The San Antonio Spurs made big strides toward becoming NBA champions last season, thanks to the contributions of their 7-foot-4 French phenom, Victor Wembanyama.
He was named Defensive Player of the Year and emerged as a top contender for the league's Most Valuable Player Award, which ultimately went to the Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Wemby then shut down the critics by helping his team eliminate the defending champions in the Western Conference Finals.
While reaching the NBA Finals was a great accomplishment for a young Spurs team, they definitely are capable of achieving much more. As the new regular season approaches, there are high expectations for Wemby and the Spurs, based on recent predictions made in a poll of NBA general managers.
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NBA general managers appear impressed by what they saw from the Spurs and their superstar center. An NBA GMs survey asked them to make picks and predictions in various categories, including who would win the 2026-27 NBA MVP and championship.
The Spurs received 50% of the GM responses for who would win the NBA championship, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder at 43%. However, San Antonio should be on notice for a potential survey curse, as GMs overwhelmingly picked OKC to win the championship at 80% going into last season.
Speaking of overwhelming, that's the best way to describe their pick for this season's MVP: Wembanyama is clearly the favorite choice at 77%. He also ranked at the top of GM responses for which player they'd take No. 1 overall to start a team right now.
He received 47% of the votes, followed by the Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, for which "player forces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments." That makes sense, as it's difficult to game plan for an athlete with such exceptional talent on offense and defense.
Meanwhile, Wemby made a scary comment during the preseason, suggesting he has even higher expectations for himself this season.
"I got a lot of growth to do. ... and now the standard isn’t being the best on the planet anymore; it’s being better than last year," Wemby told reporters.
At just 22, Wemby's comments could serve as a major warning to the rest of the NBA, especially as he and the Spurs' young core, including Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, continue to develop into star players.
The Spurs tip off their season with a Western Conference Finals rematch against the Thunder on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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