Wembanyama the Clear MVP Favorite as Spurs Chase Finals Redemption
Fresh off a Finals loss to the Knicks, Wemby headlines our early awards board — and his supporting cast carries real fantasy value too.
Spurs #2 option on a title contender, undervalued at #54 overall.
- Wemby a lock for DPOY if he clears 65 games
- Fox: 18.6 pts, 6.2 ast in 72 games (2025-26)
- Doncic led NBA in scoring at 33.5 pts (2025-26)
- Spurs blew double-digit leads in all 4 Finals losses
- Fox ranks #54 overall, #25 at guard
The 2026-27 awards race starts with a 7-foot-4 answer nobody wants to argue with. Victor Wembanyama is our clear Defensive Player of the Year favorite, and the only real threat to that crown is the 65-game availability threshold. His 8-foot wingspan turns possessions into problems, and there's no one on the horizon built to challenge him.
The MVP conversation is nearly as lopsided. Wemby wants the face-of-the-league title, and last June gave him the fuel: San Antonio coughed up double-digit leads in all four of its Finals losses to the Knicks. The greats usually get knocked down before they take over — and this looks like the knockdown that launches the run.
Luka Doncic is the loudest counterargument. He led the league in scoring at 33.5 points and finished third in assists at 8.3 last season (2025-26), then finished a bitter fourth in MVP voting. Now he's running the post-LeBron Lakers, pushed for the Walker Kessler trade, and hosted a first-ever minicamp in Slovenia to build chemistry. A fourth-place finisher with that stat line and that chip is dangerous.
The Supporting Cast That Matters for Fantasy
The awards chatter is fun, but the Spurs roster is where rosterable value lives. De'Aaron Fox is the secondary engine next to Wemby, and he's quietly a steal in drafts. He put up 18.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists across 72 games last season (2025-26), good for 34.7 fantasy points per game — yet he sits at just #54 overall and #25 at his position in our 2026-27 rankings.
Behind Fox, the picture thins out fast. Devin Vassell (13.9 pts, 25.5 fantasy pts/game in 67 games last season, #139 overall) and rookie-era guard Dylan Harper (11.8 pts, 23.6 fantasy pts/game in 69 games, #159) are deeper-league names rather than core pieces. On a contender this crowded, touches get split, and that caps their weekly ceilings.
Elsewhere, keep an eye on Houston. Fred VanVleet is back, and his return reshapes the Rockets' backcourt — though his form is a flag, with his last five games running 7.8 fantasy points below his season average (2024-25) before the layoff. He ranks #80 overall, so manage expectations.
The Fantasy Bottom Line
Wemby's the no-doubt first-rounder and he isn't the smart value play — everyone already knows. The edge is Fox. A #2 option on a motivated Finals team, delivering 34.7 fantasy points a night last season while sitting outside the top 50, is exactly the kind of mispriced asset you target. Buy low on Fox now, slot Vassell and Harper as bench stashes in deeper formats, and let VanVleet prove his legs before you lean on him.
