The San Antonio Spurs are seemingly playing mind games with the Los Angeles Lakers regarding Victor Wembanyama‘s status for the Emirates NBA Cup. The Spurs are set to face the Lakers in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena.
According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, Wembanyama will be traveling with the team to Los Angeles. The Spurs superstar participated in practice last Sunday, but he wasn’t cleared to make his return on Monday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
McDonald added that coach Mitch Johnson hasn’t guaranteed Wembanyama will get the green light to play in his first game since November 14. This comes after the Spurs were reportedly feeling “iffy” about clearing the French big man from a strained right calf.
Wembanyama hasn’t played in the Spurs’ last 11 games, but De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell and the rest of the team have kept things afloat. They are 8-3 since Wembanyama went down, which is a great sign for the franchise.
As for the Lakers, they are likely preparing for a fully healthy Spurs team in the Emirates NBA Cup quarterfinals.
Wembanyama’s Chances of Winning NBA Awards
Before suffering a calf injury, Victor Wembanyama was being mentioned in three awards races. Wembanyama entered the season as the favorite to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and started the campaign on fire and in the MVP conversations.
Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors also brought up the possibility of Wembanyama being up for the Most Improved Player of the Year award on his podcast. But what are Wemby’s chances of taking home any award amid his current 11-game absence?
According to Andre Snellings of ESPN, Wembanyama still has a chance to take home an award this season. The eligibility to win the awards is at 65 games played, so the maximum number of missed games for any player is 17.
As of this writing, Wembanyama has only missed 11 games so far. But with the amount of back-to-backs, precautionary rests and other factors, the 21-year-old will need to have a calculated approach if he wants to take home any major awards at the end of the season.
Spurs Could Pair Wembanyama with Giannis Antetokounmpo
While the San Antonio Spurs have looked like contenders this season with or without Victor Wembanyama, they are a tier below the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets. The Spurs could take the Thunder route this season and let the young team find what’s missing in the playoffs.
Another way is to make a splash before the trade deadline, with Ashish Mathur of the Dallas Hoops Journal reporting that the Spurs could pair Wembanyama with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“One of the reasons the Spurs didn’t heavily pursue Kevin Durant in the offseason is that the front office wanted to save trade assets for Antetokounmpo, sources said. San Antonio has a bevy of draft picks it can offer to Milwaukee, plus young players such as Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle,” Mathur wrote.
Evan Sidery of Forbes reported that while Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle are players the Milwaukee Bucks could be interested in, the Spurs have tagged them as untouchable. If they are to pursue Antetokounmpo, the deal is expected to be centered around De’Aaron Fox.
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