These NBA playoffs have been a coming out party for Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. After years of bringing in young talent through the NBA Draft, the Spurs put together a strong young core with good glue-guy role players and solid veterans to balance out the roster.
Game 6 and 7 of the Western Conference Finals solidified the Spurs as a strong Spurs team for years to come and Wembanyama as one of the best players for remainder of his time in the NBA.
ESPN's Tim Legler, who is calling these NBA Finals alongside Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson, recently joined the Draymond Green Show to talk about Wembanyama potentially being the best player in the league as soon as next season.
“I think Wemby is setting the stage for assuming that consensus that you have to have or you're generally regarded as,” Tim Legler said of Wembanyama after Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “Because it's never gonna be, rarely is it ever gonna be where it's just unanimous in the moment who is the best. Because even with Shai getting two MVPs, like that's still been a debate throughout the last two seasons. I think Wemby now, and the series he had against OKC and winning Game 7 on the road in the fashion that he did and that team did, you feel like no matter what happens in this series, he is setting the stage for next season where people, and again, you've got to come out of the gate, they've got to play well, he's got to put up his usual numbers, their team's got to get out to a great start. But you know how that works, by like mid-season, we start to form a consensus on it.”
Thus far in this postseason, Victor Wembanyama is averaging 24.4 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.0 steal, and 3.64 blocks per game for the Spurs. Those numbers exclude Wembanyama's Game 2 against the Portland Trail Blazers in which he suffered a concussion, exited the game early in the second quarter, and did not return.
Article Continues Below
“I think Wemby's positioned himself to be that guy, because the impact is dramatic, more and more people now are aware of him, watching him every night, the ways he affects the game. You know, he still has more growth as a player, as a young player and he's come a long way since he got a lead just with functional strength. He doesn't necessarily look much bigger, but he plays a lot stronger than he did when he first came into the league. That's gonna continue to improve. His understanding of different coverages that he's going to see, I still think there's a lot of growth for him as a passer. And I said it last night early in the broadcast, one of his first moves, he went into that spin, and I don't remember who it was, one of the Knicks was in his lap when he came out of spin, he turned the ball over. And I said, if I'm the Knicks, every single time he puts it down and he goes into a spin, someone needs to be there, because the one thing he still isn't gonna do yet is pick you apart with his passing. So make him. That's my approach to him. And so that could be an area of growth for him. Just his maturity overall, I think he's setting the stage for that right now.
Tim Legler says Wemby going into next season is the best player in the NBA:
“I think Wemby now and the series he had against OKC and winning game 7 on the road in the fashion that he did and that team did, you feel like no matter what happens in this series, you know, he is… pic.twitter.com/nBZsU0ieSV
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) June 5, 2026
Through his third season in the NBA, Victor Wembanyama is has been named a two-time NBA All-Star, is a 3-time blocks champion, a two-time All-Defensive Team member, the 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year, the Western Conference Finals MVP, and, in a few weeks, could also be an NBA Champion with an NBA Finals MVP.
These NBA playoffs have been a coming out party for Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. After years of bringing in young talent through the NBA Draft, the Spurs put together a strong young core with good glue-guy role players and solid veterans to balance out the roster.