NBA Draft Scouting Report: UConn's Stephon Castle

Scouting Report: Stephon Castle

Contents

1. Prospect Profile 
2. Highlights
3. Draft Projection 
4. 2024 Big Board 

Stephon Castle 

Guard | UConn 

Height: 6'6” | Weight: 190 lbs 

2024 Draft Age: 19.64

Jonah Hinebaugh/Naples Daily News-USA TODAY NETWORK

Prospect Profile 

Castle has the positional size every NBA team seeks, fitting the mold of a jumbo guard or a wing with guard skills. He boasts a solid frame, has good length and is strong for his age. The UConn freshman was a late riser in his high school class but now projects to be one of the better prospects in college the 2024 NBA Draft.=

In terms of versatility, Castle can play off-ball guard, wing and could even play at the four in some lineups. While he’s not tremendously quick or explosive, he is extremely smooth and coordinated for his size, showing a great level of body control and fluidity to move through traffic, change directions and speeds with the ball in his hands.

Castle shows a tremendous ability to get to his spots and decelerate, which allows him to convert tough off-balance shots in the mid-range. From beyond the 3-point line, the UConn prospect uses his smooth ball handling ability to create space and set up jumpers. Castle displays an excellent level of shotmaking from the perimeter, where he shows an incredible level of versatility for his age. He isn’t an elite 3-point shooter today, but his mechanics suggest he should be just fine from deep moving forward. He’s also able to pull-up off screens, punishing defenders who give him space in the perimeter. He leverages his physical tools to make an impact as a prolific scorer. His fluidity for his size makes him a tough match-up for opposing guards and wings at the high school level, as he can find his way to the rim not just by powering through defenders, but also by navigating through traffic and finding the open space while keeping control of the ball.

While Castle is not always able to get to the rim out of sheer quickness, he plays with incredible pace and is rarely rattled in a crowd, using hesitations and crossovers to move defenders off of their spots. Despite not always being able to create enough momentum for powerful finishes at the rim, he compensates to some degree with his level of hang-time and touch on floaters and other tough shots from the five to eight feet range from the basket. He boasts tremendous body control and finishes well at the rim with both hands. Although he has the ability to take over games scoring on his own, Castle is a really unselfish player with the ability to facilitate for his teammates. He’s certainly not a full-time lead guard, but does have good vision and passing upside.

With the only knock on his game being his explosiveness, which is likely not elite for NBA standards, he will need to prove that he can use his other elite physical traits (body control, deceleration and touch) to compensate for his lack of burst at the college level. The defense will also be an aspect to watch, as his high school teams played a lot of zone and Castle was mostly used as an off-ball defender; it will be interesting to see how he adapts to the college game and how he performs if he’s asked to defend opponents in one-on-one situations.

When it comes down to it, Castle is a wing-sized prospect with guard skills. He’ll be joining the Huskies as they look to win another NCAA Championship and will have the chance to play alongside several other future NBA talents, most notably Donovan Clingan.  

Highlights

Draft Projection 

Lottery Pick in 2024 NBA Draft.

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2024 Big Board 

Want to know more about other potential 2024 NBA Draft prospects and where they might get selected? Check out our Draft Digest Big Board.

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