The League Has Never Seen This Before

The League Has Never Seen This Before

Victor Womanyama admitted he was afraid for his career after that blood clot last season. Thought it could all be over, but now he’s 100% cleared for basketball and tackled that fear at the Shaolin Kung Fu Monastery in China. No joke, practice a thousand kicks a day, live with monks at a temple. Have we seen a 7-ft basketball freak do that before? Actually, we have. His name is Kareem Abdul Jabbar. not only trained with Bruce Lee in the 70s, but played the villain in one of his movies. Be original Wimi. But here’s the thing. This season, a healthy Wimi could pull off something Kareem never even dreamed of. Because what happens next, the league has never seen before. But here’s where it gets weird. The Spurs are about to give Wimi his most talented supporting cast yet. But they built it in the strangest way possible. First, they traded for Darren Fox, who’s that elite guard in his prime, San Antonio wanted. But meanwhile, they had another guard who’s about to win rookie of the year. Then drafted a third guard to their roster with a very similar skill set. Dearan Fox, Steph Castle, and Dylan Harper all do basically the same thing. Great offense, attack off the dribble, score in the lane, can’t shoot much. In fact, none of the three is more than a 33% three-point shooter. kind of a problem in 2025. So, why did they draft Dylan Harper to begin with? Well, people forget the Spurs got really lucky in the NBA draft. The Mavericks stole all the headlines getting Cooper flag, but the Spurs only had a 6.3% chance of landing number two. That luck got completely overshadowed by Dallas on draft night, as it should have. But Harper was the clear second best player in this draft, so they had no choice but to pick him. So, what do they do with Fox? trade him? Nope. The exact opposite. They extended him for the max. 4 years, 229 million bucks. Why? Because in that trade from Sacramento, they had a handshake agreement to pay Fox. Dude had a one team wish list of where to go and the Spurs weren’t about to break that promise. So, on the outside, it looks like this is a big issue for Wimy and the Spurs. But here’s the thing. Wimby is not your normal big man. We already talked about training kung fu in the offseason. He also utilized highintensity cardio with lightning chess mixed in so he could train decision-making under fatigue. Who is this guy? But the thing that really separates him is the skill set. For example, only Wimi and Manute Bowl have multiple seasons of 1500 plus minutes with a 10% block rate. Basically, nothing gets past this guy. He’s already going to go down as one of the best defensive players ever. things he does just get lost cuz he does them so often. Like, do you remember last year against the Hornets when he blocked the Quan Jeff without having to leave the ground? Really unfair for these NBA players to have to score on someone from another planet. And we don’t even remember these plays. If anyone else did this, it would be on their career highlight reel forever. But Wimi, it’s business as usual. But on offense, the gap between Wimi and other guys his age keeps getting bigger. Like Chris Paul threw this lob to Wimby last year that only he could catch. No one else could stretch out like that on a finish over a vita zubot. That was in November early in the season and people were just wishing Wimby would lean into that superpower on offense. But no, he just had to keep shooting threes. And early it was terrible. Dune was struggling on open catch and shoot, but by midseason he was knocking him down from Steph Curry range. In fact, against the Wizards, he hit eight three-pointers as the first player ever with multiple games of 20 plus points, 15 plus boards, five plus threes, and five plus blocks. Basically, the most unique player of all time, somebody who could make this guard creatorheavy lineup actually work. So, the blueprint historically around a big star big man like that was pair him with an elite playmaker and surround that with shooters. It’s what the Lakers did with Kobe and Shaq or the Rockets with Hakee, even the Spurs with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker. But Wimby is breaking all the rules. First off, he isn’t tied to the paint for scoring. If Wimby listened to the haters, he never would have developed that three. But now, who cares that Steph Castle or Dylan Harper aren’t elite from deep yet? They can kick out to Wimi who is spotting up. Then he plays at guard speed while anchoring the defense. So normally a guard heavy team has to sacrifice on D. Not with Wim Banyama. But his freak skills mean dude thrives in both a traditional or an unorthodox lineup like this. Past great had a best way to play. Wimby actually might be the first big who’s equally dangerous in multiple team setups. So when people talk about this three guard problem, they’re not even factoring in the team’s best player. But uh how do we even know that this is a legitimate problem for San Antonio? Harper hasn’t even played a single NBA minute. Do we know he’s even going to be great? That’s what we thought about Scoot Henderson. How’s that working out? Second, the other young guard is entering his second year in the NBA. So, we have no idea about the fit yet. They could be a perfect fit. So, if Wimby is breaking the big man blueprint like we have never seen, how good can the Spurs actually be this season? Well, honestly, they might be the biggest wild card in the West. They could make the second round of the playoffs. They could miss the postseason altogether. First off, Fox and Wimby could be one of the most dangerous onetwo punches in the league. Speed plus size, and they both can create. And with Fox, Castle, and Harper, the Spurs can push the pace the entire game with Wimby trailing to hit threes or leading to defend the rim. But if you add Castle’s perimeter defense, they could be a top 10 defensive team. So I think if the Warriors age out, Wolves and Lakers have chaos. Spurs could realistically be a top four seed behind OKC Denver and Houston. People predicting a leap, that is a leap. But the number one reason people even believe in that leap is Wimy’s not just getting better. He is getting better in ways we have never seen before. if his deep shooting keeps climbing and his health holds, he has a top five player this year, which changes everything. But what’s crazy is we haven’t even touched on the wild card of this entire thing, rookie Dylan Harper. He may be talented, second best to Cooper Flag coming in as a rookie, but now walking into some easy role in San Antonio. Dude is joining a team with two other ball dominant guards and a generational big man. But he’s not just some guy that you can stick in the corner and forget about. He’s 66 with strength and skill. Harper’s used to having the ball in his hands and bullying smaller defenders, creating his own shot. But if he figures out how to thrive without the ball, cutting, crashing, spotting up, the Spurs offense could be even more dangerous than we imagine. But if he struggles to adapt, it could clog things up. He’s the ultimate question. the kind of rookie who could look overwhelmed one week but then drop in 20 plus in a playoff game the next. And for a team with playoff dreams like the Spurs, how fast Harbor adjusts might be just as important as this Wimby Leap or Castle learning how to shoot. Well, no matter what happens, this is a oneofone roster built around a one-of-one player that we have never seen before. And if it works, we might never see it again. But other teams are going to be gunning to be the next dynasty in the NBA and knock off OKC. The Lakers got lucky landing Luca from the Mavericks, but dude has already taken over LA. And now the Lakers have big plans to build around him. But that is what really pissed off LeBron James here to begin with.

Victor Wembanyama is going into year 3 of his NBA career and it will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The Spurs have built and unconventional roster around their superstar and this is a look at how completely unusual it actually is.