SAN ANTONIO — Tonight's San Antonio Spurs versus Oklahoma City Thunder matchup is highly anticipated because of the marquee matchup: Victor Wembanyama against Chet Holmgren.
The pair are ahead of their rookie class and are in a tight race for the Rookie of the Year Award.
Indeed, the two young centers will be a big part of the league during their careers, but does Holmgren already rank among more established veteran centers?
Ex-Spurs forward Stephen Jackson believes so.
During a chat on the "All The Smoke" show with Matt Barnes, Jackson was asked if the OKC rookie was already in the conversation for one of the five best centers.
However, Barnes named some of the top centers (Nikola Jokic, Bam Adebayo, Kristaps Porzingis, Alpren Sengun, Brook Lopez, Joel Embiid, Domatas Sabonis, and Rudy Gobert) to Jackson, and notably left off the list was Wembanyama.
Jackson agreed that Holmgren is among the top 5 centers, putting him at No. 4.
"Center-wise, because he's young and he's still his body's still developing, I'm going to put him number four behind Jokic, Embiid, and Gobert," he said. "Chet is definitely real close to passing him (Gobert)."
For the two former NBA players to leave out Wemby from the discussion is baffling since his move to the center spot has proven to be huge for his development.
At his position, the Spurs center leads the NBA in blocks (3.2 per game), is 10th in steals (1.1 per game), 10th in double-doubles (18), 3rd in Usage Rate (30.6%), 6th in points off turnovers (3.1), and 2nd in fast break points (2.4).
Also, the head-to-head stats lean toward Wembanyama versus Holmgren.
Based on these numbers, perhaps both Barnes and Jackson need to revisit this topic and include Wembanyama.