Although Victor Wembanyama may be the best NBA draft prospect in 20 years, the Spurs understand that his body type carries a certain amount of injury risk, writes Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News. McDonald notes that foot injuries have interrupted or even ended the careers of numerous big men, such as Bill Walton, Yao Ming, Arvydas Sabonis and Greg Oden. The latest example is Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, who suffered a foot fracture in an exhibition game last summer that forced him to miss his entire first season.
Wembanyama possesses an agility that has rarely been seen in someone so tall, and he has a team of advisors who have created a specialized training regimen to help him avoid stress injuries. Their prescription includes an all-natural diet with five meals each day, along with 10 hours of sleep.
“When you talk about a generational talent, it often times goes beyond your ability to make a shot or your ability to jump or put the ball on the floor,” Spurs general manager Brian Wright said. “As we’ve studied Victor, he’s very in depth with everything he does. It’s all those little details that go into becoming great.”
There’s more draft news to pass along:
- Wembanyama is advocating for his French teammate, Bilal Coulibaly, to be selected in the lottery, relays NBA reporter Esfandiar Baraheni (Twitter link). “When I see the top 10 prospects announced at the draft, and for example the twins, Amen and Ausar Thompson, whose profile is similar to Bilal’s,” Wembanyama said, “I tell myself, very factually, that if these players are announced in the first five picks while playing in a league, Overtime Elite, whose level is light years away from what we experience here, then Bilal must be at least a top five.”
- Pepperdine’s Maxwell Lewis, who worked out for the Trail Blazers on Thursday, views himself as a definite first-round pick, per Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. “In my opinion, after just being in this environment, I feel like I’m a top-20 guy,” Lewis said. “We’ll see. Sky’s the limit.”
- Alabama’s Noah Clowney is the 20th player to receive a Green Room invitation for draft night, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link).
- Washington State guard Justin Powell has upcoming workouts scheduled with the Rockets and Nets, tweets Adam Zagoria of NJ.com.
- The Hornets are hosting six players on Sunday for a pre-draft workout (Twitter link). They are Kam’Ron Blue of Coppin State, GG Jackson of South Carolina, Terry Roberts of Georgia, Vincent Valerio-Bodon of Sopron KC, Jalen Wilson of Kansas and Isaiah Wong of Miami.
Im just starting my draft prep I samely late b/c of how the playoffs went, but the extremely small amount I’ve seen of Coulibaly was really impressive as a potential 2 way wing
Wemby is right about Bilal Coulibaly. He is very similar to the Thompson twins. I don’t think he is as ready as they are though. He is more an upside talent imo. It’s a big step up physically to NBA. Twins are more ready for that. Even Wembanyama is not physically ready yet. He needs more strength and girth. I still think Bilal should go in the lottery.
GG Jackson and Wong are late picks that could pay dividends. Wong showed toughness and grit in tournament.
Wemby’s point about the difference in competition is valid though. Thompson twins were playing against 16 year olds who aren’t even the best in that age group, and they are 20, they should be dominating. Where bilal was the youngest in a league of grown men. That’s my biggest reservation with the twins, besides the poor shooting mechanics, they should’ve been averaging 30+ going up against kids/scrubs.
G-league doesn’t have 16yr olds. You have to be 18. And there are men trying to make the NBA there. You got it backwards lol. Only Euro who has ever come into NBA young. And even started for a team. Is Luka. And that’s cause he was physically ready.
Have you forgotten how Scoots team dominated Wembys team …..
It’s a professional basketball circuit for 16-20 year olds. Look it up. And within that, while they had some good players, a lot of those guys wouldn’t make it at the D1 level, let alone are close to NBA talent.
And scoot plays in a different league.
Euro leagues suck . Do you even know what basketball is. Any 38 yr old nba player will dominate in Europe. You need to look it up. You do t even know what the G-league is lol. What are you 15 yrs old.
G-league is the farm system for the NBA. No Euro team is beating a G-league team. As Scoots team proved by owning Wembys team.
link to espn.com
Please tell me how many NBA players the Euro leagues have sent to NBA.
In recent the years, the G League has had a significant impact on NBA rosters: There were 164 call-ups over course of the 2021-22 season for 117 different players. 54% of players on current NBA rosters have G League experience. 131 NBA players have been assigned to the G League at some point in their career.
Does the euro leagues have this kind of competition. Like NEVER lol. Get informed
Haha! Are you lashing out because you’re wrong? The Thompson twins didn’t play g league ball, that is what you said. I corrected you. It’s all good that you didn’t know that, now you do. That’s why I said Wemby makes a valid point, it is a lot harder playing against grown adults with years of professional basketball experience than it is against 16 year old high school kids. Now Scoot played in the G league against much better competition than the Thompson twins, who again mostly played against children. This can all be googled if you are still confused, which I have a feeling that you definitely still are based on your last two posts.
Al can’t admit he got it wrong. No surprise.
Haha! Right? He even tried to change what we were talking about to try to still be right. It’s all good to be wrong in a conversation, that’s what discourse is all about, sharing information and learning something. He got salty and in his feelings, trying to throw insults at me instead of just saying he got the leagues confused
Go lookup Luka’s last season in Euroleague and Spanish league.. arguably better than Wemby.
Most European prospects spent some time in a euroleague
Here is a quote for fun
ESPN’s Kevin Pelton calculates that the gap between the French league and the EuroLeague is about as large as the gap between the EuroLeague and the NBA. Doncic’s MVP performance as a teenager in both the EuroLeague and the Spanish league is more impressive than Wembanyama’s best-in-the-league showing in France.
Can you direct me to this? I can’t find where it says this either. What I see is that Dink Pate is the youngest player at age of entry (17) and that players have to graduate high school before joining. Hypothetically, someone could graduate high school at 16 and join, I suppose, but it’s rare for that to happen.
Here is an article on Scoot
link to nytimes.com
He reclassified graduated early and joined g league a year early.
There are several articles on it but the FAQ on the g league site is a bit confusing, IMO. I assume a player could join the ignite team anytime after they graduate.
It does appear that a player has to be 18 to be eligible for the g league draft, but I could be mistaken.
That is correct for the G league. I think you’re confused about the same thing Al was confused about, the Thompson twins do NOT play in the g league. They played in a different professional league made up of mostly high school kids, where they were the oldest that they’d league allowed (16-20 year olds).
The G league, where scoot plays, has a minimum age requirement of a high school grad but there are many players who have bounced back and forth from the g league to nba and is a much much much more competitive league. I don’t believe there is a maximum age stipulation.
No I am not confused. The question from the previous poster was about Fink being 17 years old. That is a g league question not an overtime elite question. This thread is a bit confusing and I realize how my response could easily have been misinterpreted. Was trying to respond to the age rules for g league.
Thomson twins are playing against multiple guys that will never play D1 ball, in OTE, which is not very good basketball. Everyone SHOULD be concerned about the level of competition they have played against
(Googled overtime elite for you)“Overtime Elite is a professional basketball league for 16–20-year-olds, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The league is owned and operated by Overtime and was founded by Dan Porter and Zack Wein”.
“OTE enrolls both high school and “post-grad” players up to 20 years old.”
Clowney is also a nice talent at the 4. A guy like him would be a great complement to a Vucevic. Or in Portland next to Nurkic.
Bulls would have to trade for a pick though.
If I’m Blazers. And I could draft Scoot and Clowney. That would be a terrific draft. Both can start from day one. With Grant at the 3. This would be a solid team.
I like Clowney but haven’t heard one word about him in the Blazers camp. Pretty sure they will draft bigs with their late first round and second round picks. I hope they trade Lillard if he can’t handle playing with youth. He wasn’t much help giving Sharpe confidence or opportunity, he should have started from day one. The biggest knocks on Lillard are: he doesn’t make his teammates better (to selfish-Lame-time), he is a horrible defender and not a very good passer under pressure. Plus he takes horrible long bombs while his teammates stand around and the offense stagnates. He couldn’t play with Aldridge because he dominated the ball and had a hard time getting it to Aldridge. Those are horrible qualities for a PG!
I do not agree. Clowney is an interesting prospect but he would not start day 1 at the 4, unless they are in for a long year again. He is very raw and has good mechanics, but his shot and bball iQ is not very good right now. Last year he disappeared for games on end for Bama. Interesting prospect that has some good things that could pay off in the long run. I like him in the 20s but wouldn’t expect him to start anytime soon
I meant Sharpe should have started from day one.
Sorry , but the LNB is not a very good league. I am curious to see how fast wemby adjusts to the NBA because guys like niktikina & hayes have struggled.
Agreed. I think people need to pump the breaks on Wemby a bit. Give him some time and space