Is the blown up Venbanyama the next James or Oden?
On June 23, the 2023 NBA Draft will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Although the draft is always full of suspense, at least one thing is basically certain in this talent selection, and the Spurs, who have the top pick, will choose Victor Venbanyama.
In fact, this has nothing to do with who the champion sign is in hand, in other teams have this signing, it is also the selection of Banyama, he is the ironclad champion.
This happened 20 years ago, when LeBron James was in the draft, and the NBA scouting report wrote: "If you are the general manager of the team, even if the lineup is full of small forwards, you must choose LeBron, otherwise it is a crime and you will be fired." ”
Now, it's the turn of Venbanyama.
Veteran journalist Jonathan Kivoni said of Venbanyamar: "He's the best rookie since James in 2003, and I've been covering the draft for so many years and I've never seen a player like him. ”
Kivoni is the founder of the famous basketball website "Draft Express", is an ESPN draft analyst, an absolute draft expert, his evaluation of rookies is mostly cautious, although he will also praise but not blow up, but this time for Venbanyama is an exception.
Because, this 19-year-old boy is so good.
Net height of two meters two four, wearing shoes height of two meters two six, arm span of two meters four, standing and touching height of three meters, can shoot three points, can dribble to launch blocking, can grab rebounds to plan fast attacks, has the ball control skills trained by wearing football goalkeeper gloves since childhood, the defensive area covers half court, can cover the basket, can also change defense, new Ligue 1 MVP and best defensive player.
The physical talent is explosive, the technique is comprehensive, and it has been tested in the professional league, which really looks like Duncan from afar, and James up close.
But will he really have an NBA career like Duncan or Jen Sr.?
There is no need to list the honors of these two superstars, but the length of their careers is a very difficult test for Venbanyama. Fans who follow Venbanyama will find him in the warm-up session before each match, taking off his shoes and crawling on the floor with his fingertips and toes, a tailor-made program by his personal trainer to strengthen his core strength, especially his feet. Big players are generally prone to foot injuries, and Yao Ming ended his basketball career with a foot injury.
Venbanyama is visibly thin, and in this season's Ligue 1 matches, opponents often do not use a center to defend him, because he may be directly passed by Ventanyama, and the striker who is not slow and full of strength is the best choice for Venbanyama. You can imagine how sad Aaron Gordon was to the aforementioned Banyama when it came to the NBA.
Venbanyama's training team has already publicly stated that it will improve his strength, but not gain weight significantly, because if he gains weight too quickly, it will hurt his knees and feet, which will be counterproductive.
In other words, the situation that Wembanyama looks thinner will continue for a while, and the probability will not be like Embiid and Alphabet brother from bamboo pole body to muscular men, which is risky under the strong confrontation of the NBA, see last year's list, and Wenbanyama has some similarities in body shape and playing style of Homegren.
His team is also worried about the durability of Venbanyama. Venbanyama transferred from ASVEL (a team owned by former Spurs star Tony Parker) to Metropolis 92, mainly because ASVEL has Champions League qualification, the schedule is relatively intensive, the team has record pressure, and cannot focus the season on the preparation of Venbanyama for the NBA, while Metropolitan 92 cannot play in the Champions League, only one game a week, Ventanyama can not only exercise himself through actual combat, but also have enough time to recover and train. Venbanyama had eight weeks off for a back injury during his time at ASVEL, and he had no injury problems at Met92.
More importantly, Metropolis 92 was able to focus on serving Ventan Yama, because his addition changed the team's economic situation, Metropolis 92 was almost relegated last year due to a broken capital chain, and having Metropolitan 92 allowed them to survive the economic crisis.
Metropolis 92 coach Colette, the head coach of the French men's basketball team, initially faxed his resignation to the team, but after learning that Venbanyama had joined, he chose to stay and cultivate a rapport with the French supernova.
Venbanyama likes to pull jumpers, which Colette disagrees, arguing that tall players have a limit to their dependence on jumpers. Collette is Batum's mentor, and he admits that if Batum had played like this, he would have been kicked out of the game, but he has increased his tolerance for Venbanyama and gradually changed his style of play.
"Players who are very talented usually have this problem, depending on their height and shooting," Collette said, "and the opponent deliberately forced him to fight hand-to-hand, so sometimes he wouldn't catch the ball." When that happens, I ask him not to go out and get the ball, he tries to find a way to hit the basket. He knows that in the NBA he will face the strongest and fastest basketball player in the world. ”
As Collette says, challenges are coming. When Ventanyama arrives in the NBA, even if Popovich will take a rotation to reduce his burden, the intensity of one ball a week is absolutely impossible, the NBA schedule is three games a week, five games a week, the load of Ventanyama suddenly skyrocketed, whether it can withstand is a question.
When Duncan entered the NBA, he was already in a mature version, which was the basis for entering the season in his rookie year. Old Jen graduated from high school and went straight to the NBA, no college experience, but he was talented, and he burst NBA players who participated in training games after receiving secret tryouts from the Cavaliers a year before the draft, and because of being reported by other teams, the Cavaliers were fined $150,000 by the NBA for illegal trials, and they paid the fine without complaint.
"We appreciated LeBron's talent up close, felt his potential, and could see what it would be like if he could intersect with us," said Ted Carper, vice president of media for the Cavaliers. ”
Venbanyama is now far from being able to compare with Duncan and James in his rookie days, muscle building is a gradual process, his team is not allowed to speed up this process, which they consider non-negotiable, Popovich will not do this, Ventanyama may have an adaptation period at the beginning of his NBA career, need to pay some "tuition" on game density and muscle strength.
NBA top picks, the upper limit is terribly high, and the lower limit can be frighteningly low, the former has Duncan and James Sr., the latter has Bennett and Auden. Of course, there is a difference between Auden and Bennett, Bennett is purely inadequate, Auden is at least a top interior defender in a healthy state, and the offensive potential is great, but his NBA career is too little healthy from start to finish.
Famous sports journalist Bill Simmons supported Durant as a champion before the 2007 draft, although Auden was called "Bill Russell and Shaq O'Neal combined version" at the time, but Simmons was not optimistic about Auden, his reason was that Auden did not walk as smoothly as elite big men like Durant, but looked like a retired veteran who had suffered injuries, and Simmons also learned that Auden's right leg was an inch longer than his left leg, which would cause potential problems such as knee injuries.
The facts confirmed Simmons' judgment that Auden's career was ruined by injury.
This is the third time the Spurs have won the championship pick, the previous two times they got David Robinson and Duncan, Robinson led the Spurs to achieve the accumulation of quantitative changes among the championship teams, Duncan's arrival completed the qualitative change of the Spurs from a strong team to a championship team, these two top picks have made the glory of the Spurs history.
What kind of future this third sign will bring, it is still unknown, excellent talent is important, the process of talent realization is more important. However, after waiting for so long, there is finally a newcomer with expectations comparable to James, and when Old James debuted 20 years ago, there were also many doubts, he straightened those question marks one by one, the so-called superstar must bear the doubts, fight through difficulties, transform talent into combat power through thorns, and then live up to expectations.
Hopefully, Venbanyama can become such a player.