The hottest NBA draft prospect since LeBron James is taller than Shaquille O’Neal and nonetheless rising.
French teenager Victor Wembanyama is seen as the very best younger participant in a era and is all however sure to be chosen with the No. 1 choose on this 12 months’s NBA Draft.
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The 19-year-old is enjoying for Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 in France’s Pro A League, and turned heads in an exhibition sport in October in opposition to anticipated No. 2 choose Scoot Henderson’s G League Ignite.
With his lanky physique, Wembanyama has been described as a taller model of Kevin Durant who can block photographs for enjoyable.
He formally stands 7’4” (224 cm) tall however in keeping with ESPN, Wembanyama is now 7’5” (226cm) with footwear on, with a wingspan of eight ft (243cm) – and the scariest half is he’s nonetheless rising.
That makes Wembanyama taller than Durant (208cm) and Lakers legend O’Neal (216m), who dominated the NBA within the early 2000s.
And if Wembanyama was to affix the NBA at the moment, he would instantly turn out to be the league’s tallest participant, forward of the likes of Houston’s Boban Marjanovic (224cm), Washington’s Kristaps Porzingis (221cm) and Boston’s Luke Kornet (218cm).
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst believes Wembanyama’s top and athleticism will make him an unstoppable pressure as soon as he joins the NBA in his rookie season.
“This is a different prospect to what we’ve ever seen before, especially coming out of Europe,” he mentioned on the Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective podcast.
“His shooting form is textbook.
“This guy is so serious about being great. I don’t know if if will be. There’s no such thing as a ‘can’t miss’ prospect, but he is doing everything in his power to be great from day one.
“I think from day one in the NBA, he will be a dominating defensive force. He will alter shots like nobody we’ve ever seen before. From day one, teams will have to game plan for dealing with him defensively.
“Wenbamyama isn’t even like LeBron 2.0. It’s like LeBron 3.0. It’s a completely different situation.
“You’re going to be alarmed at how thin he is. He’s listed at 230 pounds (104kg), he is 7-foot-4-ish, 7 foot 5. He looks very slight. He doesn’t look he has much bulk. He looks like he could get knocked over by a stiff breeze.”
LeBron James has described Wembanya as a “generational talent” and an “alien”.
“Everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years, but he’s more like an alien,” LeBron mentioned.
“No one has ever seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and as graceful as he is out on the floor. He’s a generational talent and hopefully he continues to stay healthy.”
Wembanya has additionally drawn excessive reward from Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“The way his skills are, the way he could shoot the ball, the way he can move, he’s extremely fast for his size, can block shots, can be a threat on the offensive end, he’s unbelievable,” the Greek Freak mentioned.
“We have never seen something like that before. I think it’s a good challenge for everybody around the league, to have somebody that’s 7’2” be capable to shoot, dribble like he’s a guard, to dam photographs, to run down the door quick. We obtained to prepare for this child. He’s going to be actually good.”
The Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets seem finest positioned to land Wembanyama in the event that they land the No. 1 choose within the draft lottery.
Those 4 groups all have lower than 20 wins with 1 / 4 of the NBA season remaining.
Source: www.news.com.au
