The titans Wembanyama must conquer to prove he's officially arrived

Victor Wembanyama has been a revelation since he entered the league. He came in and made an immediate impact on both sides of the ball, so it's natural to ask how far he can go and how quickly. By the end of his second season, which only featured him in 46 games before being sidelined, he was put into the range of the best 10-15 players in the world, and there are no signs of him slowing down.

So, what does the next level for Wembanyama look like at only 21 years old? How can he begin knocking on the next door to be a top-five player? He's already the second-best center in basketball at best if you rule out Joel Embiid due to a lack of time on the court. But if you want to fight me on that, I won't spend much time on it. I can live with saying he's number three at worst.

Well, all the best players put their stamps on big-time matchups, get their teams to the playoffs, and have big performances when they make it there. That's what Vic will need to do this year, and there are a few people I'm eyeing in particular.

Anthony Davis

The Mavericks are a divisional rival, so he'll have plenty of bites at the apple here. AD may not even suit up for the opening game of the year against the Spurs in Dallas due to his recovery from eye surgery, but there will be three more opportunities for Vic to take him on. Davis is a smaller version of Wembanyama. Tall, long, athletic, versatile on both offense and defense.

He's been seen as one of the top bigs in the league for a decade, so if the Alien can dominate the Brow on a consistent basis, that'll be a large feather in his cap. That's a deep team, too. So it's not like AD doesn't have backup. It would be two teams familiar with each other, each with plenty of weapons to back the two stars up, but how they play, in particular, will determine a lot in terms of who wins. That has to be Vic.

Luka Doncic

Luka has been the bane of the Spurs' existence for years now. He may no longer be in Dallas, but that won't make playing against him any easier. Especially, now that he's found the motivation to finally get in peak condition. The Lakers aren't built the same way the Mavs were, but I don't think anyone really doubts how good they'll be when he's on his game, which will be mostly always.

Doncic is one of the best players in the world, offensively. Shutting him down will be a team effort, and someone like Jeremy Sochan will be a huge factor in that, but having Wembanyama behind him plays a large role as well. They have three games against LA this season, and we need to leave those matchups believing Vic was the best player on the floor in at least two of the three.

Nikola Jokic

Jokic is the best player in the world, so he's the ultimate test. The Spurs have beaten the Nuggets a couple of times over the past couple of years, but the record is 4-3 in favor of Denver. Wembanyama actually missed one of those wins, though. He, in particular, is 2-4 in those games, and the Joker averages 36 points in those six games.

They'll play the Nuggets four times this season, and while I'm not going to say that he needs to come out looking like the better player in most of them, there needs to be real doubt in people's minds about how much longer Jokic will be able to keep him at bay. And the 36 points need to come down because c'mon man.

If Vic can drive winning and show more dominance in these matchups, he can enter the conversation for the top five players in the league. Who doesn't want that?