agonisingly denied by the New York Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re very hopeful, very ambitious and ready,\u201d Wembanyama said as training camp began.<\/p>\n
Rejoining Wembanyama for another title tilt are 21-year-old Stephon Castle and 20-year-old Dylan Harper.<\/p>\n
In the off season they added another piece to the puzzle in 34-year-old veteran Tobias Harris who, along with experience, adds size and strength in the paint.<\/p>\n
Harris was tabbed as the most underrated signing of the off season in a survey of the league\u2019s general managers.<\/p>\n
But the Spurs fortunes will ultimately rest with Wemby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he has a tonne of room to improve in all aspects,\u201d says Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, who took the helm in May 2025 as the Spurs said goodbye to the iconic Gregg Popovich, who led the team to five titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing for him will just be continue to manipulate the game and dictate the game, not just by scoring but by making plays for his teammates forcing the defence to make a decision, and taking advantage of opportunities in front of him,\u201d said Johnson, who wants to see his star \u201calmost puppeteering the game as we see the best players in our game do and we\u2019ve seen him do\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s an area for him to continue growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Nash, the former two-time Most Valuable Player, says Wembanyama has the tools to earn MVP honours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my eyes, Wemby had a case for MVP last year because of the totality of how he affects the game,\u201d Nash said as he discussed Wembanyama\u2019s MVP prospects with James on the \u201cMind the Game\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n
MVP? 1,000%<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the difference is that traditionally you look at who closed the game for your team and Wemby can close games, but he doesn\u2019t, he\u2019s not necessarily a closer,\u201d Nash said. \u201cSome nights, it\u2019s not his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Warriors veteran Draymond Green did not hesitate to tip Wembanyama for MVP \u2013 and Defensive Player of the Year again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith his impact defensively and offensively, the only thing that can stop him from MVP this year is injury… 1,000% I think he takes home both of them this year,\u201d Green said on his podcast.<\/p>\n
Having enjoyed a spectacular ascent in his first three seasons, Wembanyama seems more than happy to embrace the expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for the top spot of the mountain,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to move people in our way.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES – French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, knocking on the door almost since his arrival in the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-933291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}