Spurs take Victor Wembanyama with No. 1 pick in 2023 NBA Draft: How he fits in San Antonio

The San Antonio Spurs chosen French phenom Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 decide within the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday. Right here’s what you want to know:

• Wembanyama, 19, was the consensus option to be chosen first and is considered a generational expertise.
• The 7-foot-4 heart exploded with French skilled group Metropolitans 92 this season, averaging 21.6 factors, 10.4 rebounds and three.0 blocks per sport.
• The Spurs gained the rights to the No. 1 decide in Could’s NBA Draft lottery. San Antonio final had the No. 1 decide in 1997, when the group chosen future Corridor of Famer Tim Duncan.

The Athletic’s prompt evaluation:

Scouting report

Wembanyama is one of the best draft prospect to enter the NBA since LeBron James. It’s that straightforward. Wembanyama is the epitome of a franchise changer. He led the French League in rebounds and blocks and was second in factors. It’s onerous to overemphasize how superb Wembanyama’s long-term potential is on each ends of the ground.

He’ll instantly be the largest, longest participant within the NBA, which permits him to vary the geometry of the courtroom defensively. Wembanyama has nice instincts and restoration potential on that finish. However he is also a reliable shot creator at heart who can rating off the bounce with creativity and hit pictures with ease off of pull-ups or drives to the rim. He’s a terrific finisher inside due to his size and contact and is already beginning to experiment with pictures that might make him particular, similar to turnaround pull-ups, fake-spin shimmies and floater 3s.

Wembanyama is a historic prospect, one properly inside the tapestry of previous elite heart prospects similar to Invoice Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Ralph Sampson, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Anthony Davis. — Vecenie

How Wembanyama suits with the Spurs

Wembanyama suits each single group. He’s the match. He’s the participant you construct round. San Antonio has discovered some sturdy gamers within the latter half of the lottery and the again portion of the primary spherical, however the Spurs don’t have a star but.

Wembanyama slides everybody down a peg into extra appropriate roles. Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson will be younger, high-level wings who don’t get the highest defensive assignments. Wembanyama will likely be an incredible match subsequent to Jeremy Sochan within the frontcourt with Sochan as an all-around gap-filler who was productive as a teenage rookie. He’ll be capable to be introduced alongside slowly as a scorer as he continues to transform his shot.

The Spurs received to transition fantastically from the Robinson period into the Duncan period and now completely slide into the Wembanyama period. — Vecenie

Backstory

Wembanyama has lengthy been thought-about the most effective prospects in his age group. His father, Felix, was a 6-foot-6 high-level lengthy jumper. His mom, Elodie, is 6-foot-3 and performed basketball and helped educate Victor the sport. He has two siblings, each of whom play basketball, grew up within the Parisian suburbs and joined the Nanterre 92 developmental group at a younger age.

Wembanyama emerged as an elite prospect for NBA groups on the U16 European Championships in 2019, the place he averaged 9 factors, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks per sport as a 15-year-old.

Because the hype round Wembanyama constructed over the past 12 months forward of the draft, the NBA put collectively a showcase sport for Wembanyama and No. 3 decide Scoot Henderson in September 2022. After two video games between Metropolitans 92 and Henderson’s G League Ignite, Wembanyama left scouts salivating and in awe, scoring 37 factors within the first sport after which scoring 36 factors and grabbing 11 rebounds within the second. — Vecenie

Required studying

(Photograph: Christophe Archambault/ AFP by way of Getty Photos)