Victor Wembanyama is making his case this week to the MVP voters.
The San Antonio Spurs star Wembanyama spoke on Monday night to reporters after a dominant 136-111 win over the Miami Heat at Kaseya Center in Miami, Fla. During his remarks, Wembanyama laid out three reasons why he believes that he should be selected as this year’s NBA Most Valuable Player.
“My first one would be that defense is 50 percent of the game and that it is undervalued so far in the MVP race,” said Wembanyama, per ESPN. “I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively in the league.
“Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times with their real team,” Wembanyama added. “The third argument would be that offense impact is not just points.”
The 22-year-old Wembanyama, who has guided to the Spurs to a smoking 54-18 record this season, is indeed the frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year. With his imposing 7-foot-4 frame, Wembanyama is leading the NBA with 3.0 blocks per game but also alters far more shots than that and regularly even deters opponents from taking shots against him altogether.
Meanwhile, Wembanyama is right that San Antonio has had three dominant wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder this season (four if counting a narrow victory in NBA Cup play back in December). The Thunder are the only team ahead of the Spurs in the NBA standings and also have current MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the charge.
Finally, Wembanyama’s 24.3 points per game this year are stellar but do not quite match up to the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander (31.5 ppg), Luka Doncic (33.4 ppg), and Nikola Jokic (28.0 ppg). But Wembanyama clearly believes that his ability at his immense size to score at all three levels gives plenty of extra oxygen to his teammates offensively in a way that points alone do not sum up.
At this point, it is probably a two-horse race for MVP between Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander. If the Spurs can chase down the Thunder in the standings (they currently sit three games back), the award might just be Wembanyama’s to lose, especially since he has a slightly more fun personality for the voters as well.
