The San Antonio Spurs are currently battling the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, and Victor Wembanyama’s defensive gravity is forcing opponents to completely rewrite their offensive schemes. Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took home his second consecutive NBA MVP award recently, finishing ahead of Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Wembanyama. But the conversation around the league is rapidly shifting toward the Spurs center’s inevitable monopoly on the hardware.
Former NBA guard Jeff Teague laid out the timeline on the Club 520 Podcast immediately following the MVP voting results. Teague stated the award is Wembanyama’s to lose moving forward, declaring that the San Antonio star is going to be the MVP for the next ten years.
Wembanyama just finished a 2025-26 campaign that ended with a 60-win regular season and a Southwest Division title. He also secured his place in the record books, according to a Sportsnet breakdown of Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP victory over Wembanyama, by becoming the first player in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award by a unanimous vote.
The Western Conference Finals continue to center on that exact defensive dominance. Wembanyama alters shots on the perimeter and locks down the paint, creating a continuous matchup problem for Oklahoma City. The series resumes this week as the Spurs attempt to use their young anchor to push past the Thunder and reach the NBA Finals.