Former UConn Star Stephon Castle Is Already The Second-Best Player On The Spurs
Former UConn Huskies national champion guard Stephon Castle has quickly emerged as the best player on the San Antonio Spurs not named Victor Wembanyama.
An eye test alone told anyone watching Friday’s NBA Cup showdown between the Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers that Castle was San Antonio’s second-most impactful player on the floor.
Castle’s numbers are beginning to reflect his impact, too, and we’re just 13 games into the NBA season (and his career).
Castle dropped 22 points on the Lakers on 3-for-4 from three to go along with five assists. He was San Antonio’s second-leading scorer on the night (Wemby: 28 points), and no other San Antonio player scored more than 15.
Castle handled all of the point guard duties when Chris Paul was off the floor, and he looked natural doing so.
He was also huge in crunch time. Even though he missed a three late, the Spurs were only in the game at that point because of a ridiculous lefty finish he had a few plays before that was something out of a Kyrie Irving highlight reel.
Castle has now scored in double-figures in his last five games and in six of his last seven, including a 23-point performance against the Utah Jazz last week.
Castle can get by anyone he wants, and once he gets to the rim, he’s both strong enough to welcome contact from bigs and a crafty enough finisher to use something creative from his layup package if finesse is the better option in the moment.
He makes great decisions with the ball, too, especially for someone who turned 20 less than a month ago. Castle’s lone turnover on Friday came on an entry pass to Wemby that wasn’t quite high enough for the seven-foot-four giant — more of a momentary underestimation of Wemby’s size than a bad decision.
Defensively, Castle’s physical gifts, IQ, and competitive nature give him the chance to be one of the NBA’s best perimeter players on that side of the ball.
The only thing that Castle doesn’t have an elite ceiling in is shooting, but based on how special he is at every other facet of the game, it doesn’t really matter.
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-6cddf44b9a81eadb9d1a4c19c1b3db49.jpeg "Colin Keane")
Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org