The competitive NBA fixtures are about to begin and in the lead-up to the season, the General Managers across the league were asked interesting questions.
Being able to be anonymous to answer these questions gave them the freedom to be completely honest and some stark reactions came to light.
The NBA GM survey before the season is always one to watch out for as it signals the direction in which the wind is blowing and gives a good idea of the general feeling around the league.
For example, last season, Nikola Jokic was picked as the MVP, and Anthony Edwards was picked as the MIP, both very astute choices even if Edwards was pipped to it by Tyrese Maxey.
Similarly, a series of questions were asked this year and the answer to pick the player they would like to start a franchise with signals a changing of the guard in the league.
NBA GMs’ ideal player to start a franchise with
This is an extremely interesting question because it’s completely hypothetical so the GMs are under less pressure to be judged at the end of the season in comparison to how their prediction panned out.
Furthermore, the top choice in this category isn’t always necessarily the best player in the league or even the potential MVP.
It’s more a combination of current ability, potential at the player’s peak, and other factors surrounding him like injury history, attitude, work ethic, and more.
In brief, this is arguably the biggest compliment a player can receive, bigger than the MVP prediction since the latter is season-dependent.
That is reflected in the GMs’ choice, as they picked Victor Wembanyama as the ideal player to start a franchise with an overwhelming majority vote.
The Frenchman got 77% of the votes, a far cry from last year’s winner Nikola Jokic, who had received 33% of the votes.
Of course, Wembanyama wasn’t in the league then but even so, he was marked as one of the best prospects to ever come into the NBA draft.
One season later, he’s already stepping up to those lofty expectations, going as far as to make some analysts believe that he’ll be better than Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Victor Wembanyama is the heir anointed
Rarely does it happen that a generational player coming into the league actually lives up to the weight of expectations.
There have been many superstars entering the league every year but not since LeBron James has there been a player who came into the league with as much hype as Wembanyama and actually looks like he’ll live up to it.
The San Antonio Spurs superstar was already a borderline Defensive Player of the Year contender in his debut season and should only improve with time.
Combine that with his deceptively good handling, otherworldly shooting acumen, and the environment that the Spurs provide for development, even saying the sky is the limit would be an understatement.
Just remaining injury-free would be his prime motive as his skill set takes care of the basketball stuff on the court on its own.
No wonder he’s the player 77% of the NBA GMs would like to start a franchise with. He’s the kind of superstar who has shown he can single-handedly drag a team up the standings.
