Victor Wembanyama props, odds and best bet for NBA debut: Expect Spurs' No. 1 pick to smash his rebound total vs. Mavericks

On Wednesday, the most hyped NBA prospect since LeBron James will make his debut.

The pregame narrative: Victor Wembanyama gets his first regular-season start against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. The Frenchmen's point total is set at over/under 17.5 and is slightly shaded to the over (-117).

Victor Wembanyama props

NBA oddsas of 2:22 p.m. ET on 09/25/2023.

Sometimes the best way to win is to lose.

That's exactly what the San Antonio Spurs did last season. Gregg Popovich's squad put up a horrible 22-60 record and lucked its way into winning the draft lottery and Wembanyama.

The 7-foot-4 phenom won the MVP and DPOY in France's top pro league (Pro A) last season after putting up 21.6 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

Based on those numbers, all of Wembanyama's available prop totals look enticing. If you were to look at his preseason stats, the 17.5-point total especially sticks out. The rookie played four preseason games and cleared this number in three of them, averaging 19.3 points on 50.8% shooting.

Dallas' defence was nothing to write home about last year, either. It ranked 25th in defensive rating (116.1) and 16th in points allowed per game (114.1).

But we're going to turn to his rebound total, instead.

Victor Wembanyama props: Best bet

Best Bet: Wembanyama over 6.5 rebounds (-118)

Wembanyama fell short of this total in all four preseason games, but there's good reason to believe he'll smash this mark in the regular season.

First off, he only averaged 21 minutes a night in those contests and still had at least four boards in each of those games. We're expecting him to carry a much heavier workload in Wednesday's opener and that should translate to increased production on the glass.

But what really makes us excited about this bet is Dallas. The Mavericks were the worst — yes, the worst — rebounding team in basketball last year. They averaged the fewest rebounds (38.8) and offensive rebounds (7.1) per game and had the second-worst rebounding rate (47.3%) in the NBA.

Dallas did trade for Grant Williams and use their first-round pick on Dereck Lively II, a 7-foot-1 centre from Duke, but we still think this is a more-than-manageable line for Wembanyama.