.
After Wembanyama, who plays for the Metropolitans 92 club in Paris, most mock drafts project some combination of G-League Ignite point guard Scoot Henderson, Alabama forward Brandon Miller and Overtime Elite twins Amen and Ausar Thompson (yes, ’80s music fans, The Thompson Twins) among those who could round out the top five.
Source: New York Post
