Jazz All Ears as Victor Wembanyama Sends Message to NBA

NBA prospect Victor Wembanyama has officially declared for the 2023 NBA draft. The projected No. 1 pick broke the news on ESPN’s NBA Today.

“It's been a year with so many great news for me, so first of all I wanna thank everyone that has been part of that journey all of the previous years, my coaches, my family,” Wembanyama told ESPN. “Declaring for the draft... it's something crazy I'm not realizing yet. I realized pretty young I wanted to play in the NBA, but it becomes a reality more every day. I'm so lucky to have this dream within the reach of my hand.”

Although a long shot to land the first pick of the draft, the Utah Jazz will be throwing their hat in the ring. Utah will have a 4.5% chance of receiving the first pick when the lottery takes place on May 16th.

The odds of landing a top-four pick is 20.2% while the most likely landing spot is No. 9 at 50.7%. Utah will have a 96% chance of being in the top 10, but if history tells us anything, that doesn’t guarantee much.

The last two selections Utah had in the top 10 were considered busts with Enis Kanter selected third in 2011 followed by Dante Exum being picked fifth in 2014. In fact, Utah’s best players of all time were later picks with Karl Malone (13), Donovan Mitchell via Denver Nuggets (13), John Stockton (16), and Rudy Gobert via Denver (27).

If Wembanyama finds his way to Salt Lake City, it would be a first. Utah is one of six franchises to never select No. 1. The others include the Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, and Miami Heat.

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