(Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets is the best big man in the NBA today, if not the best player overall, but there seems to be someone coming to topple him from his perch.
Victor Wembanyama is the league’s newest sensation, and many feel he is on his way to becoming perhaps the best player in the world within five years or so.
He’s averaging 19.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.6 blocked shots a game this season, and he had 22 points, 11 boards, six steals, and four blocks when his San Antonio Spurs lost, 132-120, on Sunday to the Nuggets.
Jokic acknowledged what many have been saying — that Wembanyama is a generational talent, via Bleacher Report.
Joker with HIGH praise for the young phenom pic.twitter.com/HJcuAysd3Q
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 27, 2023
It’s one thing to be a generational talent like Jokic and Wembanyama — but it’s another to actually change the game, as Jokic said Wembanyama will.
Jokic has been a game-changing talent in his own right, as he is the best passing big man the game has ever seen and averaged an amazing 9.8 assists a game last season.
He put up 39 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists in Sunday’s game, and he could be on his way to his third regular-season MVP in four seasons.
Wembanyama may never become as great a passer as Jokic, but he is already a much better rim-protector and overall defender at the tender age of 19.
He is still rail-thin and doesn’t have much of a low-post game yet, and thus it is scary to think how much better he will be in just a year or two when he may gain some upper-body and core strength while developing a rudimentary back-to-the-basket game.
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