Honestly, Wemby’s probably the only draft pick since LeBron where it wouldve been fine just getting THAT first for Luka

Man that did not age well lmao

i mean technically he was the first pick but of the 2012 draft lmao

A visionary.

We did indeed say yes

The Trae ones are even funnier

That was my standout comment too!

I think it’s more just certainty vs speculation. We knew he could be utterly ridiculous. But there’s a difference between knowing it 100% with hindsight vs 70% before the draft. It’s basically expected value.

Honestly its not even that, its just how much Zion, Ja and Trae have fallen off.

Even if Wemby was “just” a perennial 3rd team All NBA guy, I would never trade him for any of those 3.

When I first saw the clips of Wemby stepping back like Harden in France, I thought that shit was insane and unstoppable.

I also thought Chet Holmgren would also be a top 10 player before his foot injury so maybe I’m just optimistic on skilled bigs

Projecting health is a dangerous game and there is literally no precedent for someone with his physique being this durable and this agile.  It was never thought physically possible.  

The Grizzlies team of the late 2010s to early 2020s will be such a weird one to talk about, They were supposed to be “next up” hell they positioned the Grizzlies and Wolves as a budding rivalry. The Wolves also got embarrassed by them in their playoff series.

I mean I don’t mean to sound like LeBron, but I genuinely knew he was going to be this good this soon. I watched almost all of his Met 92 games and it was very obvious this was a one of one player we’re dealing with. Not even just his on court abilities but his mentality is 1 of 1 as well.

Both insanely hyped by ESPN

Those people were idiots even back then. We all knew Wemby was likely to be a generational player even before he was drafted.

Plenty of people knew Wemby had GOAT-tier upside. I think this situation is more of people anticipating that Zion and Ja would keep trending toward being tier-1 players in the league

It is crazy how fast Ja torpedo’d his rep in the league

Back then ja was still really good to be fair. Just can’t stay healthy or have a reliable jumper

IMO Zion was a bust back then too, but some people were in denial

Funny too that it is Zion because Zion types are the reason it was hard to actually believe wemby was going to be a LeBron/jordan level and not … A Zion. We hear about a Zion every other year it seems.

“This is going to be a comment you’ll look back on in 5-10 years and feel really fucking smart because everybody is trying to make you feel stupid.

Well, maybe, idk. But Wembenyama is a damn good prospect.”

They called you a mad man.

A gem from this thread:

“OKC will never build a winner out of their current ‘treasure trove’

book it” - u/theliver

3 years for that sweet vindication. Did you know you commented in there or were you reading the comments and thinking to yourself, man this guy was on to something?

u/sharklavapit 👀👀

I don’t even get why that was downvoted, it’s the most reasonable take lmfao

I mean Wemby is amazing, but one player won’t win you multiple championships. It’s not enough to simply surrounding a generational talent with an average cast. Plenty of examples to pick from with LeBron, Jokic, Giannis, Luka, etc. The Spurs have built a great roster around him to their credit.

They aren’t guaranteed to win multiple championships tho lol. There’s only like a 50-60% chance that they even win one in the next 10 years and that’s assuming team they maintain their current level of health/excellence.

You got downvoted because you made an extremely bold statement and used a qualifier of “as long as the team around him is good”

Awesome lol. It’s why downvotes on that sort of stuff shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

They downvoted you like that wasn’t a reasonable comment.

Paging u/sharklavapit

I don’t think you can victory lap when they haven’t won a single playoff game yet lol

At least were able to successfully salary dump him

It sucks but at the time it wasn’t a terrible opinion, ²⁸⁄₁₁ guy who just took them to the conference finals like what a year ago, fans loved him as well, he was 23-24 I guess. Whereas Wemby is a complete unknown, who knows, maybe in another universe he deals with a lot of injuries and never quite makes it. It’s not exactly the same but its like I am sure Minny fans would be totally against trading Ant for Peterson, but what if Ant ends up regressing one reason or another and Peterson is like MJ.

Didn’t work out in the end of course for Trae and Atlanta

Wemby is so much different than zion and ja, both in ability and mindset. No tempering expectations needed for a guy who’s already a clear top 5 player

He will be a consistent top 3 player in the league for a long time (probably top 1 soon). I’d bet everything I own and everything I will own on it (barring bad injury).

Hopefully Wemby gets to play out his full potential. Every generation deserves a generational player to watch.

But I agree with tempering expectations. All it takes is a couple of playoffs losses or late season injuries to muddy his rep. Look at Embiid, MVP caliber player, but he’s always injured at the end of the season and now he’s out of any conversations. We can only talk about potential for so long before it gets tiring to hear, and people start demanding results.

Wemby’s variance is fully based around health. If he stays healthy, even if he didn’t improve one bit from today and just played at this level for the next six or seven years, he would be an all-timer based on his defense. At his size though, who the hell knows what’s gonna happen to those giraffe legs.

Idk Wemby has already been much better than both of those players were at their peak.

One bad moment from “man, remember how awesome he could have been…”

Also under that someone saying how weak the 2020 draft is lol

So thankful he went to one of the most competent teams in the league and not some train wreck of an organization

He still ends up in questionable positions for 99% of people, his flexibility must be helping him escape injury.

He’s certainly lighter and seems to move well despite his outlandish proportions.

As someone whose happiness has been tied to his centers health for the past 8 years or so I hope Wemby stays healthy both for you and for the league in general.

Injuries robbing us of careers sucks

I love Wemby and would be devastated if he got hurt. But simple high school physics tell us that the amount of force that gets applied to his joints every time someone runs into his leg or when his body is off-balance is multiple times greater than the forces a regular player experiences because of the ungodly length of the levers tied back to that fulcrum. It’s awesome that he keeps his soft tissue well conditioned to have more resilience, but I gasp in fear every time I see him jump across the lane to block someone from the weak side.

The sample size of extremely tall big men is small to begin with. The fact that wemby just seems different from all of them biomechanically makes him a poor representation in general

Pretty weird to call this person out with hindsight. There’s been no shortage of #1 busts (even lately), and if Wemby suddenly finds himself chronically injured or had been a flop to begin with, then that user would be looking pretty clairvoyant.

Because he wanted CJ McCollum & Corey Kispert obviously!

What’s funny is people acting like Trae clears Gobert. Meanwhile, Gobert hasn’t been salary dumped.

REDACTED edit: I got the wrong name

Trae had a good season or two that everyone blew out of proportion and assumed he’d grow into a Monstar

He was one of the most fun players to watch, ever. I still hope he makes a comeback after he gets the fuck outta there.

I think we should have emptied the arsenal for Wemby right before the draft. We would have had Shai, jdub, Chet, Wemby, Ihart, Joe, Caruso, Dort.

You are downvoted, but by non-Minnesota flairs. People don’t understand that this is entertainment, its a sport where a bunch of dudes throw a ball inside a hoop. The entertainment aspect is the most important. Ant has a great relationship with his fans, everyone loves the guy and wants to win a championship with him. Team around him is already set and he is only 24 so not exactly 30 to Wemby’s 22 either.

I think sometimes you gotta understand that fans are not gonna be interested in technically upgrading a little bit. That’s another rreason why the Nico trade was just mental, everyone in Dallas loved the guy and rooted for him after building a great fan-player relationship, it wouldn’t make sense to trade him for any other player in the world let alone AD. Similarly, a lot of Detroit fans could be against trading Cade for Luka or Shai as well, that’s totally fair. Like yeah chances of winning increases by a couple %, but that’s not why you follow the sport

I think this is an absolutely reasonable take. Team makeup has a lot to do with a star’s ability to thrive.

Wemby, Rudy, mcdaniels defense is a finals trip by itself man

dem georgia boys are good. spurs have 2 of them, castle and vassell, who people, especially some announcers, still hilariously mix up

Correct, if i was un-biased and starting a new team id rather have Wemby but Ant already has such an attachment about him. Hes rarely ever hurt, hes a great vibes guy and hes just a joy to watch play. Im sure id have a blast with Wemby on my team but it wouldnt be the same.

Oh most people definitely do not have a basic understanding of risks and odds.

And then everyone in here taking victory laps because they have current information to make a previous decision lol. Wemby could twist his ankle the wrong way and in 3 years someone will bring up this thread and everyone will be saying “insane people were talking about Wemby as generational” and the cycle will continue lol.

Im right here baby still all Clipped up.

Love that this came back, hell ya people keeping receipts

“Nobody saw him being mvp?” He was getting described as the greatest prospect ever. People absolutely saw him being mvp.

He played 71 games as a rookie.