Is Victor Wembanyama playing tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder? Latest injury update from San Antonio Spurs (9th October)

Victor Wembanyama will be the cynosure of all eyes as the San Antonio Spurs open their preseason against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center. After giving 13,200 fans a glimpse of what he was capable of during an open scrimmage earlier, the French phenom and the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NBA Draft is now all set to start against the Thunder in an away game on Monday (October 9).

After what was a sluggish Summer League debut, Wembanyama will now match up against Chet Holmgren who brings in that added element of aggression to his game. As for the Spurs rookie, his role in defense will be a talking point. His game-awareness and defensive capabilities have been highlighted, and now it will be tested against a young Oklahoma unit.

Rookies usually get some extended time on the floor during preseason games, but given the hype surrounding the San Antonio big, chances are he might play more minutes in all of the preseason games to get a feel of how real-time regular season games pan out.

---

Victor Wembanyama is all about "basketball first"

Speaking on the San Antonio Spurs media day, Victor Wembanyama made his intentions about how he would approach his maiden NBA season very clear. The objective was to get better at the sport first.

According to The Athletic's Mike Monroe, Wembanyama, who has been in the spotlight well before the draft knew that his objective was to help the Spurs get to the playoffs, which they last made in 2019.

“I think pretty quickly I learned to know my teammates and they learned to know me. They know I don’t care about it. I’m here to make sacrifices for them, and I think they’re going to make sacrifices for me when it’s needed. They know it’s different. Of course, there’s going to be a lot of attention, but at the end of the day, we’re at practice and I’m like, ‘Yeah, what can we do today to make this team better?' So it's basketball first."

The team has not made it clear who the starters are alongside Wembanyama. Khem Birch, Jeremy Sochan, and Keldon Johnson are listed as questionable, and that fuels the debate about who would start alongside the Frenchman.

Irrespective, Spurs fans' optimism in Victor Wembanyama remains firm, and it will be interesting to see if can cap off his debut with a win, even if it's just the preseason.