Zach Lowe and Jonathan Givony discuss the immediate future of the San Antonio Spurs after winning the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery and make predictions for what we may see from presumptive No. 1 NBA draft pick Victor Wembanyama for in the 2023-23 NBA season.
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38 Comments
I think they making the playoffs next season. They can afford to make some trades now.
The Spurs should take it slow for his rookie year and see how the other young guys develop. They have 3 1st round picks next year
I hope he just stays healthy the stats don't matter if the team is built well around him the wins will come
Victor is a very young man and it takes years to develop to max potential. Get the pressure off his back and stop the hyperbole. Why torture the young guy?
There puting a target on his back, nba players cant be happy hearing them say hes already the greatest player ever
Already being load manage smh
At least 3 years away. This kid needs to bulk up big time…
…spurs have to play to win…to see what they have or what they need…are keldon and vassell going to step up even more next season is Sochan going to prove more is tre Jones our starting PG…we don't know this unless we play to win…is the bench good enough for we need a vet all star player or are they good with what they have…they need to know all this and they can't if they go slow…they nerf to try to make the playoffs to see how good the team is…
The Spurs roster is horrible too, so I'm confused why Givony said they have a good core. At least the other bad teams have guys with high upside, the Spurs have nothing.
Why do you guys do this? Leave the sandwich alone, can't have the ham without the cheese.
Mustard ManWhat is the right pieces I ask? I mean outside getting more superstars?
A traditional center? A scoring PG? A Pass first PG? An elite wing?
imagine Joshua Primo return sometime
☑☑☑☑ Americans are so un-informed about Luka and about the European basketball as a whole. As they are making comparisons between Luka and Wemby, it would be fair to compare them in the same difficult league, not some trash French league compared to the elite Spanish league and especially compared to the Euroleague tournament (Wemby has by the way chosen to NOT play for one of the only two teams from his French league, that are every year playing in the far superior and better Euroleague competition (Luka Dončić meanwhile played for Real Madrid, which is the best team in Europe and which is playing in the Euroleague tournament every single year without exception)).
Luka at Wemby's age destroyed much tougher Spanish league opponents and also much tougher Euroleague opponents, winning in both of these leagues by being the best player in the Euroleague and in the Europe as a whole, and by winning an Euroleague MVP as the youngest player ever (and also by winning the Euroleague Finals MVP). Luka has also been selected into the All-decade Spanish starting five and into the All-decade Euroleague starting five by the time he was 18 years old, LOL.
Wemby is nowhere near Luka's level when Luka was 18 years old playing in Spain. It is just that Luka Dončić is white, so he was severely overlooked by the NBA. But actual analysts like Bill Simmons and Ringer said they would trade their every first round pick for Luka Doncic (when he was drafted in 2018).
Wemby is basically a big fish in a really small pond (French league), because he is dominating the lesser competition in a weak and not very competitive French league (the French league is not even the fifth best league in Europe).
Meanwhile Luka was playing in the elite Spanish league, which is considered the best league in Europe. Luka was also playing in the Euroleague tournament, which hosts only the best European teams, meanwhile Wemby is not even playing in the Euroleague tournament (Wemby is playing for a French team, that is not even good enough to be playing in the overall best league in Europe, which is the Euroleague tournament).
It is like if I went to the playground and played against 5th graders, I would be dominating in basketball as well. Meanwhile, Luka at the age of 18 was literally THE BEST FISH in the 2nd biggest pond (Euroleague) in the whole World, the NBA league obviously being the BIGGEST pond in the World.
Luka was not only playing against the best players in the World that are not in the NBA, but he was dominating them and now since his first year in the NBA he has moved on to dominate in the #1 biggest pond AKA the NBA.
😎😎😎😎So, all that being said, Luka Doncic would have had much much better statistical numbers, when he was playing in Europe, IF he was NOT playing in the elite Euroleague tournament, and also, IF he was playing only in the weak French league. Instead, Luka Dončić was playing in the far more superior and in the far more competitive Spanish league (in which Luka was playing untill he was 19 years old – and since he was 13 years old).
Not to mention the fact that Wemby's french team has a couple of bad losses in that weak French league (and Wemby's team is not even in the first place in the French standings in the very weak and BAD French league).
Luka on the other hand was the BEST player on the BEST team in the Spanish league, in the BEST league in Europe, in the BEST tournament in the ENTIRE Europe.
Luka, at the age of 18, also went undefeated with his home country Slovenia at the European Championship in 2017 and has therefore won the Eurobasket trophy for his country Slovenia in 2017, just one year before his Nba draft in 2018 (and by the way, Slovenia is a small country with only 2 million people, so there are not many opportunities to put together a great competitive team).
Luka Dončić was so underhyped, it's not even funny. He was Eurobasket Champion and also selected to the "All-Tournament Team" (same concept as the All-NBA teams except for Eurobasket), Euroleague MVP, Euroleague Finals MVP, Euroleague Champion, 3x Spanish League Champion, Spanish League MVP, etc. …. Luka is easily the best prospect since LeBron, but Americans just didn't understand how incredibly insane those accolades are for a 19-year-old basketball player.
So, comparing Wemby (at least up untill now) to Luka Doncic and to Luka's playing time in Europe, is very unfair to Luka Doncic (especially considering all of Luka's many individual and team accomplishments and awards in Europe).
Pop coaching until 80 now
There hasn’t been one franchise changing number one pick since lebron. 😅
The spurs are a LOAD MANAGEMENT team, be VERY careful buying tickets. He will probably play 50 games this year and WILL NOT QUALIFY for rookie of the year.
The Spurs are going to take on salary/draft picks to fill their cap space this year. They will trade their veterans for more picks (as they did last year) and slowly see how their 6/7 young guys work together. Then next year they will go and add more people when the free agent class is better than FVV/Aging stars. Players might also be like "I want to play with Wemby lets talk to the Spurs" where before they wouldn't
Your telling me he had to learn how to be competitive and do the little things to help his team win and that he whines if he’s asked to do something he doesn’t wanna do that’s a red flag and a half if you’re asking me that should not be something you have to learn that should be your first instinct at this point
Why wouldn’t they play him? This is a number 1 pick generational talent. Acting like this is James Wiseman or something where he needs time to develop and learns from the bench smh
Not a chance. They need a better team.
Its always the unathletic media group of people ready to tear down a kid who has never stepped foot on the NBA court
Like Zach Lowe 🤣
I’m not a fan of sitting any nba player under 32 we have to stop this sitting players just because. He’s a 19 year old rookie he should be playing for every game.
Mannnnnnn they need to relax like fr.
My gut says 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2.5 blocks a game. Probably a +10-15 game improvement if he plays at least 65 games.
He is not going to make it in the playoffs with that Spurs roster
why cant all teams be as efficient as the spurs in drafting talent, its so easy lol 😂😂😂
Playoffs? Naaah but it would be amazing if they make it. Allstar is more realistic especially if he avg 20-11-2bpg and im pretty sure the whole france will vote for him
WE BACK BABYYYYY
hello no, they literally have nothing. They gavee the on;y good piece they hhad in Fox
I don't doubt his potential, but lets keep in mind he played in a medicre team and league. I would be shocked if he was better than Luka on his rookie season. That said I can't wait for Luka vs Wemby matchup
You may wanna spell his name correctly
This hype is unfair..
i’m gonna say a 8-9 seed play-in.
Nba will lock him down
LOL what? PLAY A SINGLE GAME FIRST! In fairness Zach Lowe IS NOT an analyst. He's a journalist. Bullsh– like this is how he keeps a job. Goes for all these talking heads on TV. The journalists not the analysts
bruhh.. as good as Wemby, he lost against Team USA vs Team France match.. it is not that easy although he is such a mythical type of prospect.. not easy mah. as good as he is… he is extremly skinny which will be his weakness that can be exploited by many big bodies in the NBA. imagine he got struck by full speed Zion man. he done bro
Injury coming soon with those feet
As a spurs fan this is not happening, the team needs at least 2 years to develop