Victor Wembanyama’s historic Game 1 performance served as another reminder of why new Mavericks GM Mike Schmitz’s talent evaluation matters for Dallas.
Six years ago, Mike Schmitz traveled to Lithuania and watched a 16-year-old Victor Wembanyama play basketball in front of a nearly empty gym.
When Schmitz returned, he told anyone willing to listen that he had just seen the best basketball prospect in the world. At the time, many people, including Scott Van Pelt, dismissed the claim as an exaggeration.
Now Schmitz is running the Dallas Mavericks front office, and Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals provided another reminder of why his eye for talent matters.
The 7-4 Frenchman Wembanyama delivered one of the greatest playoff performances in recent NBA history Tuesday night, finishing with 41 points, 24 rebounds, three blocks and three assists in 49 minutes during San Antonio’s 122 to 115 double overtime win over Oklahoma City.
When the Thunder appeared ready to steal momentum late in the first overtime, Wembanyama buried a 27-foot no-dribble 3-pointer to tie the game. He then dominated the second overtime period and punctuated the victory with an and 1 dunk over Chet Holmgren.
The performance placed him in historic company as only the seventh player in NBA history to record a 40 point, 20 rebound game in a conference finals.
Back in February 2020, Schmitz published one of the first major scouting profiles on Wembanyama while working at ESPN. At the time, the French teenager remained largely unknown to American audiences.
Schmitz described a prospect who blocked shots like Rudy Gobert, shot like Kristaps Porzingis and handled the ball like a perimeter player despite standing over 7 feet tall. He projected Wembanyama as a future No. 1 overall pick years before he was even draft eligible.
Schmitz also wrote one of the earliest major American scouting breakdowns on Luka Doncic during his rise at Real Madrid in 2017, long before many domestic analysts fully appreciated what he would become. If you take a scroll through his X Timeline, you'll see many hidden gems of prospects way early in the draft process.
The Mavericks hold the No. 9 pick in the June 23 NBA Draft in what many evaluators consider one of the deepest classes in years. With Cooper Flagg already viewed as the franchise centerpiece moving forward, Dallas now faces a critical opportunity to continue building the next era of the roster correctly.
After watching Wembanyama dominate the Western Conference Finals stage, Mavericks fans have another reason to feel confident about who will be leading those draft room conversations.
