Victor Wembanyama is being considered a new star of the NBA, even though he has only spent his first season in the most prestigious arena in the world. Ever since he played in France, Victor Wembanyama’s good defensive skills along with his impressive height (2m24 and 2m41 arm span) have helped him become one of the most effective players protecting the basket.

While joining the San Antonio Spurs, being taught by a better coaching staff and playing under the pressure of the NBA, Victor Wembanyama is gradually improving his defense. If developed properly, he can absolutely become the best defensive player in the world. However, that still depends greatly on the surrounding satellites, especially in the race for the title “Best Defensive Player”.

In the 2023/24 season, this title will almost certainly belong to Rudy Gobert. However, Victor Wembanyama also deserves to enter the debate this season.

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Why does Victor Wembanyama deserve the title  “Best Defensive Player”?

Victor Wembanyama’s extremely impressive defensive statistics

If only considering statistics, Victor Wembanyama is capable of competing fairly for the title of “Best Defensive Player”. An average of 3.2 blocks/game is the top number in the NBA this season, far surpassing the 2nd ranked player Walker Kessler (2.8 blocks/game) or top world-class names like Anthony Davis (2.5 blocks/game) and Rudy Gobert (2.1 blocks/game). If it can maintain its current status, Wembanyama will be the first rookie to lead the blocks index since Manute Bol in 1986.

Not only that, Victor Wembanyama’s ability to steal the ball is also very impressive. He averages 1.1 steals/game, a number that is only reserved for defenders and is in the top 50 players with the most steals in the NBA. Wembanyama’s performance even surpassed Rudy Gobert’s in the 2017/18 season, when Gobert held the title of “Best Defensive Player”.

Even data on Plus/Minus, an index measuring a player’s on-court effectiveness, shows that Victor Wembanyama is even doing better than top NBA defensive centers like Rudy Gobert, Brook Lopez, Jaren Jackson Jr. Another statistic from Crafted NBA shows that, when marked by Victor Wembanyama, players will have a decline in shooting efficiency of about 10.6% in the area near the basket.

Defensive highlights of Victor Wembanyama’s life

Normally, building a support wall and letting the defender confront the center is an extremely simple basketball trick. But his enormous height and long arm span help Victor Wembanyama easily catch up with any move of his opponent, including throwing a basket or cutting a pass into the trapezoidal area.

In another phase, Victor Wembanyama even smashed the ball straight into the ground to the amazement of the fans. The young French star’s resilience and long arms are shown most clearly in the ball below.

Or Victor Wembanyama’s beautiful highlight in the match between San Antonio Spurs vs Milwaukee Bucks, when he blocked Giannis Antetokounmpo’s shot.

Even Victor Wembanyama’s ability to keep errors is extremely amazing. Remember, the center position is the place that suffers the most collisions in basketball and is also the most prone to errors, but the young French star only has an average of 2.1 fouls per match. This number is extremely small, compared to the average of over 3 times/match of stars like Jaren Jackson Jr, Rudy Gobert or Domantas Sabonis.

The San Antonio Spurs need better players to support Victor Wembanyama

Collectively, Rudy Gobert is helping the Minnesota Timberwolves have the best defense in the NBA. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs have the 7th worst defense in the league.

However, it should be remembered that before Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs were the team with the worst defensive index in NBA history, which they established in the 2022/23 season. It’s not an impressive achievement, but just with Victor Wembanyama, they have improved markedly this season.\

Even if we dig deeper in terms of advanced stats, when Victor Wembanyama left the field, the San Antonio Spurs scored 10.2 more points per 100 possession situations, even worse than their record. in last season. For those reasons alone, it is possible to realize the importance of Victor Wembanyama to the defense of the San Antonio Spurs.

However, individual titles such as “Best Defensive Player” still have additional criteria to consider as the team’s achievements. With only 11 wins in 55 matches, it will be difficult for Victor Wembanyama to win any individual titles in the 2023/24 season.

If San Antonio Spurs can add quality players in the summer of 2024, Victor Wembanyama will become even more scary.