Why Victor Wembanyama deserved NBA All-Defensive First Team honors despite Spurs’ poor season

Joining Wembanyama on the All-Defensive First Team are Minnesota Timberwolves star Rudy Gobert, who won Defensive Player of the Year for the fourth time, Miami Heat standout Bam Adebayo, Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis and New Orleans Pelicans swingman Herb Jones.

A close look at Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season defensively

Wemby, who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, averaged a league-leading 3.58 blocks and 1.24 steals to go along with 21.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in 29.7 minutes. He led the NBA in blocks with 254 for the season, recording a league-best 10.01 block percentage—the highest of any player since Manute Bol’s mark with the Washington Bullets in 1985-86. He’s the first rookie to lead the NBA in blocked shots since Bol and the first rookie to average three or more blocks since Dallas Mavericks center Shawn Bradley in 1993-94.

For the year, the top pick in last summer’s NBA Draft finished in the top-10 in total deflections (205), defensive rebounds per game (8.4), total defensive rebounds (594) and defensive rebound percentage (27.3%). Wembanyama is the first player to average at least 10 rebounds, three blocks and one steal since Marcus Camby did it as a member of the Denver Nuggets in 2007.

In addition, the 2023-24 Rookie of the Year had an NBA-best 20 games with multiple blocks and multiple steals on the way to 342 combined blocks and steals—or “stocks”—becoming the first Rookie with more than 300 stocks in a season since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992-93 with the Orlando Magic. He also joins Chicago Bulls six-time NBA champion Scottie Pippen as the only players in NBA history with at least 300 blocks and steals and 100 or more three-pointers in a single season.

Wemby registered eight games with seven or more blocks, the most by a rookie since fellow fabled Spurs center David Robinson. Among those eight is a triple-double on February 12th at the Toronto Raptors. Wembanyama blocked a career-best 10 shots that night, including six in the third period, the most in a quarter by any player in 2023-24 and tied for the most blocks ever by a rookie in a single quarter. Across back-to-back nights at the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers a couple weeks later, the French sensation joined Michael Jordan as one of two players in league history to have five steals and five blocks in consecutive games.