Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama moves to 2nd in NBA MVP ladder, closes in on SGA originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A lot of people have narrowed down the NBA MVP discussions to Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets‘ Nikola Jokic. These two have been neck-and-neck in the race for a few months now. However, many did not expect Victor Wembanyama to enter the fray this early. The San Antonio Spurs superstar has done quite enough to have his name in the mix and notched a very realistic shot of removing the crown of youngest Most Valuable Player from Derrick Rose.
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Wemby usurps Jokic, closes in on SGA in NBA MVP ladder
As it stands after about 67 games in the association, Gilgeous-Alexander still remains atop the MVP race, per NBA,com.
The Thunder superstar has proven that he is more than worthy of another trophy after leading his squad to an league-best 52-15 record. Not to mention, he has also just broken Wilt Chamberlain’s record for most games scoring 20+ points consecutively while averaging an insane 31.7 points and also dishing out 6.6 assists. There is still a lot of ground to cover but the Spurs star has been on a tear lately.
Wembanyama rose to second in the NBA MVP standings despite being ranked fourth in the past week. He usurped guys like Jokic and Cade Cunningham for this spot. The Spurs have won eight of their last 10 games because of Wembanyama. A lot of this was because he averages 24.2 points alongside 11.1 rebounds and three blocks. Despite being just on his third year in the NBA, he is already leading the Spurs to the second-best record in the league with 48 wins and just 18 losses.
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Realistically, the Spurs superstar can win the trophy alongside the Defensive Player of the Year honors when summer rolls around. He just has to stay healthy and missing the Nuggets game due to an ankle sprain was not a good sign. If ever Wembanyama pulls it off, he will become the youngest NBA MVP. Notably, Rose was officially named the winner of the 2011 trophy while being 211 days past his 22nd birthday. Wembanyama, at maximum, will be 148 days past his 22nd birthday when the first of June strikes — this is usually the timeframe of when the winner is announced.
The Spurs are just 3.5 games back of notching the league-leading record. If they do so and Wemby stays healthy for the minimum amount of games, he will be crowned the NBA MVP.
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