Victor Wembanyama won last year’s Defensive Player of the Year award by unanimous decision, but a former NBA player thinks he is not an elite defender.
According to Gilbert Arenas, Wembanyama is not an elite defensive player yet. He argued that just because Wemby is tall and can bother shots vertically does not mean he is elite at what he does.
Arenas said he could not well when offensive players go for a spin or a backdoor cut whenever one does it against him.
“You being taller and longer than everybody, that’s defense,” Arenas said in the Gilbert Arenas show. “Or do you know how to position yourself defensively? So, when you’re talking about understanding how to take plays away before they happen.”
“You see somebody get beat and know to get there so you don’t put yourself in a position to get a foul or something… that’s why he has to try to block everything because he can’t see his coverage. He can’t see a spin, backdoor; he’s over there hugging… he’s still trying to understand what it is.”
Victor Wembanyama’s Defensive Dominance
At just 22 years old, the San Antonio Spurs center became the youngest player and the first-ever unanimous winner of the NBA Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award.
Wembanyama anchored a defense that propelled the Spurs to the third-best defensive rating in the league, with the team boasting an elite 102.9 defensive rating when he was on the court.
He led the NBA in blocks for the third consecutive year, averaging 3.1 blocked shots per game while no other player in the league even eclipsed an average of 1.9.
In addition to his shot-blocking dominance, Wembanyama averaged 1.03 steals and 9.47 defensive rebounds per game, terrifying opposing perimeter players into completely bailing on drives to the rim.
Wemby further elevated his rim protection by averaging a staggering 3.5 blocks per game during the 2026 NBA Playoffs to help the Spurs reach the NBA Finals, but they lost to eventual champions New York Knicks.
Victor Wembanyama Uses NBA Finals Loss To Fuel His Return
Victor Wembanyama is using the tough loss in the NBA Finals against the Knicks to fuel him in the 2026-2027 NBA season.
“Obviously, we have to go through some emotions, and you do some of that alone. But it’s better to do it as a team,” Wembanyama said during media day. “I take a lot of positive things of everything we did this summer. Just being together, honestly, it was amazing. Especially Paris for me, that was really touching, very emotional for me.”
“I’ve had a few sleepless nights, maybe not sleepless nights, but hard to find sleep sometimes. But there’s just a point where you accept that you have to go through it and you have to feel all of it, and we don’t want to hide from anything. So, we’re gonna face these emotions. Face the reality that we have 100 games to play [to get back to the NBA Finals]. And this is the reality of it. We’re in a great spot. We’re very hopeful, very ambitious, and we’re ready.”
With what Arenas has said, that could further motivate Wembanyama to be an unstoppable force on both ends this season.
The Spurs are seen as one of the favorites to win it all this season.
Ex-NBA Player Makes Bold Claim About Victor Wembanyama’s Defense