How Victor Wembanyama Injury Impacts OKC Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder have the No. 1 seed all but wrapped up with sights set on the NBA Play-In bracket to determine who strolls into the Paycom Center for the first round of the NBA playoffs. On Thursday, Victor Wembanyama was announced as out for the season and it impacts OKC.

Oct 30, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) shoots as San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) defends during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

On Thursday, the San Antonio Spurs announced that phenom, Victor Wembanyama, will be out for the season with deep vein thrombosis. This is a serious injury and the Spurs are taking the needed precautions while expecting the All-Star to return to full health by the start of the next season.

Wembanyama's full recovery is the most important aspect of this injury, but it does have ripple effects for the Oklahoma City Thunder and the rest of the season.

The OKC Thunder are 44-10 and have the No. 1 seed out West all but salted away. The Thunder will turn its sights to the NBA Play-In race out West and the Spurs are a play-in hopeful but this injury puts a massive hit to their chase of No. 10 seed, already sitting 3.5 games back.

Another fall out of this injury is the award race. Wembanyama was waltzing his way to the Defensive Player of the Year award and now will not qualify for the honor with the new 65 game minimum rule.

Oklahoma City owns a historic defense and have runaway with the best unit in the sport this season. While attention turns to the likes of Evan Mobley and Jaren Jackson Jr., plenty of Thundermen have a case for the hardware.

Most notably Jalen Williams, who is having an elite defense season defending every position on the floor and piling up possession ending stops each contest. On reputation and domination, Lu Dort has a case to nab not only the Defensive Player of the Year but his first All-Defensive honor in his career.

The only draw back to the Thunder's jaw-dropping defense is the amount of players who deserve credit for the success forcing a split vote between teammates that ultimately knocks them all out of the running.

Regardless, the clear-cut winner of the award is no longer eligible which flips this already decided honor into a wide open race.

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