Victor Wembanyama is crushing NBA fan vote against star-studded competition

The Fantastic Four villain Galactus may be nicknamed the Devourer of Worlds, but Victor Wembanyama is coming for that title in short order, and the fans know it. Young stars are often forced to wait their turn before getting respect over the legends still playing the game today, but that's not the case in the latest poll run by the NBA University's social media account.

The poll hasn't yet concluded, but with nearly 7,000 votes registered at the time this post is written, Wembanyama leads Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, and Donovan Mitchell. The Alien has amassed nearly 40% of the votes, with KD following him up with about 31%. Davis comes in third with 18%, and Mitchell sits with 11%. That paints a very clear picture of the perception of the Spurs' franchise star.

Wembanyama is the NBA's next up

The question asks who's the best right now, but it requires nuance to truly answer. Vic missed the last two months of the season, so he didn't get a chance to rubber-stamp the awesome season he was having. Now, we're in the offseason, so fans don't get the privilege of seeing what guys are working on and how they're improving. All you have to go on is what you believe will happen when the new year begins.

Using your imagination—within reason—you're tasked with projecting who will be better in the upcoming season between a third-year player and three established stars who have all been multi-time All-Stars, led teams to the playoffs, and made noise in the postseason.

"Within reason" is the key phrase here, though, because as dominant as we expect the Alien to be, we'll need to see it first before anyone says that he's a better overall player than guys like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to name a few. But the names on this poll are much more reasonable, despite his inexperience in the postseason.

Playoff success has a lot to do with how fans and analysts perceive you, and it should. Now, I don't think it should be so impactful that Jeff Teague says that he'd take Paolo Banchero over Wemby because he hasn't seen the French giant accomplish anything yet. I'd argue that Banchero, only making the playoffs once, and in a very weak Eastern Conference, is being elevated artificially.

Don't get me wrong, Banchero is a hooper, but he also had a lot more talent around him last season, and again, played in a lesser conference. This article from The Ringer has the Orlando star hovering in the lower 20s, and that seems about right to me. But back to the poll.

Wembanyama just affects the game in too many ways to put the other guys on that short list ahead of him. Mitchell isn't a great defender and can be inefficient. Whether Davis is going to show up and have an amazing game is as fickle as the internet's opinion on new films. Durant is just older and can't impact winning or play defense like he used to.

When the season starts, he'll prove the voters right, and if he truly takes the leap we expect, he'll jump ahead of a few other guys, too.