Why Victor Wembanyama is #7 on my NBA player rankings list | San Antonio Spurs
Jason breaks down why he has San Antonio Spurs budding star Victor Wembanyama at No. 7 on his NBA player rankings list heading into the 2025 season. He discusses the partnership with De’Aaron Fox, the places Wemby can take another leap, and what his outlook is. Then he discusses Patrick Beverley’s comments about Paul George, Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, and the Golden State Warriors.
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#nba #nbaplayoffs #nbafinals #nbahighlights #nbabasketball #basketball #sports #rank #ranked #ranking #reaction #spurs #sanantoniospurs #victorwembanyama #wemby #deaaronfox #patrickbeverley #paulgeorge #klaythompson #stephcurry #stephencurry #warriors #goldenstatewarriors
44 Comments
first
#7 is completely insane! Your lists are difficult to get with every yr
Sorry man he did not show it yet…injuries and issues with getting some consistent form…he is still in potential phase..his defence is only good because of his physical attributes not skill and his offensive game issss so much dependent on others . He is not a 1 on 1 player and nevwr will be ..to slow
My predictions on your rankings: Jokic, SGA, Giannis, Luka, Ant, Steph
How I'd rank them: Jokic, Giannis, SGA, Luka, Steph, Ant
Can he finish a season before getting ranked into the top 10?
It's better to say that Paul George taking the place of Draymond would have won more . He's literally one of the best shooters and defenders ever
After Jamal and LBJ I thought the ridiculousness were finished but no, why? double down! Now I wait the cherry on top like SGA over Giannis and Steph top 5.
Someone call a doctor you loose your mind
Bold strategy cotton
Im sorry but Wemby hasn't proven anything how is he above Lebron
Wemby in his 2nd season in the NBA avg 24ppg 11 rebs 3.7 ast 3.8 blks 1.1 stls on 48/35/84 splits
He's def a top 10 player and I think he'll be a top 5 player by the end of the 2025-2026 season.
MAILBAG: (Assuming you have Steph at 6 and Ant at 5) how could you have Ant ahead of Steph? The only thing Ant has on Steph is age/health. Even then, Steph was scheduled to return for Game 6 of that series his team was just so bad they couldn’t win without him. Steph outclassed Ant 3/4 times in the regular season and in the Game 1 in the 13 mins he played. I get that part of your list is about over the course of 82 games and not just playoffs, but Ant has proved he’s not ready yet for those big moments. He also hasn’t proven to be a great leader yet, whereas Steph is arguably the best leader in the NBA. Steph’s improved his defense and although Ant may be better, I’ve seen Ant fall asleep on defense enough to say that he can’t be that much better on D than Steph. And obviously as an offensive engine Steph outclasses Ant at this point in time. Would love to hear why you think Ant is ahead of Steph. Thank you for putting out valuable content in the dog days of August with no football/basketball to watch. Keep up the great work and analysis
Steph top 6 i love it. I've seen all these right minded analytics put steph top 7 and that's totally the correct spot. Only the keyboard warriors want lbj and steph outta top 10 lol. Love your show
Bro got it right.
He’s 21 yrs old. He’s gonna erupt this year.
Ant gonna be #5 🐺‼️
Wemby is not top 10. He can't even consistently set up his own offense and he's not particularly good at setting up his teammates. He's also not all that efficient from anywhere from the floor. Takes half his shot from three despite shooting below average. Only averages like 23 points as well so he's not even scoring all that much.
He couldn't even lead his team to compete for a play-in spot against the Suns who couldn't play any defense, had 4 legit players, and was paying $50 mil to Beal. Or against the Mavs who didn't have Luka for over a month before trading for AD and then lost half their team including Kyrie while AD only played for like 10 games.
All of your arguments for him being top 10 are all hypotheticals. Over guys that have actually done what makes them top 10. Like Wemby should be at Shaq levels of efficiency from the post. His jump shot should come around since he's young and 7'4". He should get better from three since he chucks up nearly 10 a game and he's 7'4". He should be better at passing because he's not an idiot. He should be better at dribbling because of practice. He definitely will not get any major injuries. He will actually try to post up with 6'8" guys on him. If that's the case, so many players could be top 10 if we're just assuming that basically every skill they bring gets better. And his insane STOCKS hasn't actually led to a good team defense. How is he supposed to change that? Triple his STOCKS?
Webmy will probably be in the mvp race next season
Mailbag: How do we contextualise Wemby's lack of playoff experience when its a huge part of the road to a title?
As per your criteria, you want a player from October to June, but we have little idea how Wemby would look like in that kind of environment and if his offense is robust enough to handle the intensity and defense of the playoffs. While I think he's easily a top 10 regular season player, I have a hard time putting him ahead of players that are slightly worse regular season players like Brunson or Mitchell but have already shown themselves as elite playoff performers.
Great episode as per usual, thanks for the breakdown.
How can Steph be just bad for the top level for most of the year, and be the 6th best player? He was just bad for him most year
I can’t put him lower than Steph or ant tbh
You folks wont be satisfied with this list regardless of the order 😂 get a grip yall
How tf is a guy who’s never played in the playoffs and missed a ton of time last year number 7? The Wemby glazing is disgusting.
Oh boy I’m sure this won’t be a polarizing take
😭 wemby at 7 is crazy but it is a projection so I can see it
Pat Bev can be a dumbass sometimes. Paul George couldn't shoot like Klay.
Yeeeeeeeeees WEMBY WEMBY WEMBY 🎉
He’s slowly losing it 😂
I love you Jason but your obsession with Ant is getting to me, he is way too flawed of a player to be so high
Love Wemby but big guys like him who are skinny and extremely tall do not stay healthy for too long. It's my biggest concern for him. It been proven over and over in NBA. Seasons are long and post season is brutal. Hope the best for him…
To suggest that Wemby is better and has a higher impact on winning games than LeBron, KD, JB, and AD seems like a bit of a stretch. I get that his projection and his potential has him being one the best players in the NBA within the next 2 years but let him make the playoffs first. Let’s see how he handles playoff defenses and intensity. Would he break or can he lead the Spurs deeper in the playoffs. I would’ve had him at 11 ahead of Donovan Mitchell and Behind KD, followed by AD, then JB.
Chet Clears 🥱
Jason, hoy do you rank someone 7 after he missed half the season in his sophomore year? Yes, potential is there but all argumentation so far was regarding past, not potential. And so far, there hasn’t been much to judge and an injury/sickness. Especially if STeph is still ranked higher, then I don’t get your LeBron ranking.
I’ll eat my hat if Edwards is still considered the better player by the end of the season. Wemby is already on his tail as a scorer, and leagues beyond him as a defender, rebounder, and passer
Wembys defensive impact is still underrated. He’s levels ahead of everyone else in the league. Steph curry literally gives up shots at the rim if Wemby is around and it’s freaking Steph curry
Jasons giving wemby a lotta runway he'll never give kuminga
Half the comments: Angry Wemby is this high
Half the comments: Angry Wemby isn't higher
I'd say you nailed it Jason
Mailbag: I saw a discussion on twitter about a hypothetical 1v1 and I’m curious on your take: Kawhi Leonard vs Kevin Durant. The assumption is of course that both are healthy and at their peak. We saw KD drop 50 on the raptors back in 2019 but Kawhi wasn’t consistently guarding him every possession due to his offensive role, so I’m curious how Kawhi’s strength and defensive instincts counter KD’s length and offensive craftsmanship. Kawhi is still underrated as a scorer, while KD is underrated as a defender, the question is how big is the gap between the two (Kawhi on offense vs KD on defense, and vice versa). As a biased Kawhi fan he’s got my vote but Would love to hear your input!
If Your stats doesn’t raise or impact winning at a high-level I don’t care .So far Wemby hasn’t shown that. Every great rookie has shown impact on winning from day 1 by their presence alone. The spurs actually got worse with him than the year prior and they were trash. To me it’s a huge red flag. Go back in history. Look at a teams record the year prior to a superstar’s arrival and the year with. The increase on winning is astronomical.
Steph this high is insane he played like dog shit half the season
Sorry, but even his defense is overrated you’ll get dropped 70 on you if you’re a great defender is he a great shot blocker and rim protector yes but his defense is praised way too much
Not confident in the Fox/Wemby combination. I truly would've preferred Trae Young. If Wemby can bring a team with the 30th best defense to a top 10 defense then I wouldn't have worried about Trae with the right wing pieces and he'd have maximized the offense as well
Wemby is clearly a top 15 player but not Top 5. I think this is a good spot but people could argue why he should be closer to 5 or 15. Personally he does need to stay healthy for most of the season coming up, yes his blood clot was a freak event but we dont know if he would’ve stayed healthy if he played the rest of the season
I'm not going to watch this episode because I don't care for wemby and hate all the glazing (obviously, he's talented/great prospect)
Do not care. Bro has not been to the playoffs yet. You can’t put him this high when we don’t know how he performs in the biggest moments. For all we know he could be Embiid in the playoffs
JASON MAILBAG; this will be kind of long but please read. i am fully aware that we are PAST this stuff. but to this day i genuinely believe the lakers best path to maximizing the lebron-ad timeline was giving up reaves. (i still think they should give up reaves, but for the right player obviously). if im not mistaken there was a time where the bulls were willing to give caruso and lavine if reaves was included . you can verify this if it’s not true. but even if it is would you do it ?
*full trade woud be rui gabe vando hayes jhs dlo and any necessary filler for caruso and lavine*
i think this is a trade that 100% should’ve been done even if we had to give up 2nds and swaps. as a follow up, which team would you prefer?
1. lavine caruso dfs bron ad
2. luka reaves bron rui ayton
number 1. clears imo. lavine is literally the best catch and shoot player in the nba with elite downhill gravity and will create easy shots for both ad and bron. pairing him with arguably the best role player in the nba would make it unfair next to ad and bron. what do you think.