Victor Wembanyama is already building the kind of Defensive Player of the Year case that makes the rest of the league look like it’s chasing headlights.
Through five games, the Spurs star is averaging 3.8 blocks, which matches his career high. That’s a tiny sample, sure, but it’s the kind of early-season number that sticks with voters when the award discussion heats up later. Wembanyama is making sure there’s no mystery about who owns the lane.
The on-court numbers tell the same story. San Antonio is posting a 97.7 defensive rating with Wembanyama on the floor, and that number jumps all the way to 118.6 when he sits. That 20.9-point swing per 100 possessions is a reminder of the same issue that has followed the Spurs: how to survive defensively when their giant anchor is on the bench.
For Wembanyama’s award case, though, that gap is gold. It shows exactly how much he changes games even as the roster around him keeps developing. He’s the centerpiece of a defense that was top three last season and has opened this year as a top-10 unit.
The biggest obstacle in his path may already be gone. Chet Holmgren, who is second in the league in blocks at 3.0 per game, is expected to miss about 8-10 weeks after undergoing treatment for a patellar tendon tear.
That kind of absence would almost certainly knock him out of the DPOY race, especially with the NBA’s 17-game threshold for award eligibility. A two-month absence would put him beyond that line.
So the field shifts, and the conversation turns to wings. Amen and Ausar Thompson stand out as the most obvious names. Houston is sitting with the 11th-best defensive rating, while Detroit owns the second-best mark.
Even so, Wembanyama still looks like the clear favorite if he keeps swatting nearly four shots a night and warping everything around the rim. He’s the kind of defender opponents have to plan around before the game even starts.
And the Spurs may not even be done climbing on that end. Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell are still in place, and San Antonio’s defensive identity remains the same. If Mitch Johnson decides the rotation needs a tweak to squeeze out more effort from a different group, that’s a move he can make.
The Spurs are unlikely to finish with the eighth-best defensive rating. The expectation is that they’ll land somewhere in the top three or five. If that happens, Wembanyama’s block totals and overall impact should put him on track for a second straight DPOY trophy.
There’s also another piece of history sitting there. If he keeps the blocks title for a fourth straight year, he would become the first player in NBA history to do it.
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Stephon Castle Is Giving Spurs Fans A New Kawhi Debate
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The comparison naturally leads back to Kawhi Leonard, whose third-season production now serves as the old benchmark for a new Spurs hopeful. Castles role and development path are different, and that matters, but the early signs are enough to make people wonder whether this is just a hot start or the beginning of something much bigger. He still has plenty of time to answer that question, which is what makes the discussion around him so compelling right now. [Read more 🡒]