Blake Griffin's silly comment clearly shows he's forgotten what Wembanyama is

Too many people take things too far in their praise or criticism of whatever the topic is. Blake Griffin is the latest example of putting his foot in his mouth when it wasn't necessary. On Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston's podcast, Post Moves, former LA Clipper just claimed that Cooper Flagg is "the most complete player we've seen come into the NBA in recent memory."

To cut Griffin a bit a slack, he did mention the towering Frenchman, stating, "Even Wemby, very complete as well, but Cooper's just able to play so many different positions; guard so many different positions." The issue is the "but". He didn't mention anything that Wembanyama isn't also able to do.

The former Slam Dunk Contest champion spoke about Flagg's ability to shoot, pass, defend, etc., like Wembanyama doesn't also possess those traits. It's just inaccurate to say the former Duke star is the most complete player to enter the league in recent memory when it's only been two years since Vic's rookie season.

Wembanyama shocked the world with his offense in year one

This would be a common case of an inability to let go of pre-draft assessments. It happens all the time. A guy gets drafted in a certain place, and no matter how much he elevates, people will use his draft spot against him in occasional arguments about a player's value.

Before the Spurs' franchise center stepped foot in the league, the scouts told us that his offense would take a while to catch up in the NBA, but his defense would be otherworldly from the jump. They were right about the second part but way off on the first. So, he came in and averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and four blocks as a rookie. That sounds like a pretty complete player to me.

You could complain about his three-point percentage, but it was better than people seem to remember. They act like he shot 20% or something. The French phenom shot 33% in his inaugural season. Just ask the Denver Nuggets what they thought of his three-ball. Their postseason standing was compromised by a 34-point effort by the Alien, which included knocking down five outside shots.

He scored 38 points in his fifth game of the season. It didn't take very long at all for us to realize Wemby's offense didn't have to "catch up" to the league. He just needed to fine-tune some things, as every rookie does. Flagg won't be exempt from that.

As far as the ability to guard or play multiple positions being some sort of separating factor, I call BS on that, too. We've seen Vic guard every position successfully. That doesn't mean he'll stop everybody, but nobody does that. There are too many special players with unique skill sets to believe any one person will stop them all.

But on offense, he's played point guard, bringing up the ball and initiating offense. We've watched Wembanyama run pick-and-rolls as the ball handler. He's stood on the perimeter and played the pseudo-shooting guard/small forward role. He's gotten busy on the inside with his post-game, too. We watched this man hit the Shammgod on Rudy Gobert as a rookie. What are we talking about, man?

So, again, it's just factually incorrect to say Flagg is the most complete player we've seen drafted into the league recently. Wemby exists. And he didn't even need to go that far. It's just unnecessary and opens yourself up to criticism.