Spurs take Victor Wembanyama with No. 1 pick in 2023 NBA Draft: How he fits in San Antonio

The San Antonio Spurs selected French phenom Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

Wembanyama, 19, was the consensus choice to be selected first and is regarded as a generational talent.
The 7-foot-4 center exploded with French professional team Metropolitans 92 this season, averaging 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.
The Spurs won the rights to the No. 1 pick in May’s NBA Draft lottery. San Antonio last had the No. 1 pick in 1997, when the team selected future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Scouting report

Wembanyama is the best draft prospect to enter the NBA since LeBron James. It’s that simple. Wembanyama is the epitome of a franchise changer. He led the French League in rebounds and blocks and was second in points. It’s hard to overemphasize how amazing Wembanyama’s long-term potential is on both ends of the floor.

He will immediately be the biggest, longest player in the NBA, which allows him to change the geometry of the court defensively. Wembanyama has great instincts and recovery ability on that end. But he also is a legitimate shot creator at center who can score off the bounce with creativity and hit shots with ease off of pull-ups or drives to the rim. He’s a terrific finisher inside because of his length and touch and is already starting to experiment with shots that could make him special, such as turnaround pull-ups, fake-spin shimmies and floater 3s.

Wembanyama is a historic prospect, one well within the tapestry of past elite center prospects such as Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Ralph Sampson, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Anthony Davis. — Vecenie

How Wembanyama fits with the Spurs

Wembanyama fits every single team. He is the fit. He’s the player you build around. San Antonio has found some strong players in the latter half of the lottery and the back portion of the first round, but the Spurs don’t have a star yet.

Wembanyama slides everyone down a peg into more suitable roles. Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson can be young, high-level wings who don’t get the top defensive assignments. Wembanyama will be a tremendous fit next to Jeremy Sochan in the frontcourt with Sochan as an all-around gap-filler who was productive as a teenage rookie. He’ll be able to be brought along slowly as a scorer as he continues to rework his shot.

The Spurs got to transition beautifully from the Robinson era into the Duncan era and now perfectly slide into the Wembanyama era. — Vecenie

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Backstory

Wembanyama has long been considered one of the best prospects in his age group. His father, Felix, was a 6-foot-6 high-level long jumper. His mother, Elodie, is 6-foot-3 and played basketball and helped teach Victor the game. He has two siblings, both of whom play basketball, grew up in the Parisian suburbs and joined the Nanterre 92 developmental team at a young age.

Wembanyama emerged as an elite prospect for NBA teams at the U16 European Championships in 2019, where he averaged nine points, 10 rebounds and five blocks per game as a 15-year-old.

As the hype around Wembanyama built over the last year ahead of the draft, the NBA put together a showcase game for Wembanyama and No. 3 pick Scoot Henderson in September 2022. After two games between Metropolitans 92 and Henderson’s G League Ignite, Wembanyama left scouts salivating and in awe, scoring 37 points in the first game and then scoring 36 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in the second. — Vecenie

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Required reading

(Photo: Christophe Archambault/ AFP via Getty Images)