The opening tip  Victor Wembanyama, the top prospect for the 2023 NBA draft, will play two games in Las Vegas this week. (Guillaume Talbot/Icon Sport/Getty Images) | Victor Wembanyama is coming to America. Here's where he might land. The San Antonio Spurs haven't been terrible since Gregg Popovich first took over as coach midway through the 1996-97 season. That year, Hall of Fame center David Robinson played just six games due to a broken foot and the Spurs finished with a franchise-low 20 wins. Their reward, of course, was 1997's No. 1 overall pick Tim Duncan, whose arrival set the stage for five championships and 22 consecutive playoff appearances. The Spurs have gradually bled talent since Duncan's 2016 retirement: Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili, Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan, Patty Mills and Derrick White all departed one by one. San Antonio, in turn, slipped from perennial contender to fringe playoff team to lottery entrant to 34 wins last season. With no way to reverse that momentum, the Spurs opted to trade Dejounte Murray, their lone remaining all-star, to the Atlanta Hawks for draft picks this summer, leaving Popovich with what will probably be the NBA's worst team. Preseason oddsmakers have pegged San Antonio for 22 wins, easily its bleakest outlook since the pre-Duncan days.\ ''Nobody here should go to Vegas with the thought of betting on us to win the championship," Popovich quipped last week. "It's probably not going to happen. But that's not the point. … The point is to develop this group and give them the best possible opportunity to have long NBA careers." Development — which doubles as a polite euphemism for draft positioning — figures to be a major theme of the upcoming NBA season given that the 2023 class includes French center Victor Wembanyama and G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson, among other potential franchise-changers. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will play exhibitions in Las Vegas this week, but made-for-television showdowns between Wembanyama and Henderson on Tuesday and Thursday just outside Sin City will take top billing in league circles. After all, the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama is billed as a once-a-decade prospect thanks to his 8-foot wingspan, silky jumper and fluid mobility for his size. Wembanyama doesn't necessarily need to be the next Duncan or James to convince teams that this would be a good year to "develop" without fretting over wins and losses. At least seven teams — the Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz — are already so young that they will have trouble keeping pace with playoff hopefuls. That bottom tier could swell if the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers or Washington Wizards run into injury issues. As talent evaluators flock to Nevada for Wembanyama and Henderson, here's how the pair's most serious suitors are shaping up this season. San Antonio: Popovich joked recently that his "paycheck" was motivating him to keep coaching at age 73, but the NBA's winningest coach has seemed surprisingly content molding subpar rosters over the last few years. Even so, this season will be far more painful now that his roster has been stripped to the bones. Popovich's top returning scorer, forward Keldon Johnson, would be a fourth or fifth option on a title team. His best prospect, 19-year-old guard Josh Primo, shot 37.4 percent from the field last season. And his new rookie forward Jeremy Sochan is a glue guy best suited to complementing stars that the Spurs don't have on hand. The current roster situation is so dire that San Antonio should be pleased if it manages to return to the playoffs by 2027. Detroit: An exciting and well-balanced core is taking shape around Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey and 2022 lottery pick Jaden Ivey. The rebuilding Pistons are headed for their most competitive season since 2018-19, when they last made the playoffs, but a respectable record will require Cunningham to deliver a breakthrough campaign. The 2021 No. 1 overall pick averaged 21.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game after the all-star break, so it's not out of the question. While Detroit has cobbled together some veteran pieces in trades, it can still afford to let Cunningham, Ivey and rookie center Jalen Duren play through youthful mistakes. Another high lottery pick could help the Pistons land the frontcourt linchpin that they're missing. Houston: Since trading James Harden nearly two years ago, the Rockets have laid a new foundation by collecting 2021 No. 2 pick Jalen Green, 2022 No. 3 pick Jabari Smith Jr. and 2021 first-rounder Alperen Sengun. As Coach Stephen Silas enters his third season, he must coax better chemistry and defensive intensity from his extraordinarily young roster. That might sound like a near-impossible task, but Houston needs to have something to sell as organizational progress after buying out John Wall and trading veterans Christian Wood and Daniel Theis for little in return. Green's development is key, especially because he was selected before Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes. A bouncy scorer who got more comfortable as his rookie season unfolded, the 20-year-old guard must show improved efficiency, decision-making and focus as a sophomore. Indiana: If the Pacers could fast-forward to 2025, they would. Tyrese Haliburton, 22, and Bennedict Mathurin, 20, have a chance to bloom into an excellent backcourt pairing, but it's bound to be a bumpy journey. Otherwise, Indiana lacks much young frontcourt talent to grow with its guards of the future. This summer was marked by Malcolm Brogdon's trade to the Boston Celtics and talks surrounding center Myles Turner and wing Buddy Hield that never came to fruition. Those latter rumors are likely to materialize again, as Indiana seeks to hoard draft assets. Already, the Pacers are owed protected 2023 first-round picks by Boston and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Oklahoma City: Chet Holmgren's need to redshirt his rookie season and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's recent knee sprain have the Thunder's season opening on an ominous note. Hopes that Oklahoma City would be a League Pass darling with Holmgren, the 2022 No. 2 pick, and Josh Giddey, a 2021 lottery pick, have quickly faded. Instead, Thunder fans can look forward to a third straight year of raw prospects learning on the job. Though every team on this list could use Wembanyama, Oklahoma City might be his most intriguing fit. Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey are dynamic guards capable of setting him up, and pairing Wembanyama with Holmgren would give the Thunder a mind-blowing twin towers combination with two long and athletic big men who are comfortable shooting from the perimeter. Orlando: Paolo Banchero, the surprise No. 1 pick in June's draft, immediately pencils in as Orlando's lead scorer, but he won't be stranded as a one-man show. The Magic has accumulated a promising frontcourt trio with Banchero, Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter Jr. that should start generating buzz as this season unfolds. That trio will get all the minutes it can handle, as defensive-minded forward Jonathan Isaac, who hasn't played since August 2020, remains sidelined with a knee injury. Orlando's X-factor is Jalen Suggs, the No. 5 pick in the 2021 draft. Suggs arrived from Gonzaga as a potential franchise guard thanks to his intelligence, feel and two-way impact, but injuries sidetracked his rookie season and he finished dead last in his class among win shares. Banchero's arrival should relieve Suggs's need to score in volume, which should help his confidence and efficiency. Utah: Like the Spurs, the Jazz hit the reset button hard this summer by trading Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic. Unlike San Antonio, though, Utah still has enough capable veterans — Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Malik Beasley, Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk — to steal some wins here and there. Per the NBA's lottery rules, the three worst teams will each have a 14 percent chance at the No. 1 pick. Utah should do everything in its power to become one of those three teams, and the obvious solution is for CEO Danny Ainge to continue his dramatic sell-off before the trade deadline. There's no sense in half-stepping a rebuild, and the Jazz should want new arrivals like Collin Sexton, Jarred Vanderbilt, Ochai Agbaji and Walker Kessler to play as many minutes as they can handle. | 
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