Let the record show that it's very possible Victor Wembanyama essentially lost this season's defensive player of the year award in mid-November, in a game against the Golden State Warriors. And he was dominating that game, too.
But Wembanyama got hurt. Strained left calf. He'll be out for the next two or three weeks, at least, and that's before he even gets reevaluated. That means he might miss 10 or more games. And just like that, his chances of getting to the 65-game threshold needed for consideration for most major NBA postseason awards are taking a major hit.
Nobody knows what the NBA award votes will look like next spring, when the latest batch of awards get handed out. But in some cases, it's already getting easy to deduce who won't be on any of those ballots.
LeBron James — who hasn't played yet this season and could debut in his record 23rd year as early as Tuesday for the Los Angeles Lakers — is on the brink of being eliminated from contention for the All-NBA team already, simply because he hasn't played yet. And if he doesn't make All-NBA — put simply, he'll basically have to play just about every game the rest of the way to have a chance — it'll end a 21-year streak of him being part of the league's most elite annual list.
Same goes for Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams; he made All-NBA last season but hasn't played yet this season and is basically on the brink of ineligibility.
Miami's Tyler Herro saw his All-NBA hopes end without him missing a shot; he hasn't played yet this season, either. And now, it's a very real possibility that Wembanyama might be out of the awards mix for a second straight year; his 2024-25 season ended early because of deep vein thrombosis, or else he almost certainly would have been defensive player of the year and All-NBA.
''Every year I try to come in with a mindset of playing the most games possible," Herro said. "Not necessarily for accolades or anything like that — I just want to be on the floor as much as possible. That's what they pay me to do.''
But he needed surgery a few weeks before training camp. His season didn't end. His awards shot pretty much did. And that's the reality of the movement against load management — the fancy term used to explain players resting more often than the league would prefer. The NBA worked with players and came up with the 65-game threshold for most awards, with hopes it would make players play more often. For the most part, it should be noted that everyone understands and agrees with having some sort of benchmark number.
