At least three players should be cautious as the NBA gets ready for Victor Wembanyama’s second season, as the Spurs star has put them on poster alert.The seven-footer listed the three guys he hopes to dunk on in the 2024–25 campaign in an interview.
“The best defenders would be the biggest challenge, so that would be Rudy Gobert, I think Kawhi [Leonard] would be, because all these guys I respect so much on the defensive end that it would be incredible to dunk on them,” Wemby stated. Thus, I would rank Rudy, Kawhi, and Jonathan Isaac as the first three. I believe that Isaac is a defender who is greatly underestimated.
Isaac is, to Wembanyama’s point, an underappreciated defender. The Magic forward missed the cut to 65 games needed to be considered for the All-Defensive team last season, but he was still in the running. With the third-highest defensive rating (110.8) in the 58 games he played, the Magic were among the league’s finest defensive teams, trailing only the Timberwolves (108.4) and the Celtics (110.6).Regarding Leonard and Gobert, they have each received numerous Defensive Player of the Year honours. Taking everything into account, it would be remarkable if Wembanyama could effectively poster his three intended objectives.
The Frenchman caught a lot of bodies in his debut season, but none were quite as spectacular as his one-handed jam on Rockets standout Alperen Sengun in a March game.Zach Collins started at centre throughout the first half of the season, but coach Gregg Popovich used Wembanyama more as a stretch player. Wembanyama was to be shielded from the NBA’s physicality by this action. But after switching to the five in the second half of the season, he was much more active.
Wembanyama gained twenty-five pounds from his reported weight in 2023–24 to arrive at 235 pounds for the 2024–25 season. The extra weight could be a warning to his opponents.
