Tracy McGrady predicts the French phenom will dominate the 2026-27 season, chasing an unprecedented trophy haul and a championship return to cement his status as basketball’s apex.
It took Tracy McGrady until his final year in the NBA to make his first appearance in the Finals as a member of the San Antonio Spurs in 2013.
San Antonio lost that series to the Miami Heat after Ray Allen hit one of the most iconic shots in league history to force game seven — resulting in LeBron James' second-ever title.
The Spurs would win the Finals the following season before enduring a 12-year championship drought, which Victor Wembanyama finally ended by leading the franchise back to basketball's grandest stage.
Now over a decade removed from his run in San Antonio, McGrady believes Wembanyama's individual dominance will lead the Spurs right back to the Finals in 2026-27.
"[Victor Wembanyama is] going to win Defensive Player of the Year. He's gonna win MVP. He's gonna win the in-season Tournament MVP. He's going to sweep [next season]," McGrady said on his "Cousins" podcast with Vince Carter.
Wembanyama became the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in NBA history last season, and while he didn't capture either MVP honor McGrady predicted, he led the Spurs to the NBA Cup championship game and finished third in regular season MVP voting.
The individual challenges McGrady laid out are certainly within Wembanyama's reach.
Few would be surprised if San Antonio built off its Finals run by avenging last season's NBA Cup championship loss, or if Wembanyama beat out the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić for league MVP.
But media-voted accolades aren't all McGrady sees in Wembanyama's future.
"I'm going [with the] San Antonio Spurs to be right back in that position and to win a championship," McGrady continued.
This all sounds great.
Wembanyama has made the extraordinary seem routine since emerging as a teenage phenom, making an NBA Cup title and MVP, league MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and his first NBA championship in his age-23 season feel entirely plausible.
But it is important to note that sort of a campaign has only happened once ever ... when Hakeem Olajuwon did so at 31 years of age during the 1993-94 season.
So, can Wembanyama execute McGrady's proposed "sweep?" He could.
"Will he?" is a different question entirely.
The NBA landscape as a whole has changed plenty since the Spurs fell to the New York Knicks just six weeks ago. Picking San Antonio to win it all isn't an unrealistic take — but we may need to wait until the regular season begins to make a true determination.
Wemby and company should be viewed as the top dogs of the Western Conference until proven otherwise ... but there are so many unknowns at the moment.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are going to look quite different without Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins or Isaiah Joe. But will they look better? Time will tell.
The same logic applies to a team like the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now with LaMelo Ball, it seems like Anthony Edwards' squad will either elevate to new heights or completely crumble.
That's without accounting for the much-improved Eastern Conference, which has claimed two of the last three NBA championships. The lone exception came in a seven-game NBA Finals that swung after Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles during the closeout contest.
It's certainly possible that Wembanyama channels his inner-Olajuwon and dominates the league from start to finish in 2026-27, collecting every major award in the process.
But with the talent that exists across the league now, it's far more difficult to produce such a historic season than it was over 30 years ago.
