Victor Wembanyama is facing surprising make-or-break season

Victor Wembanyama is on the verge of being thrown into bad conversations due to his constant injury issues. He may end up being discussed in the light of some of the big men who came before him: Extremely talented but never healthy enough to stay on the court. Guys like Joel Embiid, Kristaps Porzingis, Greg Oden, and Yao Ming.

Obviously, Wembanyama has only spent two years in the NBA. Sometimes, bad injury luck is just that: Bad luck. However, NBA discourse waits for nobody. And the fact that Wembanyama has shown as much promise as he has will propel him into the spotlight sooner rather than later.

His name alone will begin the conversations.

Why are people going to put Victor Wembanyama in bad conversations?

The injury bug waits for no man. Embiid has learned that the hard way. Plenty of other players have learned that the hard way. And while some of Wembanyama’s issues have seemingly been one-offs, guys of his size have historically been unable to stay on the court.

In his rookie season, Wembanyama managed to play 71 games. It was a perfect start to his career. But injuries have still been a constant presence. Last year, largely due to his blood-clotting issues, Wembanyama only played in 46 games.

It’s a bit unfair to begin discussing Wembanyama in the context of other oft-injured bigs just yet, as he’s played in a fair amount of games early on. However, that’s the price the biggest stars pay.

At this point in his career, Wembanyama is already on the verge of being a household name. Those types of players usually don’t get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to made-for-TV conversations.

If Wembanyama stays healthy next season, the discussions will be about how he could be the next face of the NBA. But if he gets hurt again, they will quickly pivot to, ‘What if Wembanyama is the next Greg Oden?’

Availability is the best ability. For as talented as Wembanyama is when he’s on the court, he needs to be there in order for that to matter. And through his first two seasons, he has mostly been just that: Available.

But entering the league, people were already talking about whether or not he could stay healthy. Players of his size and build generally deal with injury issues, so for him to play fewer than 50 games in his sophomore year, blood clots or not, is enough to spark some conversations (no matter how silly).

If Wembanyama deals with injury issues this year, expect talking heads to begin chatting, whether it’s fair to the Frenchman or not.