Victor Wembanyama is out for the rest of the season.
That sucks. Really badly. Even saying there is a "silver lining" feels wrong, because a player of Wemby's caliber missing extended time is objectively bad for the present and the future of the NBA.
He will now miss out on his first Defensive Player of the Year award because he won't hit the 65 games played threshold, and it will briefly stunt his development into the megastar he's very clearly becoming. This is a pretty heartbreaking injury for a player who loves to play every night he's on the court.
San Antonio — which is 3.5 games back of the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference — will almost certainly fall even further down the ladder in the league standings. Four teams are currently within 4 games of the Spurs: Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
With draft odds at the front of mind for many front offices, this injury could have pretty massive implications for draft order, and in turn, the future of the league.
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Spurs can realistically pair Wemby with another star
Again, I am not considering this a positive for the Spurs in any sense of the word. Wemby missing the season is far, far worse than San Antonio getting better lottery odds to potentially draft another cornerstone piece. Still, the lottery could shake up considerably differently without Wemby in action.
Right now, San Antonio's odds for a top 4 pick are 13.9 percent. If the Spurs fall below each of the four teams right on their back in the league standings, that number goes up to 34.8 percent. That's a pretty huge difference. If San Antonio falls below just one of those teams, their odds at a top-four pick still jump up to 20 percent.
Spurs mock drafts could look very different in coming weeks
As it stands, the Spurs have the 10th-best odds in the draft lottery, where they'd likely get a player like Kon Knueppel from Duke or Asa Newell from Georgia; both great prospects.
But if the team fully falls apart without Wemby in the lineup, the Spurs could suddenly sneak into the range of players like VJ Edgecombe, Ace Bailey or Dylan Harper. A scary thought.
Of course, the most important part of this news is that Victor Wembanyama comes back healthy to start next season — and he might do it with a new sidekick in tow.