https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/7/15/24198860/nba-summer-league-2024-las-vegas-reed-sheppard-alex-sarrGregg Popovich will have a hard time keeping Stephon Castle off the floor.
One of the pleasures of being an NBA elitist is getting the chance to introduce fresh new faces to the broader basketball world, so let me be the first to report that
Stephon Castle is pretty awesome. There was simply no way to know this about one of the best players on the best team in college basketball last season because the only true crucible is summer leaguethe purest version of the game, spared from distractions like order and game plan and on-court chemistry. We can see the truth of Castle's game in a glorified AAU tournament and, better yet, the single game of a glorified AAU tournament, before Castle withdrew from competition in Vegas with a wrist injury.
But what a game it was. Even in the summer league slop,
Castle is an engine for intuitive, winning plays, connecting dots that lesser prospects wouldn't see and manifesting plays that lesser athletes couldn't create. The questions about Castle's shot and position are inevitable, but those are almost beside the point; what's most striking about watching him play against quasi-pros is realizing how difficult it will be to take him off the floor in the earliest days of his career. Why would the Spurs deprive themselves of a guard who comes by impact plays so naturally? Throw Castle into the mix and see what he can turn up, whether by jamming opponents up at the point of attack or slicing his way through the defense.
Toolsy, theoretical players are fun and all, but so are the dudes who make **** happen almost incidentally, as if it were an entire way of life.
Rob Mahoney