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.
Thing is, injuries happen. And one extended injury absence is too much to overcome from an awards standpoint.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Portland’s Damian Lillard and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton knew months ago that their All-NBA appearance odds were kaput going into this season because of their Achilles tears in last season’s playoffs. (Haliburton will miss the entire season.) Dallas’ Kyrie Irving tore his ACL last season; he won’t be winning any awards this season while he recovers. It wouldn’t seem likely that the oft-injured Zion Williamson of New Orleans and Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers will make their way to the ballots in April; they’ve both missed a ton of games already.
This is the point in the schedule where some deductions can be made on the award matters, since as soon as Wednesday, some teams will be playing their 17th game of the season. Every team will get there in the next week or so. And for those players who haven’t played yet, that means getting to 65 isn’t really that possible.
Herro might be back for the Heat by next week. But he knows that’s probably too late for award nods.
“I think it’s fair at the end of the day,” Herro said. “You know, some players play 40 games that have those numbers, and then it’s like … you played half the season. So, at the end of the day, it’s about playing and being out there as much as you can for as many games as possible. Again, what they pay us players to do is be on the floor. That’s what I want to do.”
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
