SAN ANTONIO — It is not a complete surprise to see a few NBA teams perhaps intentionally lose games or "tank" in order to increase their lottery odds in 2023.
And the prize at the 2023 NBA Draft is who many call a "generational" player - Center Victor Wembanyama.
His skill set, height, and potential are enough to make NBA general managers drool at the prospect of him wearing the team uniform but Wembanyama believes tanking is "weird."
“Tanking? It’s a weird strategy,” Wembanyama said to the French website Le Parisien via Basketnews. “I find it unreasonable, and I try not to think about it. I also heard that the NBA considered changing a few rules for me, but that doesn’t concern me.”
Among the teams that have a very good chance at selecting Wembanyama are the San Antonio Spurs.
Many feel the Spurs should remain among the top three teams with the highest draft odds (14 percent) to have a legitimate chance at winning the lottery and speeding up the franchise's rebuild with Wembanyama in uniform.
But in order to do that, the Spurs will have to have a lot more losses than wins and be one of the three NBA teams with the worst records to end the season.
Wembanya is currently playing in France's LNB Pro A league and is averaging 22.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, three blocks, and 2.3 assists in 32.1 minutes per game.
"Wembanyama is the most sought-after prospect in a really long time, and he does things on the court that no other player can do," said an NBA scout to Yahoo Sports.
Should San Antonio win the lottery, he would be the obvious first pick and transform the team rapidly.
Prior to the Thursday Spurs game versus the Knicks, the team was out of the top three spots landing at the fourth overall pick according to a simulation by Tankathon.
And beating the Knicks Thursday night was great in the short-term but what about in the long-term for the future of the team?
Where do you stand on tanking, Spurs fans? Do you want to see the team rack up losses to have a good chance at picking Wembanyama? Let us know on Twitter at @KENS5 and @JeffGSpursKENS5.