Stephon Fortress was honored together with his first Western Convention Rookie of the Month award, beating out Isaiah Collier, Ryan Dunn, and Jaylen Wells, per NBA Communications. He averaged 14.9 factors on a 51.9 true capturing share, with 3.1 rebounds and three.6 assists, however his influence felt higher than that.
Bear in mind, there will not be 15 gamers within the NBA scoring 15 factors per sport and guarding the opposite crew‘s finest participant, which is what Fortress is doing. Moreover, getting over all these screens on the level of assault buys Victor Wembanyama an additional second to get into place. He could not get the flashy blocks on the stat sheet, however his work is simply as necessary and is the toughest to do on protection.
Fortress has performed so nicely that coach Mitch Johnson ought to maintain him within the beginning lineup to cowl De’Aaron Fox, the newly acquired Spur’s, defensive weaknesses. Fortress has been a mainstay there since Jan. 8 and on the charge he’s progressing and his means to deal with the duty, it will do him a disservice to maneuver him to the bench as a result of there isn’t a participant undoubtedly higher than him for the job.
In January, 45 % of his makes an attempt have been taken fewer than 5 ft away from the rim, and he made 59.4 % of these pictures. He excels on this space as a result of he strikes nicely with out the ball and is robust sufficient to take a bump from defenders when dribbling. His 3-point share was abysmal (28.8) on over 4 makes an attempt per sport, however he ought to observe Wembanyama’s instance and maintain hoisting them up with out worry. The key sauce that Chip Engelland left behind will ultimately flip him into an outdoor possibility, however it is going to require time. Don’t overlook, a 12 months in the past, Wembanyama was taking numerous warmth from critics, me included, for capturing too many threes and it paid off for him.
On high of that, he confirmed good playmaking expertise within the month, particularly on drive-and-kick performs to shooters and feeds on the break. His reference to Wembanyama is just making Space 51 stronger, too. They confirmed sufficient flashes collectively in January that’s straightforward to check them changing into one of many NBA’s high mixtures.
Fortress is flexible on either side and after an adjustment, incorporating Fox within the lineup, he ought to be capable to preserve his January numbers, which implies this is not going to be his final Rookie of the Month prize.
