Victor Wembanyama is expected to impact the NBA before he even enters the league. The 18-year-old prospect who is expected to the number one draft pick next summer will have teams tanking heavily in order to get a chance to draft him, says NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.
This will not only impact the bottom teams, but it will also have an effect on contenders as there will be more players available from the tanking teams. Also there is a substantial financial motivation for teams to tank.
According to an anonymous NBA team president, drafting Wembanyama might add as much as $500 million in value to a franshise.
“Victor Wembanyama is the singular greatest prospect in NBA Draft history,” Wojnarowski said. “He’s that at 18-years-old, he was also that at 17 and at 16. He’s not coming out of nowhere and the impact he’s going to have on the NBA this season is dramatic.
“As one GM told me the other day, we’re going to see a race to the bottom like we’ve never seen before in the NBA. Teams trying to put themselves in position to be able to draft Wembanyama or get the second pick and get Scoot Henderson who in any other year would be a number one overall pick.
“One team president said to me drafting Wembanyama might add as much as $500 million to the value of your franchise. At seven-foot-four, seven-five in shoes he is so advanced skill wise there’s just never been anyone like him.
“And again the level of tanking we may see in the NBA this year as many team who may try to get in position, think it’s going to impact the trade deadline, you may see more players available earlier in the season as teams just don’t want to be in a position to be winning.
“And so that has an impact for contenders because of the play-in tournament you saw in recent years teams who were fighting for 10th, 11th instead of dumping their assets to contenders, they tried to get in the play-in. They may go in the other direction this season.”
