The Race For The No. 1 Pick In The 2023 NBA Draft Has Begun

The 2022-23 NBA season is about to begin, but for some teams, this year is all about finishing in last-place in order to end up with the top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

The start of a new NBA season offers hope and a chance to rise up for many franchises as they look to put their past behind them and compete for a championship.

Well, this can be said for a vast majority of the league, but the way NBA front-offices operate today is looking ahead towards the future and figuring out the best ways to achieve long-term success.

Every NBA front-office has a long-term plan laid out right now and the one constant amongst all the teams in the league is the fact that they have the 2023 NBA Draft, which is over eight months away, circled on their whiteboards.

Maybe this draft will not produce as many big names as those in year’s past, but what the 2023 NBA Draft will have that we have not seen before is Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, who could quite possibly end up being two of the best prospects to ever play in the NBA.

A 7-foot-3 talent that can play any position, handles the ball like a guard and has scoring abilities very few in this league have possessed, Victor Wembanyama is already being declared the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft by many around the league.

Wembanyama has shown no limitations to his game on the floor and the big man from France truly is a one-of-a-kind type of talent due to the fact that he is still growing and getting better.

"Think Kevin Durant meets Rudy Gobert."@DraftExpress says Victor Wembanyama is a prospect he's never seen before 🤯 pic.twitter.com/RaUoJwC7G0

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 5, 2022

So many teams have begun doing their homework on Wembanyama and it is not hard to believe that his availability in the 2023 NBA Draft will change the trajectory of the 2022-23 season for some teams. Not everyone can compete for a championship and as a result, plenty of teams will be gunning for the top pick in next year’s draft.

“I truly can’t come up with a comparison for this kid because what he has is unteachable,” one Western Conference executive told Fastbreak on FanNation in regards to Victor Wembanyama. “He’s fast, he handles the ball well, he shoots better than half the guys in this league right now and the best part about him is that he is turning 19-years-old in January. We've never seen any prospect like him and tanking is going to be at an all-time high this year. By the time the All-Star break rolls around, I know there will be struggling teams that end up pulling their stars due to ‘injuries’ just so they can have a shot at ending up with the top pick in 2023. 

"This kid is that special and he is going to change the game once he steps foot in the NBA.”

There is no doubt that Victor Wembanyama is going to be a star in the NBA one day, but he is not the only prospect in this upcoming draft class with star-like potential. Many have begun making an early argument for Scoot Henderson to be the top pick in next year’s draft as well because of what he brings to the table.

Henderson is a 6-foot-3 point guard that can score at all three levels and just has a feel for the game that you cannot teach. Much like Wembanyama, Henderson is a player that truly does not have a set comparison because of all the little things he can do on the floor in terms of scoring, passing and being one step ahead of his opponents.

This past Tuesday night, Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson went head-to-head with one another for the first of what should be many showdowns to come in their lifetime. Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 team from France fell 122-115 to Henderson’s G League Ignite team, but the key takeaways from this game is that two teams are going to be getting superstar rookies with the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Wembanyama finished with 37 points, 4 rebounds and 5 blocks while shooting 7-11 from three-point range and Henderson finished with 28 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists in the game.

“It's just playing basketball on a stage,” Henderson said after the game when asked about playing against Wembanyama. “That's what I took away from this night.”

These two players will forever be linked to one another regardless of who ends up being drafted first overall and if we learned anything about this matchup from the other night, it is that the race for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft has begun!