The NBA is such a fun league to follow because it’s so unpredictable. On the player side, no one expected the Mavericks to trade away Luka Doncic. And on the team side, who thought the upstart Pacers would be the ones battling the 1-seeded Thunder in the finals? OKC is set up for sustained success. They might worry about Indiana right now, but the unexpected true challenger to their potential dynasty may be the Spurs.
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Victor Wembanyama is coming for the rest of the league, and San Antonio has begun to build a worthy team around him. Chris Paul was brought in last summer to provide veteran leadership and a steady hand at point guard. Stephon Castle won Rookie of the Year. De’Aaron Fox forced a trade to join forces with Wemby, and now there’s speculation that the Spurs could grab Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Wemby is the tallest player in the league, but he has the ball-handling and shooting skill of a guard. A dominant, shot-blocking force, he was well on his way to winning Defensive Player of the Year before his season was cut short by a blood clot in his shoulder.
As a fellow member of Team France’s 2024 Olympic team, Nicolas Batum is very familiar with Wemby, but his relationship with the 21-year-old actually goes much further back. Batum met the young phenom when Wemby was only 14, and he later signed him to the EuroLeague team that he co-owned with fellow countryman Tony Parker.
Batum sat down with Tommy Alter on the latest episode of The Young Man and the Three and gave insight into how Wemby is the total package — from the obviously physical standpoint and a mental one.
“People ask me, ‘Do you have any advice for Vic?'” Batum said before shaking his head and laughing. “No, he got it. He got everything figured out. He’s gonna be fine, trust me.”
Alter called Wemby “wise beyond his years.” Given the way The Alien’s managed his career thus far, it’s difficult to argue that point.
Batum then spoke about everything Wemby can do on a basketball court, and he said one thing’s missing: a signature move. “If you watch every great, they got that one or two go-to moves,” he said. “I don’t think he has one or two yet, but is it a good thing or a bad thing? I think he needs that one or two moves, but he got so many.”
Seeing what Wemby has been able to do at such a young age is already mind-blowing, but Batum wonders what he’ll be like once he reaches his prime.
“I really spent time with him this summer in the Olympics, playing with him and practicing with him. We’ve seen so much stuff in practice that’s not normal defensively, offensively. I’m like, “If you do that in the game, consistently, man.’ He’s gonna figure it out, he’s still young … When he’s gonna be 26 or 27, it’s gonna be crazy.”
Assuming Wemby comes back fully healthy from his blood clot scare, he and the Spurs are going to be terrorizing the league for a long time to come. OKC and Indiana should enjoy themselves while they can.
