The tank for Victor Wembanyama is on. Wembanyama, an NBA Prospect, is widely considered the best NBA Draft prospect of all time. He is a 7-4 French center whose shooting ability has been compared to future hall-of-Famer, Kevin Durant, and his defense has been compared to the 3x defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert. With the rise of Victor Wembenyama has come a load of NBA teams that will do almost anything to get him. Unlike other American Sports, the worst team is not guaranteed the first overall pick in the Draft. The NBA has a draft lottery which changes the strategy when teams are tanking. The worst three teams all have 14% odds of winning the Draft Lottery, so while tanking could have massive rewards, it could also have negative consequences if luck is not on your side. Numerous teams are already tanking, and the amount of these teams will increase when the trade deadline comes around. Just as the Victor Wembanyama hype was taking over, NBA stars weighed in.
“This kid is going to be a problem. A big problem. I’ve never seen this before in my life.” – Giannis Antetokounmpo on Victor Wembanyama.
“Everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years,” said James on Wednesday, “but [Wembanyama] is more like an alien.” – Lebron James oppinion on Wembanyama
“He’s like a 2K create-a-player; every point guard who wants to be 7-foot.” – Steph Curry’s opinion on Victor Wembanyama
While the NBA Draft is always a time for young talent to come into the league and take over, this year has higher stakes. By midseason, I expect any teams that feel they will not win a championship to start tanking before it’s too late. This year, winning the Draft Lottery will change a team’s future in so many ways. While the team that drafts Wembanyama will likely start winning more, the value of that team will also change drastically. It has been said that drafting Wembanyama could increase a team’s value by as much as 500 million dollars. While every tanking team’s dream is to win the draft lottery and select the once-in-a-lifetime prospect, only one team will achieve that goal. However, there are still other generational prospects in this draft that teams are very intrigued about. We know who the consensus first-overall pick is, but we also know who the consensus second-overall pick is. Scoot Henderson, a guard in the G-League Ignite, has been lights out and is looking like one of the best draft prospects in a long time. He can do anything that NBA teams look for in guards. He scores, he passes and he brings an overall electric feel to the court. He brings a lot of energy and is one of the most talented players scouts have ever seen. Scoot Henderson had a chance to play against Victor Wembanyama, in the game of a lifetime. They both put on killer performances and it was exciting all the way to the end. These two players are headlining the highly anticipated draft that could go down as an all-time great NBA Draft.
Third Down With Devin 