YouTube and all of sports media are flooded with Victor Wembanyama content, but he’s doing too many historic things, so it has to be done. Wemby recently had a 5×5 game. This has only occurred 23 times in the history of the NBA, and he is the first rookie to accomplish this feat. Against the LA Lakers, he finished with 27 points, ten rebounds, eight assists, five steals, and five blocks. Unfortunately, the Spurs lost the game, but that’s nothing new. The crazy thing is Wemby nearly put up back-to-back 5×5 games. In the previous game against the Kings, he finished one assist short. This would have made him the first-ever player with back-to-back 5×5 games.
Victor Wembanyama’s crazy stats
Victor Wembanyama is impacting the game defensively in a way we’ve seen very few times before. He is currently averaging 4.6 stocks per game, which puts him third all-time for stocks per game by a rookie. David Robinson is the current leader with 5.6 in his legendary 1990 rookie season. The major difference between Robinson and Wemby is minutes per game. Robinson played 36 minutes a game as a rookie, while Wemby only played about 28 minutes a night. This gives Robinson a leg up on Wemby in that department. Luckily, a great stat called 36-minute averages compares Wemby and Robinson with equal minutes. Currently, Wemby is putting up 5.8 Stocks per 36 minutes, making him the best defensive rookie in terms of average stocks in NBA history.
Position Change
As many people know, Wembanyama has not been playing center all season. For the first 19 games of the season, he was playing power forward alongside Zach Collins, who was running the center for the Spurs. But on December 8th or game 20 of his career, Wemby started at center, and since making that change, his defensive numbers have skyrocketed. In 32 games at center, he has averaged six stocks per game, 4.7 blocks, and 1.3 steals. Those are video game-type numbers, and Wemby’s doing this as a 20-year-old rookie with 52 games of NBA experience. His defensive impact at such a young age poses the question. What will he be doing two, five, and ten years after he’s fully acclimated to an NBA schedule and defensive scheme?
Is Wemby the DPOY?
After hearing and reading all of these stats, you would think that Wemby would be the clear favorite to take home the Defensive Player of the Year award, right? Well, the NBA and Oddsmakers think differently. Wemby isn’t even the 2nd favorite to win the DPOY; he’s third with +1500 odds on most websites. This is absurd, considering his numbers and defensive impact while he’s on the court. The difference between Gobert and Wemby is that Gobert is on a winning squad while Wemby’s team is heavily struggling. Still, in an individual award, this should not affect it, but unfortunately, it does. Most people agree that Wemby is one of the best, if not the best, defensive players in the league. He will certainly win multiple DPOY awards in his career.
Is Victor Wembanyama the greatest defensive rookie we’ve ever seen? Well, after looking at all these statistics and watching how much this guy impacts the game while he’s on the court, I’d say he is. But what do you think?