Victor Wembanyama is in his third year and is an MVP candidate. The award is certainly his at some point in his career, but he wants it now. The San Antonio Spurs center is charging up the leaderboard at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, making for a thrilling conclusion to the season. Is it enough to dethrone the reigning MVP? Time will tell, but Wembanyama certainly thinks so.
Victor Wembanyama still believes he’s the MVP
A few weeks ago, Victor Wembanyama said he should be the MVP. He backed his case up by providing reasons, citing his immense defensive impact that goes along with a pretty great offense. Now, after a 41-point outburst and surging odds, he’s doubling down.
He had an absurd 41 with 18 rebounds against the Golden State Warriors. Not only is he surging, but so are the Spurs. They’ve won 10 in a row and they’ve won the last 15 games Wembanyama has played. There’s a good reason he’s now +300 to win the award, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still sitting as the favorite at -360 (FanDuel).
Neither Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nor Luka Doncic, the other competitor for the award (+3000, so a bit of a long shot) made their own cases. Gilgeous-Alexander even declined to comment on it, saying he lets his game do the talking. But Wembanyama is talking.
“I do care deeply about it,” Wembanyama told ESPN. “I think that of the greats that are in the Hall of Fame — or the best of all time — they have fought and grabbed everything they could grab early on in their career. If I want to make my spot among the greats, I got to try to not miss any occasion to put my name up there.”
Impressive hot streak
Victor Wembanyama is not just scoring and blocking shots right now. He’s also rebounding like so few others. He now has five straight games of at least 15 rebounds, which is the longest streak by a Spurs player since Dennis Rodman 31 years ago.
“Wow,” Wembanyama said about his being in Rodman’s company. “I watched a lot of highlights (of Rodman), mostly on the Bulls than anything else. They don’t make them like (him) anymore.” Wembanyama averages 11.5 rebounds per game, fifth-most in the NBA.
Aside from that, the Spurs are also 26-2 in their last 28 games. They’re now just two games back of the top seed in the West, and they happen to hold the tiebreaker over the Oklahoma City Thunder. There’s a real shot that the Spurs will be the top team in the entire NBA.
If they catch the Thunder and sport a 4-1 head-to-head record against them, it could play in Wembanyama’s favor with the MVP voters.
Steve Kerr praises
Before the game against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said there was no better defensive player in the NBA than the Spurs center. He is someone who’d know, as he’s coached a historically good defender (Draymond Green) for years now.
“He’s got unbelievable confidence now,” Kerr said after the game. “He looks like he knows exactly what to do on both ends. His first couple years, he looked young at times. He doesn’t look young anymore. He just looks like he knows exactly what he’s doing. Dominated the glass. There’s plays you can’t do anything. Several lobs where it looked like a Nerf hoop. He’s brilliant.”
Wembanyama faces an uphill battle to both catch the Thunder in the standings and catch Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the MVP race. The odds aren’t in his favor, and time is running out. Furthermore, the Thunder are 15-1 in their last 16, and Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 40 or more three times in the last two weeks.
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