Victor Wembanyama has a chance to become the NBA's youngest-ever MVP during his third season. While he feels the San Antonio Spurs' success is his strongest argument, he knows he'll have to elevate his individual performance the rest of the way to separate himself.
“I know I'm in the MVP conversation. Of course, it's one of my goals,” Wembanyama said following Thursday's win over the Brooklyn Nets. “I think that the main argument for that is the team's success. That's always the first thing. But I'm also conscious that I need to press the gas a little bit during the last part of the season to win that award.”
Wembanyama's two-way play has elevated San Antonio to the NBA's third-best record (43-16), only 1.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot. The Spurs are on an NBA-best 11-game winning streak in February.
Victor Wembanyama making MVP case while leading Spurs' rise in NBA standings
Wembyanyamaa has averaged 23.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists on .501/.347/.815 shooting splits across 45 appearances. He and Nikola Jokic are the NBA's only players to average those marks on such efficiency.
Meanwhile, Wembanyama has cemented himself as the NBA's top defender, anchoring a San Antonio unit that ranks third in the NBA. The 22-year-old leads the league with 3.8 stocks (steals + blocks) per game, 0.8 ahead of the next highest player (Scottie Barnes: 3.0). He's posted a -10.6 defensive rating swing (team points allowed per 100 possession with a player on vs. off), the league's second-highest mark, behind only Rudy Gobert (-12.7), per CleaningTheGlass.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said there's little doubt that Wembanyama has had an MVP-level impact.
“He’s as big a needle-mover for his team to win [as anybody],” Johnson said. “The individual stuff that goes into being identified as the best or most valuable is offense, defense, the boards and everything that goes in between. He’s at the forefront for [each of] those. And there’s other guys in the league that do that. I haven’t taken a deep dive on that, but I definitely think he’s in the conversation. It would be hard for someone to make a logical argument as to why he’s not in that conversation.”
Wembanyama currently has the fourth-best MVP odds at +2500, trailing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (-250), Nikola Jokic (+400) and Cade Cunningham (+850), per FanDuel Sportsbook. The French superstar can miss only three more games to maintain his eligibility for the award.
