There's no such thing as a Wemby stopper, right? Unless, of course, you want to talk about Jaren Jackson Jr.
Victor Wembanyama has put the fear of god into all other 29 franchises in the National Basketball Association after leading the San Antonio Spurs to the NBA Finals in just his third season as a pro.
Oh, and he took down the reigning champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in the Western Conference Finals to get there.
Standing at 7'5" with an unearthly wingspan, Wembanyama is not just a big body; he carries himself with all the athleticism and shooting prowess of a guard, knocking down step-back three-pointers with ease on one end, and denying an NBA-leading number of shots on the other end. He's unlike anything we've ever seen before, and he's leaving the rest of the basketball world scrambling for answers.
Before he becomes too powerful for mortal men to defeat.
The San Antonio Spurs' championship window opens right now. The Utah Jazz, meanwhile, are staring down the wrong end of a dynasty as they approach what they hope to be a playoff-caliber season.
There's no such thing as a Wemby-stopper -- we all thought that Chet Holmgren had the body type and skill set to bother San Antonio's alien, but we learned that is not the case throughout the WCF, punctuated with a humiliating poster slam hand-delivered from Wemby, to Chet, with love.
But if there were a Wemby stopper, I'd like to put my bet on the Utah Jazz's front court, Jaren Jackson Jr and Walker Kessler.
Kessler has a record of 3-3 in head-to-head meetings with Wembanyama.
Jackson Jr is completely unblemished, winning all seven of the pair's meetings in the NBA.
With the pair's combined length and positional versatility, perhaps not all is lost for the Utah Jazz's championship hopes in the coming years. That's a crucial "perhaps", though.
Wembanyama joined a San Antonio franchise on the rocks his rookie season -- there's a reason the Spurs obtained the first overall pick back in 2023, after all. In fact, they matched the same 22-60 record in the team's first season with Wembanyama at the center position.
They didn't even reach the playoffs in Wembanyama's second season as a pro, with a 34-48 record and plenty of room to grow.
JJJ and Kessler's wins from those season are nothing to write home about -- the entire league was beating San Antonio at that point.
Taking into account that the Jazz won just one of four matchups against the Spurs this season -- the year that the Spurs exploded to a 60-22 record and an appearance in the NBA Finals -- it would be radically premature to dub Utah's front court as the cure for Wembanyama's dominance. On the contrary, we're only seeing the early returns of what San Antonio's superstar is capable of.
