The league is generally optimistic about the future prospects of Venbanyama: more exaggerated than James?

Originally compiled from: The Athletic

Written by David Aldridge

原标题：NBA Draft Confidential: Coaches, executives, scouts on Victor Wembanyama and the top big men

Countdown to the draft to see what Wen Banyama looks like in the eyes of scouts, coaches, and league executives:

If you think about it, the players who can be compared to Venbanyama are not Ralph Sampson, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Durant or LeBron James.

It's Shohei Otani.

When Shohei Otani made his major league debut in 2018, he was already a superstar pitcher and batsman in Japan's NPB league. But when he came to the U.S. to face the world's top pitchers and batsmen, he had to choose between two skills. Here, you can't pitch every five days, you need to hit every day, here is the traditional sports wisdom. That's the game.

However, in his rookie season, Shohei Otani became the first player since Babe Roose in 1919 to throw at least 50 innings and hit 15 home runs in the same season, changing the perception of what's possible on baseball's biggest stage. He broke through limits, he broke boundaries. Despite being largely unable to continue pitching in May 2018 and requiring elbow reconstruction surgery at the end of the season, Shohei Otani earned the title of league's rookie king. Over the past five years, Shohei Otani has been the one who continues to rewrite the game, excelling both on the pitcher's board and in the batting area. He was named an All-Star for two consecutive years. He received the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 2021; Last year, he finished fourth in the American League's Pitcher of the Year poll.

He was, and now, completely unique.

It's this feeling that the presence of Venbanyama has made this season a phenomenal draft day, and the Metropolitans 92 genius has created incredible moments. Like, we've never seen a 7-foot-4 person do something like this on the basketball court.

You can't dribble two steps from midcourt and then dunk!

He can.

You can't defend in a fast attack, challenge the ball carrier and stop their open catch.

He did it.

For Venbanyama, we may need to recalibrate our assessment, just as we re-evaluate the game after seeing Stephen Curry shoot from outside the three-point line and hit five feet time and time again. For the first 60-plus years of the NBA's history, this type of shooting wasn't feasible until Curry changed the geometry of the court. Venbanyama may change the race in a similar way – vertically rather than horizontally. If he succeeds, the face of the game will change radically when he retires.

In Thursday's draft, Venbanyama will almost certainly be selected by the Spurs with the first overall pick, which will be the first true big man draft pick since Ayton in 2018. As the game has become smaller, the role of the big man has been weakened. However, there are still some big players in college and professional leagues who have the opportunity to make an immediate and long-term impact. Their prospects will be presented in the third and final part of this year's NBA Draft Confidential Report.

Over the past few weeks, I've reached out to dozens of NBA executives, scouts and personnel directors, as well as college and league head coaches, via text and phone to get their input on this year's top rookies. Each of the coaches cited had provided factual information to the players in question. How do you defend this player? How do they break through your defenses? How do these rookies make adjustments in the game? Will they share the ball, or will they have exclusive possession? Wait a minute. In exchange, they gave their honest opinion but asked for anonymity. You can read what they say about top strikers here, or read what they say about top defenders here.

Victor Venbanyama

There's not much more to say about the 19-year-old genius. But we'll say something anyway.

"He's a breathtakingly promising player," a senior executive said this week. "Even if he doesn't live up to all the hype, he'll still be a top-10 player in the league." He's not going to be a loser, he's not going to be an All-Star forever, and so on. When I saw him in Las Vegas, I couldn't say if it would all happen, but he had a chance to be the best player in the league in the future. Do you know how many people in each draft you can say that? Not every edition has such potential (top) players. From a distance, he seems to value realizing his potential. ”

For this reason, Ventanyama played for Metropolitans all season, did not finish early to prepare for the draft, he led the team until the LNB League Finals, and was finally swept 3-0 by Monaco in last week's game, Ventanyama contributed 22 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks in the final game. The season began with Venbanama's two warm-up games against Scoot Henderson and G League Ignite last October, and he has been heading toward the NBA, a trajectory no one has seen since LeBron James was at St. Mary's High School in St. Vincent in Akron in 2002.

"The only thing that could stop this kid was the injury," said a veteran international scout. "I hate talking about it because when you talk about players who have never-seen sizes, you have to ask yourself, 'How is this kid going to develop?' ”

Venbanyama and his veteran agent, Bouna Ndia, have been making plans for himself over the past few years as it is clear that Venbanyama is different on and off the field. He grew up playing handball with his brother, which may explain some of his amazing hand-eye coordination. He worked closely with Nike to launch a custom sneaker. Years ago, he began incorporating Pilates and yoga into his days off. He left ASVEL, France's national basketball program, in just one year because he wanted to play for a program that would better continue his personal development and prepare for the NBA. Metropolitans, led by coach Vincent Colette, acceded to his request.

At every turning point, Venbanyama has made clear a clear goal: he wants to be a great player. He has signed a sneaker endorsement contract with Nike, which he brought from France. He does not hide from the media and expectations.

"He didn't run away from anything," said one general manager who admired him.

The San Antonio Spurs didn't have a chance to throw their prize into the abyss.

The Spurs are still months away from opening their brand-new $500 million training facility and campus, La Cantera's Stone. The 134,000-square-foot site will include a "Center for Human Performance Research" and space for medical and commercial use, and integrate existing residential areas into the sprawling space. The building apparently started construction before the Spurs learned they had won the lucky lottery, but their preparation and coincidence provided them with the perfect place to slowly develop the soon-to-be future superstar and prepare him for tough games in the NBA (yes, you can expect a lot of nationally televised games next season for the Spurs.) Yes, if there are back-to-back races in it, Venbanyama may take a few breaks).

San Antonio didn't know they would win a pick, but they did a lot of detailed investigation of Vembanyama throughout the season (and of course, all teams under Vic Mode did). They will not blindly build a relationship with him. But, as Spurs, they believe that in the first days and weeks of Venbanyama's arrival, building relationships with new teammates is more important than doing a lot of media or other activities that will separate him from the team.

Venbanyama has not suffered any injuries to his lower limbs so far. But over the past few years, he has suffered a number of injuries such as shoulder injuries and broken fingers while playing for ASVEL in the Europa League and the French domestic league, playing two games a week (sometimes just one) for 40 minutes each. Nothing serious, but he did suffer some bumps. At the Metropolitans, he is not injured and they usually only have one game a week.

Now, he will have a few weeks, playing three or four games a week, playing eight minutes longer. As he ages, he also gains weight, which gives him a greater shock to his knees and ankles. Moreover, how does Venbanyama take the ball from under the rebound and start a fast attack, or because he changes direction and dribbles, how does this affect his height and size? How much of a sprain does such an action make for someone of his height and size throughout his career? (Of course, Jokic often launches a quick attack on the Nuggets, but just because he can do it without seemingly physical cost doesn't guarantee that Vimbanama can or is willing to do it.) ）

But what if he doesn't encounter anything catastrophic until 2025 and 2026?

"He was all about basketball," the veteran scout said.