Wemby's shot at making history is still possible with one Nikola Jokic caveat

Victor Wembanyama was top five on the NBA's KIA MVP Ladder before he missed 12 games due to a calf injury. During that time, the Spurs' franchise star fell off the list completely. Understandable; your fitness tracker doesn't read any progress when you're not taking any steps.

Fortunately, it didn't take him long to get back into the top ten when he returned. Wemby has a chance to make history this season. If he wins the Most Valuable Player of the Year award, he'll be the youngest to do it, supplanting Derrick Rose, who set the record in 2011 with his jaw-dropping athleticism and clutch ability.

That wasn't easy for the Chi-Town hero, either. That MVP trophy gets disputed in the court of public opinion to this day because LeBron James also turned in a year for the ages. Like Rose, Wemby's path to history will be treacherous. Nikola Jokic is having a Hall of Fame-level career in one season. He's been absurd this year. So, Vic is going to need a little help to pull this off.

Jokic must slow down and Wemby has to pick it up.

This is one of the best offensive seasons we've ever seen. The Joker is averaging 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists on 60% FG and 44% 3PT. He put up 56, 16, and 15 just two games ago. Nobody even knows how this kind of production is possible, but he's playing out of his mind right now, and they're only one game behind the Spurs in the standings.

He's already won the award three times, and sometimes, voters get fatigue from voting for the same guy, but it'll be hard to deny the brilliance on display from one of the most skilled centers of all time. But that doesn't make it impossible.

It would help if he regressed to the mean just enough. Wembanyama would need to take it from there and have another few nights like the one he had to open the season against the Dallas Mavericks—at least have more variations of it.

Because of the wiry-wingspanned Frenchman's transcendent defense, he has more paths to freaky stat lines than most. The Nuggets' franchise star isn't as defensively inclined. That's the opening Spurs fans should be looking for Wemby to take advantage of. Vic has had three games with five blocks, one with six, and another with nine.

We're going to need more of those with some egregious scoring and rebounding to go with it. Throw a few absurdly great assist nights in there, and he can win it as long as the Spurs finish the season strong.