All season long, it was widely believed that the Defensive Player of the Year award would come down to either Victor Wembanyama or Chet Holmgren. Of course, with Wemby's current health concerns, it seems the OKC Thunder big man is right on the verge of officially locking up the honor for himself.
Heading into San Antonio's Wednesday night matchup against the Trail Blazers, the Spurs announced that their All-World center will be shelved with a left rib contusion, adding yet another ailment to his CVS receipt-length injury report on the year.
Unfortunately, due to his numerous ailments here in 2025-26, Wembanyama has played only 63 games so far this season, falling two shy of the league's recently implemented 65-game rule.
Following this bout against Portland, the Spurs will have two more games remaining on their regular-season schedule, meaning Wembanyama will need to be active for both in order to remain eligible for the game's top-billed defensive award.
Considering how vocal he's been regarding his desires of taking home every end-of-season accolade he's been linked to this year, one should assume that, if it's up to Wembanyama, he'll be suiting up for both of San Antonio's final two games.
However, when taking into account his extensive injury history, coupled with San Antonio's desire to contend for the 2026 NBA Finals, there's a rather realistic chance that the team's medical and coaching staff will opt to proceed with caution with their wunderkind big and try their best to rest him up for the playoffs.
Should the latter come to fruition, one can only assume that the Thunder star, who's currently second in the odds department for DPOY as is, would end up becoming the unquestioned favorite to take home the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy.
Victor Wembanyama may help Thunder big earn DPOY & All-NBA honors
Defensive Player of the Year isn't the only prestigious accolade Wembanyama might inadvertently help the Thunder big earn here in 2025-26.
As a ripple effect of Wemby's recent argument for why he feels he deserves to win MVP, specifically his highlight talking point of how "defense is 50 percent of the game" and that it has been "undervalued" by voters up to that point, there's now even more of a case to be made that Holmgren is more than deserving of being named to one of the league's three All-NBA squads.
Currently, Chet ranks third in the entire league in total blocks (127), second in defensive rating (102.2), and fourth in opponent field goal percentage (42.6) among those who have played a minimum of 50 games on the year. On top of all of this, he's the undisputed anchor of the league's top-rated defensive unit.
Simply put, this exceptional production, grouped with the fact that he's dropping 16.9 points per game on 55.4 percent shooting from the floor and 35.6 percent shooting from deep on 3.5 attempts per game, should all but solidify his worthiness of becoming just the fifth player in Thunder history to be named to an All-NBA team come season's end.