Victor Wembanyama starts to pull away in the Rookie of the Year race

NBA
Sunday, 03 March 2024 at 08:00
victor wembanyama spurs imago1038262165h
For weeks, the competition between Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder for Rookie of the Year was very intense and also very close.
But it now seems as though Wembanyama is starting to make a lot more progress toward winning the coveted trophy.
FanDuel listed Wembanyama as the heavy favorite to win Rookie of the Year before Thursday's matchup between the Spurs and Thunder. At the time, he had -700 odds. His performance during that game was sensational, earning 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks in a huge upset win over Oklahoma City.
In one viral moment from the game, Wembanyama blocked Holmgren himself with a smooth, unbelievable move that made the rounds on social media.
As for Holmgren, he scored 23 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 block during the loss.
Both players did very well, but Wembanyama undoubtably did better. That has been the case for the last few weeks and it's why many analysts now envision Wembanyama as this year's top rookie.
After the final buzzer sounded, FanDeul had his chances of winning Rookie of the Year listed at -1350, meaning he made a ton of progress during those four quarters. As for Holmgren, he is now +1000, while Brandon Miller is +42000 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Brandin Podziemski both sit at +50000.
This was the last time that Wembanyama and Holmgren will face off during the regular season, which means that the Spurs star's chances of winning ROY of the year will likely only improve over the next few weeks.