Victor Wembanyama is already one of the NBA’s most feared defensive players. Despite being a rookie on a bad basketball team, Wembanyama is already showing the signs of being a future Defensive Player of the Year, and he’s made clear that he wants to win that award sooner rather than later in his career.
Recently, Draymond Green discussed Wembanyama as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate on his podcast, but expressed that he doesn’t think Wemby should win it this year because of how bad San Antonio’s defense is. Fast forward to today and Green has changed his mind.
"I lied… Wemby should be the Defensive Player of the Year" – @Money23Green 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/7uPsIoMKIv
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) April 3, 2024
“I know I said on here a little while back Wemby shouldn’t be the Defensive Player of the Year, and I lied,” Green said. “Wemby should be the Defensive Player of the Year because he is that amazing defensively. The way he impacts the game on the defensive end — whether it’s off the ball, on the ball — it’s a problem. When you start driving to the hole, and like, guys may have a layup, maybe not, and they just turn out and go the other way, that’s a problem.”
Green explained that when players do that, it’s essentially like Wembanyama has blocked another shot, even if it won’t go down as such in the box score. It’s probably worth mentioning that the Spurs played the Warriors on Sunday, and while Golden State picked up the win, Wembanyama had four steals and three blocks in the game.