Wembanyama and Chet Make Their Debuts

Two potential Rookie of the Year candidates debuted last night, San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren.

Wembanyama

Wembanyama was definitely more impressive as he had a stat line of 15 points, 5 rebounds, and two assists, which does not sound too impressive, but he only played 23 minutes. I am surprised he only had five rebounds considering the man is 7’4 with an eight-foot wingspan. He did shoot the ball well going 6/9 from the field and made ⅗ from beyond the arc. 

Having a center be able to do it all at 7’4, especially shoot threes is insane. Seeing videos of him in warmups with an average person is scary. I am curious what the over/under on how many times one of his shots will get blocked. Whatever the number is I will take the under. 

Wembanyama had the same stat line as Tim Duncan did in his debut which is pretty cool. Getting off-topic, but Duncan top-five NBA player of all time. Let me know in the comments where you rank him. 

Anyways, this dude is a freak and I am sure people hate how many posts they see about him and how good he is, but it is for good reason. He is gonna be a problem for the next 15 years. If I was to start a franchise and had the first pick my choice would come down to Jokic, Luka, and Wembanyama.

Also, I have no clue if I have been spelling his name right, but it looks acceptable and I am gonna roll with it rather than looking it up.

Holmgren

Chet’s game went slightly differently than Wembanyama’s as he was on the wrong side of the highlight tape. He was babied the whole game getting dunked on twice, once by Nikola Vucevic and another by Andre Drummond. Drummond would also pick-pocket Chet, destroy his ankles, and lay the ball over him. I mean talk about disrespect. I would understand if it was Giannis or Embiid, but Andre Drummond, c’mon Chet. When asked about it after the game if that was his welcome to the league moment Chet had the chance to say something so cold, but instead just stared into deep space not knowing what to say. Chet would finish the game with 11 points, four rebounds, and three assists. 

As a Thunder fan, it pains me to watch and then write about Chet having a mid-game, but it’s a part of the job. I still have high hopes for him for the rest of the season and a bounce-back game is coming against the Cavs. 

ROTY Odds

Looking at the Rookie of the Year odds, Wembanyama is of course at the top of the list with odds of -160. Chet is in third behind Scoot Henderson with odds of +700. If I was a gambling man Scoot Henderson seems to have the best value at +400. I do think Wembanyama will win, but he could get hurt so laying all that juice is risky. 

Odds and betting done in New York