NBA GM survey: Wembanyama will win MVP and defensive player of year, Spurs will win title

The votes are in, and general managers around the NBA are clearly expecting big things from Victor Wembanyama this season.

By their predictions, the San Antonio star is going to win his first Most Valuable Player award, repeat as Defensive Player of the Year — and if that wasn’t enough, he’ll also lead the Spurs to their sixth NBA championship this season. All that is according to voting from the league’s GMs in the annual poll conducted for NBA.com. The poll was released Thursday.

Wembanyama got 23 of a possible 29 votes in the pick for MVP, swept all 29 possible votes in the polling of which player is the league’s best defender, and the Spurs were a narrow pick over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the balloting for which team will win the NBA title.

Each of the league’s 30 GMs got a vote; the maximum number of votes that any player or team could get was 29 because clubs could not vote for themselves or their own personnel.

Among the other highlights:

— In picking the 2027 NBA champion, the Spurs got 50% of the votes and the Thunder got 43%. The GMs expect defending champion New York to emerge from the Eastern Conference; the Knicks got 60% of those votes.

— MVP was a runaway, with Wembanyama at 77% and Denver’s Nikola Jokic being next-closest at 10%.

— Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the back-to-back reigning MVP, was the runaway choice as best point guard (67%). Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards was the pick as best shooting guard (73%), Miami’s Giannis Antetokounmpo was tabbed as best power forward (70%) and Jokic (63%) got the nod over Wembanyama (37%) as the best center. The only close positional battle was small forward, with the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic (37%) edging Boston’s Jayson Tatum (33%).

— Philadelphia (73%) got the nod as having made the best moves of the offseason after landing LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. But Antetokounmpo (53%) was the pick when GMs were asked which one player acquisition would have the biggest impact.

— Miami’s Erik Spoelstra (43%) was the pick as best coach, finishing just ahead of Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault (37%).

— Golden State’s Stephen Curry was essentially the unanimous pick (97%) as best shooter. The Warriors couldn’t vote for him by survey rule.

— Jokic (87%) is the league’s best passer and NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson of the Knicks (53%) is the league’s best leader, the GMs said. Jokic also was picked as the player with the best IQ (67%), with James (33%) getting all the other votes there.

— Houston’s Amen Thompson (63%) was the top choice as the league’s most athletic player.

— Indiana coach Rick Carlisle got nods as the coach who runs the best offense (47%) and as the coach who makes the best in-game adjustments (30%, just ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Tyronn Lue at 23% and Spoelstra at 20%).

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