Victor Wembanyama received his 2nd Kia Rookie of the Month trophy for games played in February.
Stay tuned for No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama during his campaign with the San Antonio Spurs. A new Wemby Watch comes out every Sunday during the season. Here’s what we saw this week:
DPOY case β
Wembanyama leads the Kia Rookie of the Year race, having won his second Rookie of the month is honored for games played in February.
But could he double up on Defensive Player honors?
We’ll see. That idea seemed far-fetched earlier in the season. But Wemby’s outstanding performance this season on that end of the floor continues to give voters the impetus to seriously consider the rookie’s case.
WNBA superstar and NBA analyst Candace Parker also talked about the rookie’s DPOY chances in our latest NBA bag.
The 20-year-old has hit 37 shots in seven games since the All-Star break with 16 steals. Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert β widely considered the front-runner for DPOY β had 22 blocks and five steals coming off the break while playing in one more game than his French compatriot.
Family ties π¨βπ©βπ¦
Do any of these look familiar? Well, there’s another Wembanyama turning heads among talent evaluators in Victor’s younger brother Oscar, who turns 17 on March 19.
Oscar plays forward for U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in France, the same team owned by Spurs Hall of Famer Tony Parker, and the one Victor played with during the 2021-22 season.
Listed at 6-foot-8, Oscar switched from his preferred sport of handball to basketball due to boredom caused by the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been living for a little over two years now. However, he has already won an U15 national title in France.
But is he good?
The way we hear it, Parker has really enjoyed helping the younger Wembanyama grow at the Tony Parker AdΓ©quat Academy, which opened in 2019 in Lyon, France. Here stateside, some major colleges would like to see the 16-year-old attend an American prep school so they can evaluate the budding talent more closely.
Much like his older brother, Oscar seems to bring the right perspective to what could be a tumultuous situation in the coming years.
“My brother was popular for a while,” he said euroleaguebasketball.net last year. βWell, it’s nothing new to me and I don’t feel particularly in his shadow. My goal is not to do exactly like him, but to write my own story, however beautiful[ly] as much as possible.”
On the field π
Not much to see here since Wembanyama played in just two games last week due to an ankle injury suffered on Tuesday in Houston. But it sure started the week hot.
Wembey had 31 points, 12 boards and six blocks on Sunday to lead San Antonio to a 117-105 victory over Indiana as the Spurs won back-to-back games for the first time since late January. The French phenom reflected after the game on the type of leader he hopes to become as a franchise cornerstone.
“To me, the obvious answer is always to lead by example first,” he said. βI believe in these guys as much as they believe in me. We know what we have. We know where we want to go and we will trust each other. As much as I can, I tried to lift up my teammates.”
Two days later, Wembanyama logged 31 minutes in a loss at Houston despite rolling his ankle about halfway through the second quarter. Coach Gregg Popovich pulled the rookie with 5:11 left before halftime and spent the final minutes of the half in the locker room.
He returned to start the third quarter and played almost the entire second half. But it was clear the 20-year-old was struggling as Alperen Sengun lit up Wemby and Spurs. Senghun became the fifth player to record 45+ points, 15+ rebounds and 5+ steals in a game since 1973-74, when the NBA first started tracking steals.
Wembanyama committed six turnovers.
Team officials then loaded Wembanyama onto a truck bound for San Antonio, while the rest of his teammates boarded a flight to Sacramento. Wembanyama sat out the club’s loss to the Kings on Thursday as well as Saturday’s stunning 126-113 win over a Stephen Curry-less Warriors team in San Francisco.
1-man highlight reel π€―
Wembanyama managed to make a handful of impressive plays before being sidelined for the rest of the week with an ankle injury. Take a look.
Circle in Calendar π
We should see Wembanyama return to action after a two-game absence on Monday when San Antonio hosts Golden State at the Frost Bank Center (8 ET, League Pass).
The conflict is of particular interest in light of it Draymond Green’s thoughts on Wembanyama’s candidacy for DPOY.
In the news π
Some new features written for the #1 pick:
On the road βοΈ
The Spurs head to Austin where they will play two games at the Moody Center as part of the I-35 series. This is the second year in a row that the team will play games in Austin. They will host Denver on Friday (8:30 a.m. ET, League Pass), followed by a Sunday game against Brooklyn (7 ET, NBA TV).
The organization considers the series “part of the team’s vision to intentionally engage and celebrate the entire Spurs fan base, which stretches from Mexico to Austin.” The Spurs set attendance records at the Moody Center last season for the games they played there.
Expect similar crowds to Wembanyama now baby.
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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his file here and follow him to X.
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