In his third 12 months within the NBA, Victor Wembanyama is lastly reaching many milestones all of us knew had been coming when he entered the league. Whereas he made his first All-Star look final season, it was in the end lower brief resulting from deep vein thrombosis, and he missed out on award and All-NBA eligibility resulting from solely enjoying in 46 video games. (Though he nonetheless acquired the blocks chief award due to an exception during which his complete blocks divided 58 — the variety of video games required for stat leaders — nonetheless beat the subsequent chief’s complete blocks/58 video games.)
This 12 months, Wemby is eligible for awards — albeit simply barely — after showing in 65 common season video games, which included the NBA Cup Ultimate (which you gained’t see on official stat sheets as a result of that sport in any other case counts for nothing, but it surely does on this regard). The primary of what needs to be a number of extra recognitions has dropped, with Wemby profitable his first of what needs to be many Defensive Participant of the 12 months awards. He beat out fellow finalists Chet Holmgren and Ausar Thompson for the award and is the primary unanimous winner in NBA historical past. He’s additionally the youngest to ever win it. He joins Alvin Robertson, David Robinson and Kawhi Leonard because the fourth Spur to ever win the award. (By some means, Tim Duncan by no means did.)
Wemby led the NBA in blocks with 197 (simply over three per sport) whereas totaling 66 steals, and he completed second within the league in defensive ranking (110.4) and defensive rebounds (9.5). He additionally grew to become the unofficial inventor of the “nope”, i.e. when a participant drives however decides to turnaround or not even try a shot that many would take into account open or near it resulting from his presence.
Wemby can be a finalist for Most Invaluable Participant, together with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic, which will likely be introduced in mid-Could on an unspecified date. At this level, SGA looks as if the odds-on favourite, and it wouldn’t in any respect shock me if as a result of comparatively low variety of minutes performed this season and lack of playoff appearances when the votes had been tallied, the voters simply aren’t prepared to offer that award to Wemby. That being stated, if he does win MVP this season or one other time during which he additionally wins DPOY, he’ll be part of elite firm with solely Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Giannis Antetokounmpo reaching the feat.
Different Spurs up for rewards which have scheduled announcement dates embody Keldon Johnson for Sixth Man of the 12 months (introduced on Wednesday on ESPN at 5:00 CT) and Harrison Barnes for the Sportsmanship award (introduced on Thursday by way of the NBA). Additionally, Mitch Johnson is a finalist for Coach of the 12 months and De’Aaron Fox for Teammate of the 12 months, which just like the MVP, has but to be assigned announcement dates.
The Spurs will play Recreation 2 in opposition to the Path Blazers tomorrow at 7:00 PM CT on NBC and Peacock.
