Stephon Castle is not your typical Rookie of the Year

Stephon Castle is the reigning Rookie of the Year and his versatility could be key to the Spurs taking the leap.
San Antonio Spurs Media Day
San Antonio Spurs Media Day | Ronald Cortes/GettyImages

Stephon Castle landed at No. 20 on FanSided's 25-under-25 NBA Player Rankings this season, ranking the best young players in the NBA. Check out the rest of the list here.

For a reigning Rookie of the Year, Stephon Castle is in a remarkably weird position. He's arguably the fifth-most important player on the San Antonio Spurs, and there's a good chance he's not even a starter when everyone is healthy. But that has far more to do with his circumstances than his game.

Castle only played about a third of his minutes with Victor Wembanyama last season, sharing the court most often with Harrison Barnes, Chris Paul and Devin Vassell. That pushed him into a much more featured role and he responded — averaging 14.7 points, 4.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game and handling the ball more than anyone else on the roster except Chris Paul, with a time of possession nearly twice that of anyone else.

He put up solid numbers but it was pretty easy to see the ways in which he was overmatched and not yet prepared for that much offensive primacy. Castle was well below average as a scorer in isolation and as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll. He shot below 30 percent on all pull-up jumpers, both inside and outside the arc, and finished the season at 42.5 percent from the field and 28.5 percent from beyond the arc.

A year's worth of experience as a primary scorer and perimeter creator will certainly pay dividends down the line but that's not what Castle will be asked to do this season, and that's exactly why he's so intriguing.


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Stephon Castle is the athletic connector the Spurs desperately need

When you think about the peak years of the Spurs dynasty, it was all about efficiency and precision, preparation and execution. Even when they were drowning opponents in a barrage of layups and 3s, it was all open shots created by systemic advantages rather than athletic ones.

Victor Wembanyama, as an athletic centerpiece, is in a tier all his own, but he's also just part of the shift. De'Aaron Fox is one of the fastest players in the league. Jeremy Sochan is a heavily watered down version of Boris Diaw but he also has a 41-inch vertical leap. Keldon Johnson has bowling bowl strength, but he also does this. Devin Vassell is mostly a slithery, off-ball shooter but he also did that.

And Stephon Castle still might be the best athlete on the roster.

He's already a good perimeter defender with the potential to be much more. His passing and creation abilities will be that much more dangerous against second units or top-tier defenses already warped by Fox and Wemby. (He played just 39 minutes last season with both of them on the floor). It would be nice if his jumper were much more reliable but he was better on catch-and-shoot attempts and his explosiveness makes him incredibly dangerous as a cutter in the halfcourt.

Wembanyama has the potential to be a perennial MVP candidate. De'Aaron Fox could be one of the best point guards in the NBA, and the perfect complement to the young big man. And he might not even be their primary offensive fulcrum of the future, if Dylan Harper develops the way some scouts think he could. Vassell and Johnson and Sochan are the kind of flexible complementary wings every solid team needs.

But Castle is unique in this arrangement becaue of his versatility and because of his physical tools. Because he'll still just be 21 years old this season with untapped potential. There are plenty of teams that built devstating cores and struggled to find the perfect fifth piece to make it all work — look at the Cavs last season, or the Celtics before Derrick White. Castle could be the answer to that problem.

He is definitely not the Spurs' point guard of the future which is fine, because the Spurs don't really need another point guard. They need a Roman Candle who can put relentless pressure on the opponents at both ends of the floor. They also need someone who can play any position, who can push the ball in transition and attack a mismatch, who can do all the switching and halfcourt ball-moving and balletic cuts-into-screens-into-cuts that made the Spurs so dangerous 15 years ago. They need someone like Stephon Castle.

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