As a flowering star Stephon fortress arrange because the inevitable winner of this The recruit of the yr of the NBA of the seasonHe shouldn’t shock as a lot because the San Antonio Spurs Guard received his second recruit prize for the month.
What might be stunning, nevertheless, is the corporate that Citadel now retains among the many biggest gamers within the historical past of the franchise. After additionally profitable the respect in January, the nationwide Uconn Huskies champion final yr joined David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Victor Wembanyama As the one Spurs to have received the prize a number of instances.
Stephon Citadel’s off competitors in an excellent season
Throughout 17 video games in March, Citadel began 10 of them. He has a median of 1 Better of 19.5 factors recruited to go together with 4.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 28.8 minutes. THE 2025 MVP Rising Stars Rising Marked two figures in 15 of the 17 competitions, together with 9 with 20 or extra, 4 of those performances that got here out of the bench. He was the one recruit to make greater than 100 targets on the bottom, with 118 within the month. The 70 free throws of Citadel led all the primary -year gamers and its 81 assists ranked second. From March 14 to 29, the 20 -year -old daycare / wing participant appreciated a sequence of 9 video games the place he collected at the least 15 factors, turning into the sixth recruit of the Spurs with such a sequence.
Citadel collected a median of 25.5 factors, 6.3 assists and 6.3 rebounds in opposition to the three major defenses of the League all through the month. On March 2, in opposition to Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, he completed with 32 factors, eight rebounds and three assists. He adopted this with 22 factors, 11 rebounds and eight assists on the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 27. Two nights later, he recorded 22 factors, eight assists and two rebounds in opposition to the defending champion Boston Celtics.
The primary yr goalkeeper gave 14 assists of the season to succeed in 17 factors, 5 rebounds and three interceptions in a 128-120 victory in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers on March 21. It’s the first recruit from Josh Giddey, who completed the feat on January 1, 2022, to arrange these statistics in the identical recreation.
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Citadel is the one tower with greater than 1,000 factors this season. Among the many leaders of the Recruit League, he ranked first by scoring 14.2 factors per recreation, targets on the bottom with 372 and free throws made at 210. He’s second in interceptions, with a median of 0.95 per competitors and fourth in assists, totaling 3.7 per evening.
Citadel joins the legends of the Spurs together with his recruited victory of the month
Robinson (1989-90) and Duncan (1998-1999) received the six recruits of the month of their respective first years as professionals. Because the 2001-2002 season, the NBA has honored a recruit at every convention. Wembanyama received the West Award in every final three months final yr on the best way to a Unanimous recruit of the yr Velocity your head. All three have been the primary world decisions. Like Wemby, Robinson additionally received the Roy unanimously, whereas Duncan’s 113 votes have been solely three timid to acquire all of the tabs.
Citadel was taken fourth within the basic classification final summer time. Solely the legend of the Spurs Sean Elliott, which completed third within the 1989 draft, was written above within the historical past of the spurs among the many unnamed gamers Duncan, Robinson and Wembanyama. He’s heading in the right direction to hitch them once more in simply over a month just like the Recruit of the yr of the NBA winners.
