Victor Wembanyama needs to make a leap this season and, to quote him after winning silver in the Paris Olympics, “I’m learning, and I’m worried about the opponents after two years.”
Perhaps some specific, well-known opponents in particular. Speaking to Ashley Nicole Moss of CBS Sports Wembanyama laid out the three players he would most like to dunk.
“The best defenders would be the biggest challenge, so that would be Rudy Gobert, I think, Kawhi. [Leonard] it would be, because all these guys I respect so much on the defensive end, it would be incredible to dunk on them. So I would say Rudy, Kawhi and third would be Jonathan Isaac. i think [Isaac’s] a really, really underrated defender.”
There are plenty of players around the NBA who would like to take a swipe at Gobert, but for Wembanyama it’s not a personal animosity but a friendly rivalry with his fellow Frenchman. That rivalry could include Wembanyama taking the Defensive Player of the Year award away from Gobert this season.
Fans around the league know what a defender Kawhi Leonard still is to this day, but Wembanyama is right that many of them don’t know that the Orlando Magic’s Isaac is a First Team All-Defensive player (he will earn honors). if he can stay healthy for 65 games in a season).
Wembanyama may want those three, but many other players will be his victim on the way to that. Wembanyama will be in a lot of posts this season, and the Spurs will be an entertaining team to watch with Chris Paul feeding him the rock this season.
