Wemby Watch: Victor Wembanyama building strong case for DPOY
Victor Wembanyama received his 2nd Kia Rookie of the Month trophy for games played in February.
Stay up to date on No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama during his rookie campaign with the San Antonio Spurs. A new Wemby Watch drops every Sunday during the season. Here’s what we saw this week:
DPOY case ✋
Wembanyama leads the Kia Rookie of the Year race, having earned his second Rookie of the Month honors for games played in February.
But could he double up with Defensive Player honors?
We’ll see. That idea seemed far-fetched earlier in the season. But Wemby’s stellar performance this season on that end of the floor continues to generate momentum for voters to seriously consider the rookie’s case.
WNBA superstar and NBA analyst Candace Parker also chimed in about the rookie’s DPOY chances in our latest NBA Mailbag.
The 20-year-old has swatted away 37 shots in seven games since the All-Star break with 16 steals. Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert – widely considered the frontrunner for DPOY – logged 22 blocks and five steals since the break, while playing in one more game than his fellow Frenchman.
Family ties 👨👩👦
View this post on InstagramAny of this look familiar? Well, there’s another Wembanyama turning heads among talent evaluators in Victor’s younger brother, Oscar, who turns 17 on Mar. 19.
Oscar plays forward for U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in France, the same club owned by Spurs Hall of Famer Tony Parker, and the one Victor competed with during the 2021-22 season.
Listed at 6-foot-8, Oscar switched from his preferred sport of handball to basketball out of boredom wrought from isolation induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s hooped for a little more than two years now. Yet he’s already won a U15 national title in France.
Is he any good, though?
The way we hear it, Parker has thoroughly enjoyed helping the younger Wembanyama grow in the Tony Parker Adéquat Academy, which opened in 2019 in Lyon, France. Here stateside, some major colleges would like to see the 16-year-old join a prep school in America so they can evaluate the budding talent more closely.
Similar to his older brother, Oscar seems to bring the right perspective into what might turn into a hectic situation in the coming years.
“My brother has been popular for a while,” he told Euroleaguebasketball.net last year. “So, it’s nothing new for me and I don’t particularly feel in his shadow. My goal is not to do exactly like him, but to write my own story, as beautiful[ly] as possible.”
On the court 🏀
Not much to see here since Wembanyama played in just two games last week due to an ankle injury suffered Tuesday at Houston. He certainly started off the week hot, though.
Wemby racked up 31 points, 12 boards and six blocks Sunday in leading San Antonio to a 117-105 win over Indiana as the Spurs captured back-to-back victories for the first time in late January. The French phenom reflected after the game about the type of leader he hopes to become as a franchise cornerstone.
“For me, the obvious answer is always to be a leader by example first,” he said. “I believe in those guys as much as they believe in me. We know what we have. We know where we want to go, and we’re going to trust each other. As much as I can, I’ve tried to lift my teammates up.”
Two days later, Wembanyama logged 31 minutes in the loss at Houston, despite rolling his ankle approximately halfway through the second quarter. Coach Gregg Popovich subbed out the rookie with 5:11 left before intermission and he spent the final minutes of the half in the locker room.
He returned to start the third quarter, and played nearly the entire second half. But it was clear the 20-year-old was hobbled, as Alperen Sengun lit up Wemby and the Spurs. Sengun became the fifth player to tally 45-plus points, 15-plus rebounds, and 5-plus steals in a game since 1973-74, when the NBA first started tracking steals.
Wembanyama committed six turnovers.
In the aftermath, team officials loaded Wembanyama onto a van headed back to San Antonio while the rest of his teammates boarded a flight bound for Sacramento. Wembanyama sat out of the club’s loss to the Kings on Thursday as well as Saturday’s surprising 126-113 victory over a Stephen Curry-less Warriors squad in San Francisco.
1-man highlight reel 🤯
Wembanyama managed to put up a handful of impressive plays before being sidelined for the rest of the week with an ankle injury. Take a look.
Circle On Calendar 📅
We should see Wembanyama return to action after a two-game absence on Monday, when San Antonio hosts Golden State at Frost Bank Center (8 ET, NBA TV).
The clash holds particular interest in light of Draymond Green’s thoughts regarding Wembanyama’s candidacy for DPOY.
In the news 🗞
A couple new features written about the No. 1 pick:
San Antonio Express News’ Tom Orsborn on French reporters moving to Texas to cover Wembanyama.NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner on Wembanyama’s dominant February, which landed him the No. 1 spot in the latest Kia Rookie Ladder for the eighth consecutive week.On the road ✈️
The Spurs head up the road to Austin, where they’ll play two games at the Moody Center as part of the I-35 series. This marks the second straight year that the team will play games in Austin. They’ll host Denver on Friday (8:30 ET, League Pass), followed by a Sunday matchup against Brooklyn (7 ET, NBA TV).
The organization considers the series “part of the team’s vision to purposefully engage and celebrate the Spurs’ entire fan base, extending from Mexico to Austin.” The Spurs set Moody Center attendance records last season in the games they played there.
Expect similar crowds with Wembanyama now in the fold.
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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
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