Sporting News NBA Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama will be the best defender of the modern era

Victor Wembanyama's defensive legacy is just starting

Along with being the first unanimous selection for the league's DPOY award, Wemby is also the youngest at just 22 years and 98 days old upon the conclusion of the regular season. He would have set an even more impressive record last season had a blood clot not ended his year early and made him ineligible for the award.

Wemby is going to keep on stacking these awards as long as he stays healthy. He's the best rim protector in the league by a mile, ranking No. 1 in blocks in every single season he's played. His 3.1 blocks per game this year were a full 1.2 ahead of Chet Holmgren at No. 2, and the number would have been much bigger if players weren't so terrified of challenging him.

"You literally don't even want to go to the hole when he's on the floor," LeBron James said recently on his Mind the Game podcast.

There have been a few rare occasions where teams have tried to treat Wemby like any other normal center. The Timberwolves decided to go at him in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals. The result? A playoff-record 12 blocks.

Most of the elite shot blockers throughout NBA history had tremendous size but could be attacked if you managed to force them out on the perimeter. Wemby has no such weakness. He's capable of blocking jump shots or chasing guards around screens.

Even the fastest guards in the league have trouble staying with Steph Curry. Wemby's long strides make it look easy.

Wemby's overall effect on his team's defense is staggering. The Spurs were a total trainwreck on defense before they drafted him, ranking dead last in the league. As a rookie, he upped that number to 22nd. In a truncated second year, they dropped back down to 25th. In his third year, they rose to the No. 3 defense in the league.

If Wemby had played more than 29.2 minutes per game this season, then the Spurs would have been even better. When he was on the court, they turned into a facsimile of the No.1-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder, giving up 106.5 points per 100 possessions. When he sat, they morphed into a slightly better version than the No. 22 Bulls, giving up 116.2 points per 100 possessions.

Wembanyama's defensive impact can't be captured by stats alone. His eight-foot wingspan is staring you right in the face whenever you watch. As Kostya Medvedovsky, the creator of the all-in-one DARKO metric, told me, "The defensive impact is fairly preposterous at the moment. DARKO does not yet have him No. 1, but that's because it can't see him play."

There's no doubt Wemby is the best defender of this generation. The only question now is how he will look through an all-time lens when all is said and done. If he manages to play in 65 games a year at his current levels, he would need another 14 years to overtake Hakeem Olajuwon at No. 1 on the all-time blocks list. He could get past Dikembe Mutombo at No. 2 in 12 years.

Could he play until age 36? Father Time is the only thing that he can't block. Until then, this is his award to keep on winning.