Player The blessed howl's moving castle of Stephon Javonte

[brazil]

We need a thread to follow the adventure of our last year ROTY.

Castle development is going to be interesting, he is in a challenging situation with an healthy Fox and Harper to share minutes. Harper will miss training camps due to his injury and will most likely start off the bench which should give a bit of breathing room for Stephon to start the season.

 

[ginobilized]

Even a ROY in a weaker crop of rookies is very unlikely to be supplanted by a newbie who played for a horrible college program. My bet is that Castle continues to grow and his work ethic, attitude and dog-level grit will separate him from his peers. Harper looks great and is a super smooth offensive player, but, I don't think he will be over-taking Castle at any time this season beyond situational game-to-game moments. Castle's numbers may not skyrocket, but, I'm pretty certain his mistakes will grow smaller each season. I expect to see Castle's leadership elevate now that CP3 is gone. Can't wait for the damn season to start!

 

[brazil]

Even a ROY in a weaker crop of rookies is very unlikely to be supplanted by a newbie who played for a horrible college program. My bet is that Castle continues to grow and his work ethic, attitude and dog-level grit will separate him from his peers. Harper looks great and is a super smooth offensive player, but, I don't think he will be over-taking Castle at any time this season beyond situational game-to-game moments. Castle's numbers may not skyrocket, but, I'm pretty certain his mistakes will grow smaller each season. I expect to see Castle's leadership elevate now that CP3 is gone. Can't wait for the damn season to start!

Harper is not any newbie tbh... he would have been a first pick in a lot of drafts. You don't see a lot of top 3 picks playing a whole season off the bench tbh.. I do hope Stephon can develop a pull up jumper, defenders will try to close the lane to the basket.. a nice jumper would do wonder for his game

 

[Maddog]

I still have some concerns about long term success- or maybe fit with the Spurs*.
I like his athleticism, feel for the game defensive effort, however
He has yet to prove he can shoot.

 

[pRoshi]

One thing is for certain, Castle seems like the type of player who is determined to get better no matter who is in line before or after him. The recent clip of Castle dunking on Harper and covering his face as he would do to opponents during the season shows the kind of tenacity in him.

 

[Neuromancer]

My only concern is his shot and his defense seemingly taking a step back as the season went along. He really seems to have that "dawg" in him so I trust he has been busting his ass all summer to improve on things he needs to work on.

A lot of others are quick to dismiss him because he won ROY in a historically weak class, so I hope he proves it was no fluke

 

[Maddog]

One thing is for certain, Castle seems like the type of player who is determined to get better no matter who is in line before or after him. The recent clip of Castle dunking on Harper and covering his face as he would do to opponents during the season shows the kind of tenacity in him.

Barring injury he'll have a long NBA career. Unless he gets a better shot he's going to be limited. As Brazil mentioned they'll just close the lane on him.
The other item is how does he and Harper and Fox fit together given similarities (and Castle the poorest shooter).
Don't get me wrong- I like the kid and the potential is there, but he definitely needs a better shot.

 

[brazil]

The silver lining to have this position crowded is the competition, nothing better than having a fire under your ass to improve. If Stephon wants his share of the cake he has to be stellar on defense, attack the lane and develop a decent enough shooting. One important aspect will also be the fit with Victor. All needs to work on their P&R

 

[LeBowen]

My only concern is his shot and his defense seemingly taking a step back as the season went along. He really seems to have that "dawg" in him so I trust he has been busting his ass all summer to improve on things he needs to work on.

A lot of others are quick to dismiss him because he won ROY in a historically weak class, so I hope he proves it was no fluke

I'd say that those issues were a product of him having too much resposnibilities in his rookie season, especially after Wemby and Fox got shut down.
He wasn't physically ready for it, how many perimeter, high usage rookies who were also good on defense have we seen as of late?

I'll say he's lucky that there isn't much pressure on him. He doesn't have to become a superstar, we already got our franchise player. He'll be able to develop and evolve his game as years go on. Players who are his best case ceiling like Jimmy, Jrue or Brown took years to develop their game, all I want him to do this season is to show he's got the IQ to make the right plays and that his numbers weren't a product of mindless chucking because he was the only one that could do anything after stars got shut down.

 

[Exstatic]

Close your eyes, and imagine an offense where Stephon Castle draws the 3rd most attention from the defense. Smile.

 

[SpurSpike]

I think he will establish himself as the clear #3 this year and his jumper will be much improved so that he can play with Fox. He knows what he needed to work on and was never afraid to shoot.

 

[pRoshi]

Barring injury he'll have a long NBA career. Unless he gets a better shot he's going to be limited. As Brazil mentioned they'll just close the lane on him.
The other item is how does he and Harper and Fox fit together given similarities (and Castle the poorest shooter).
Don't get me wrong- I like the kid and the potential is there, but he definitely needs a better shot.

Maybe with 3 guards constantly attacking the lane with strength, speed, and craftiness, we will just have the opposing team dead by the 2nd half. I felt like Castle could have finished on a lot more attempts around the rim, he missed a ton of what seemed like easy buckets once he got into the paint. Castle definitely needs to improve his shooting than most but our team in general just needs to get more consistent with making shots.

 

[LeBowen]

Close your eyes, and imagine an offense where Stephon Castle draws the 3rd most attention from the defense. Smile.

Forget about Castle, I hope Devin realize this is the best chance he'll have to be on a winning team.
Him and Barnes as 4th/5th options should be deadly from 3pt.

 

[Lefty20]

Excellent reference OP. I'm a sucker for british humor and this book definitely struck the right chords.

It kinda reminded me of Terry Pritchard's Discworld books.

 

[spurraider21]

Exclusive: Stephon Castle solves Spurs’ 3-guard conundrum while playing role of San Antonio hero​

 

[tim_duncan_fan]

Checking in. I want to see Cast keep growing. He is in my top two Spurs. Just add the 3 and we are golden for 15 years.

 

[sfernald]

Unfortunately the Frost Bank Center is full of soot gremlins!

 

[Space Cowboy]

I’m already a huge Castle fan.

He’s made it clear in both his words and his actions in college that winning is his main priority.

He’s got the perfect mentality to pair with Fox and Harper in my opinion because he’ll fill whatever role around them is needed to win.

That’s the type of leadership that sustained team success is built around.

It doesn’t get talked about a lot, but I also love that he led the team in FT attempts, in his rookie year. Granted, he only shot 72%, but having a guy that can draw fouls and get to the line to score is so valuable.

I expect that’s a skill that he will further refine in year two and that he’ll get more calls now that he’s got a ROY award in his pocket.

Last thing I’ll say is that his shot will improve. I don’t think he’ll accept anything less from himself and he’s starting from a decent place. The rotation on his ball late in the season looked damn good and the mechanics aren’t needing to be torn down and rebuilt. Might not be next year, or all at once, but sooner than later he’s going to put it together.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

I always get a bit nervous when what most people seem to think of first when praising a player is stuff like "mentality", "attitude", or "he's got that dawg in him". Let's hope that over the next two or so years, we'll be talking more about Castle's actual basketball game than about the more metaphorical intangibles.

 

[couchman]

The main thing I hope to see this year from Stephon is a return to focus on the defensive side.
He looked pretty good there to start the year and then as the season progressed his defense fell off a cliff. It was very concerning.
We can't have another Vassell situation where a promising defensive prospect ceases to be a factor on that side of the ball.
Castle has the tools to be a very good defender and we'll need that from our complementary players if we are to be a playoff contender this season.

On offense I'm just hoping he can get his 3pt shooting over 30%.
Gradual improvements are what I'm looking for on that side of the ball.

 

[Shmurs]

I always get a bit nervous when what most people seem to think of first when praising a player is stuff like "mentality", "attitude", or "he's got that dawg in him". Let's hope that over the next two or so years, we'll be talking more about Castle's actual basketball game than about the more metaphorical intangibles.

But he’s “putting in work” so I don’t know what you’re talking about

 

[NASpurs]

 

[spurs10]

When I saw him in the dunk contest I was quite sure this guy was an excellent choice. Then the ROTY. Mighty big year for him.

 

[brazil]

The main thing I hope to see this year from Stephon is a return to focus on the defensive side.
He looked pretty good there to start the year and then as the season progressed his defense fell off a cliff. It was very concerning.
We can't have another Vassell situation where a promising defensive prospect ceases to be a factor on that side of the ball.
Castle has the tools to be a very good defender and we'll need that from our complementary players if we are to be a playoff contender this season.

On offense I'm just hoping he can get his 3pt shooting over 30%.
Gradual improvements are what I'm looking for on that side of the ball.

I'm with you on this one, all should start for him on the defensive side, he has to go for steals and push in transition. His best bet is to transform great defense on good offense, that's the fundation he should build on.

 

[brazil]

With Fox and Harper, Castle will have the opportunity to show his progress early in the season. It will be a lot of pressure for our ROTY to shoot, score, handle the ball but also defend.