(7/10/2023)
Written by John Raley
Summer is in full swing and in the world of sports, this time of year is often synonymous with a lack of action. The NFL and College Football seasons have yet to begin, the NBA Finals have come to a conclusion (congratulations to the Denver Nuggets), the Stanley Cup has been presented to the NHL’s newest champion the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and Major League Baseball is approaching the All-Star break.
Since the early 2000s, the NBA has used this down period in professional team sports to put its future stars on national television using their Summer Leagues. This paired with the buzz of NBA free agency has long been a tool used to keep relevant in news cycles throughout the year. Any given summer there is a certain air of excitement surrounding the new crop of rookies as they begin to showcase their talents in Las Vegas, but this year the ante has been taken up a notch. The long-awaited arrival of Victor Wembanyama is finally here and basketball fans across the world have been given an opportunity to see him go toe to toe with first and second-year NBA players.
Wemby makes his debut:
Coming into the draft Wemby was arguably the most consensus number one overall draft pick possibly in the history of team sports. Vegas had his odds to be drafted number one by the San Antonio Spurs at (-20000). For those of you unfamiliar with sports betting and how odds work that means that in order to make a profit of $100 a bettor would have to wager $20,000. For those of you familiar with sports betting we would call that the lock of a lifetime. After all the hype surrounding him fans and analysts expected him to dominate from the jump, especially against rosters made of rookies and guys trying to secure a roster spot on one of the 30 teams in the NBA. What happened in his first game against the Detroit Pistons can only be described as one thing. A dud.
Wemby’s box score after game one was grim. He posted just 9 points on 2-13 shooting from the field (yeesh) including 1-6 from three along with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 blocks (!!!). He also struggled taking care of the basketball turning it over 3 times in 27 minutes of playtime in a 76-68 loss. The eye test didn’t look great either. Wemby seemed lost out there especially on offense when he didn’t have the ball in his hands, and when he did have the ball he struggled with the physicality and strength of smaller defenders pressing into him. At 7’4” and only 209 pounds he is as skinny as people come and you hope that over the course of the next year or two, he will be able to add significant muscle to his frame. Similar concerns were thrust upon Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren who was the second overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft and he missed what would have been his rookie season after sustaining an injury in a Pro-Am game last summer. Injuries will always be a concern for players of that size. Off the top of my head, I can remember three players whose careers were significantly impacted by injury due to their size. Greg Oden, Yao Ming, and Sam Bowie. Wemby doesn’t seem to have a frame that will be easy to add 20-30 pounds of muscle too but he is certainly more skilled overall than the three guys I mentioned above.
Last night Wemby looked like a different player. He posted 27 points on a much more efficient 9-14 shooting from the field and going 2-4 from three. He also contributed 12 rebounds, a steal, and 3 blocks. The turnover struggles were still there however as he again turned it over 3 times in 27 minutes of play during their 85-80 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Wemby’s range defending on the perimeter has been impressive. With his mix of size and length, he can afford to take gambles defensively that most players can’t due to his ability to recover and still make a play even when it seems the offensive player has a step on him. 3
It’s tough to really judge a guy based on his summer league play. He isn’t playing true NBA competition yet so good games can be brushed off but I do think it can be alarming when a guy struggles. If you struggle against borderline NBA players how will you compete when going against the real thing? It is also important to note that Wemby played just one game a week over in France. I’ll be interested to see how his body holds up playing 3 to 4 games a week against bigger and stronger players.
NBA announces new In-Season Tournament:
This week NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, announced a new in-season tournament that will take place during November where teams will compete for the NBA Cup. The idea sounds good in principle, but I have some serious questions about the logistics of the tournament. I understand the NBA is doing this to try and bolster viewership numbers during the regular season which have seen a significant decline over the past decade, and I think that this tournament will help to remedy that issue. However, this tournament does not seem to be very incentivized to the players participating. Before I get further into this here is a breakdown of how the tournament will be formatted:
The tournament will begin with pool play consisting of all 30 NBA teams. There will be 3 pools per conference made up of 5 teams from within those conferences (6 total conferences and everyone in your pool is a conference opponent)
The teams are assigned into Pots based on their record the previous year and then pools are created from those pots to try and assemble even distribution of fairness throughout the league.
Tournament games will be regular season games against those in your pool every Tuesday and Friday during the month of November. This means that for the round-robin portion, there will be no additional games played that would tack on to the 82-game regular season for each team.
From there the winner of each pool will advance to the knockout round. Additionally, the second-place team with the best record from each conference will also be added to the knockout round in the Wild Card spot.
These eight teams will play in a single elimination tournament over the course of the first two weeks in December.
The players on the winning team will take home $500,000 along with the NBA Cup, players on the second-place team will take home $200,000, players on semifinals teams that do not advance to the finals will receive $100,000 and players on teams that get bounced in the first round will take home $50,000 each
I like the idea of the in-season tournament. It certainly adds an air of excitement to the dullest part of the regular season, but I just don’t believe in the incentives laid down. If I am a team like the Denver Nuggets or the Boston Celtics who will be in a contention spot to win the Finals next year I would much rather take the extra week of rest to try and fight off injuries and get my team rested to try and win the Finals rather than have my guys go full tilt for half a million dollars and a meaningless trophy. I would bet good money that the winner of the NBA Cup this year does not even make it to their conference finals come playoff time. I think the tournament will grow and evolve over time to become a better product for the athletes and the fans, but as of right now, I do not see this as a huge draw for top-level contenders to really buckle down and give 100% to win this tournament.
Jabari Smith Jr. is going to be a PROBLEM:
You really thought I wasn’t going to squeeze in some love for my Houston Rockets? Think again.
Last year's number three overall pick Jabari Smith Jr. struggled over the first half of his rookie year. Part of that was adjusting to the pace of play in the NBA, part of that was playing on arguably the worst-coached team in the entire league (sorry Silas but am I wrong?), and another part was needing to build up his body and skillset to really compete at the highest level.
In two summer league games, Jabari has seemingly turned a new leaf and looks like an entirely new player from what he did last year. H struggled in the first half of the teams' first summer league game against the Portland Trailblazers and I thought to myself “Not this again. He has to make the jump sooner or later.” I just didn’t know how soon the jump would be. It turned out to be very soon. In the second half Jabari Smith Jr. posted a stat line of 29 points on 11-15 shooting (!!!) including 4-7 from three along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. Oh and he also made a ridiculous 28-footer to win the game at the buzzer. He followed up his Herculean second half against Portland with a full game of dominance against the Detroit Pistons. Jabari put up a cool 38 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists on an incredibly efficient 14-22 shooting from the floor. He also was good for 1 steal and 2 blocks. Just dominant from the jump and looked more confident than I have ever seen him on the basketball court dating back to his days at Auburn.
Safe to say I’ll be tuned in to watch him match up against Wemby every time the Rockets and Spurs play one another in the regular season this year.