Can Victor Wembanyama Actually Win MVP?
All season long, the MVP award has been between Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Now, Victor Wembanyama can no longer be ignored. Jokic has also seemingly fallen out of the race, but Wembanyama hasn't exactly replaced him. In fact, the San Antonio Spurs center isn't even second in terms of odds, but perhaps he should be.
Victor Wembanyama makes MVP case
Victor Wembanyama led his team to its 22nd win in 24 games after the San Antonio Spurs throttled the Miami Heat on Monday night. His stat line sits at an astounding 24.3 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 3.0 blocked shots. Only six players in NBA history have ever recorded those numbers.
"I have thought about (the MVP race)," Wembanyama said. "I think right now, there is a debate. There should be, even though I think I should lead the race. I'm trying to make sure that at the end of the season, there's no debate."
The odds (more on that below) disagree, but Wembanyama believes he should be the frontrunner for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, Wembanyama might be the best two-way player in the NBA. No one does what he does on defense.
"My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game and that it is undervalued so far in the MVP race. I believe I'm the most impactful player defensively in the league," he said. "Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times with their real team. ... The third argument would be that offense impact is not just points."
NBA MVP odds
As mentioned, the season always felt like it would end with either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Nikola Jokic winning MVP. For a long time, that's how it went. Gilgeous-Alexander began to pull away after setting some records, while Jokic had a stretch of down, for his otherworldly standards alone, games.
Now, SGA is the odds-on favorite, and there's almost no shot anyone catches him. Here are the odds via FanDuel:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: -1500
- Luka Doncic: +1500
- Victor Wembanyama: +2500
- Nikola Jokic: +5500
- Jaylen Brown: +20000
- Donovan Mitchell: +60000
- Jalen Brunson: +100000
- Kawhi Leonard: +100000
- Anthony Edwards: +100000
It's not even a two-man race at this point. Doncic has surged into the conversation, but he's still way behind SGA. Wembanyama, despite his recent comments, is mostly an afterthought as well. It's Gilgeous-Alexander's award to lose.
Spurs coach chimes in
Mitch Johnson gets a front-row seat to Victor Wembanyama's excellence every single night. He also believes he should be in the running, although he was a little more humble about it than Wembanyama was. Johnson also believes that since some other players already have MVP awards, Wembanyama is deserving.
"I think he's close," Johnson said. "All those guys you named are deserving; a couple of them already have that award. And I'm very biased. I get to see one of those guys every single night. I get to see him on the practice court. I get to see what he does in the morning. I get to see what does right now, after the game. So, I understand my opinion and outlook and perspective is very different."
Johnson echoed the center's argument."He affects as much of the game in every single way -- on the court, on both ends, with and without the ball, what the other team tries to do, plan for, scheme, adjust to, on both sides of the basketball, in my very ignorant opinion -- as much as any other player I've ever seen. Take that for whatever it's worth," the coach concluded.
Wembanyama added, "Right now, it is still reasonable that there is a debate. But as I said, my goal is to make sure there's no debate anymore at the end of the season." The big man has 10 games left to make his case over Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic. It's a tall task, but he believes he's more than up for it. He's 7'4" after all.
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