{"id":114701,"date":"2025-08-27T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/114701\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:45:09","slug":"spurs-victor-wembanyama-predicted-to-snag-this-trophy-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/114701\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs&#8217; Victor Wembanyama Predicted To Snag This Trophy In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The basketball world held its collective breath in February when San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/spurs\/news\/spurs-injury-update-2-20-25\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ruled out<\/a> for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Wemby\u2019s diagnosis \u2014 deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder \u2014 was frightening in a way that went far beyond sports. Luckily, Wembanyama is going to be okay, and a return to NBA action in 2025-26 is also expected for the phenom.<\/p>\n<p>If Wemby is healthy this coming season, he might be capable of monstrous production. He averaged 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game last year before his season ended, but there\u2019s unbelievably a lot more room for growth.<\/p>\n<p>Wembanyama\u2019s greatest strength \u2014 and most advanced skill, at this point \u2014 is his otherworldly rim protection (hence the blocks). Had he stayed healthy last year, Wemby was a shoo-in to win his first NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise, then, that ESPN\u2019s \u201cSummer Forecast\u201d predicting the league\u2019s major award-winners for next season pinned Wemby as the favorite for DPOY. The results of the \u201cSummer Forecast\u201d came from a panel comprised of NBA reporters, editors and analysts voting on each award, with each panel member tasked with ranking their top three candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>With a first-place vote receiving five points and second- and third-place votes receiving three and one points, respectively, here\u2019s how ESPN\u2019s voting ended up for 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year:<\/p>\n<p>1. Victor Wembanyama: 95 points<br \/>2. Evan Mobley: 31 points<br \/>3. Chet Holmgren: 20 points<br \/>4. Giannis Antetokounmpo: 16 points<br \/>5. Rudy Gobert: 14 points<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s Michael C. Wright provided further context on the voting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder essentially robbed Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama of winning his first NBA Defensive Player of the Year award last season because the 21-year-old failed to meet the 65-game threshold for eligibility when\u00a0he was shut down on Feb. 20,\u201d <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/46038849\/nba-predictions-2025-26-expert-picks-mvp-roy-dpoy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Wright wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite playing in just 46 games last season, Wembanyama led the league in blocks (176) by a wide margin over second-place finisher\u00a0Brook Lopez\u00a0(148 blocks). Plus, he averaged 1.1 steals for a Spurs defense that owned a defensive rating of 115.4 with him on the floor (121.4 without). If Wembanyama plays in league-required 65 games this season, it would be a surprise if he didn\u2019t snatch the award by a landslide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The basketball world held its collective breath in February when San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was ruled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99,32090],"class_list":["post-114701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}