Dallas Mavs’ Luka Doncic Gives Raving Review of Victor Wembanyama: ‘Great Future’ Ahead

Although San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama didn’t win in his NBA debut, Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic praised the big man’s potential.

Dalton Trigg | Oct 26, 2023

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The Victor Wembanyama era officially got underway on Wednesday night as the San Antonio Spurs opened the season at home against the Dallas Mavericks. Despite Wembanyama showing some flashes of the incredible talent that has made him the most hyped prospect since LeBron James, the Mavs ultimately came out on top with a 126-119 win.

Wembanyama finished his NBA debut with 15 points on 6-9 shooting, five rebounds, two steals, one block and five turnovers in just 23 minutes of action due to being in foul trouble. Although that stat line didn’t necessarily live up to offseason hype, Mavs star Luka Doncic believes a ‘great future’ awaits the 19-year-old phenom.

“He’s going to be amazing,” Doncic said. “He already is. The size, obviously, like everybody talks about. The way he moves for 7-5 [or] 7-6. He moves incredible. He moves like a point guard almost, so it’s pretty amazing to see him translate. He’s going to have a great future and he’s going to be amazing to watch.”

Luka Doncic does his best to contest Victor Wembanyama’s shot :: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Mavs 19-year-old big man Dereck Lively, who also had a nice debut with a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double while shooting 7-8 from the field, had some complementary things to say about his rookie classmate as well.

“He’s a great player,” Lively said. “He can shoot the ball like nobody else who’s seven-feet tall. He’s always banging down low. He's always getting rebounds. It'll definitely be a great couple of games whenever we play them again. He’s definitely a great player.”

The Mavs and Spurs have always had a highly-entertaining rivalry, with the peak coming during the Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan era. If Wednesday night was any indication, the newest version of this storied rivalry, featuring Doncic, Lively and Wembanyama, has the chance to have that kind of juice once again in the coming years.

Published Oct 26, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.