Player The blessed howl's moving Castle of Stephon Javonte

[Ice009]

But why? We’ve drafted two much better guards since. Why look back on some second rounder who excels against other teams benches?

Because we drafted a scrub a couple of spots earlier (I don't even want to look up the guy's name). Could've used Ajay as trade chip to acquire more assets if they didn't want to keep him (I'm sure he would have played well for the Spurs if they did draft him). Spurs may not have had to trade for Fox and could have kept those assets. Could have maybe used those assets to get a PF or SF instead. It was a crappy miss, especially since Victor had played with him before (I didn't know this until recently).

 

[scott]

It's not that deep.

I and a few others had Ajay identified as a target going into the draft. We had a chance to draft him. We didn't. Turns out he's good. We missed. Oh well.

 

[Exstatic]

Because we drafted a scrub a couple of spots earlier (I don't even want to look up the guy's name). Could've used Ajay as trade chip to acquire more assets if they didn't want to keep him (I'm sure he would have played well for the Spurs if they did draft him). Spurs may not have had to trade for Fox and could have kept those assets. Could have maybe used those assets to get a PF or SF instead. It was a crappy miss, especially since Victor had played with him before (I didn't know this until recently).

Drafting Ajay is not going to prevented a trade for Fox. That’s crazy talk.


The reality is, his stats are over inflated because he got way more minutes than your average bench PG. OKC was rolling teams so bad the SGA didn’t play a 4th quarter for over 20 games. That’s not normal. There was almost zero pressure, too. The leads were so large, the other teams were demoralized and didn’t put up a fight.

 

[LeBowen]

28:54 timestamp.

 

[Paramore]

 

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2010043963072548994

 

[CGD]

28:54 timestamp.

This is actually pretty good. LeBron has some pretty incisive takes on Deni right after.

 

[Ice009]

I was going to try and watch that the other day, but never had time. I'll try and watch it when I can.

 

[SpursBills]

The shooting is the obvious issue now that he's getting schemed, but it looks like his pathway to success are leveraged against 3 main things:

1. Shooting (the Jrue Holiday) - if Castle becomes a Jrue level shooter throughout his career, I'd be very happy with this at this point. 35% on medium volume, elite defense, not quite a full time point guard. For this to happen, he needs to improve his FT%, 3P%, and just his shooting profile in general. Jrue throughout his career was at about 79% on FTs. Defense-wise, I think it's a much smaller jump that he needs given his size strength and physicality. This is not a max-level player, but an elite role player nontheless.

2. Turnovers (the Jimmy Butler) - frequently cited as Castle's ceiling, but Jimmy's underrated superpower and the reason why he's an analytics monster was the ability to sustain high usage rates with a very low turnover rate in spite of being a poor/non shooter. From mid-career on, Jimmy was able to sustain mid 20s usage rates with a turnover rate < 10. Castle's at 26% usage but 19% turnover rate currently, which is unacceptably high for an on-ball guy. His foul-drawing, physicality, and defense are already there, but that turnover rate is going to be what separates him as a legitimate on-ball guy. This is probably a max-level player, even in today's cap environment

3. Ancillaries (the Thompson twin) - these guys are straight up non-shooters, their handle isn't as good as Castle's, and they don't really seem to be able to run an offense that well. However, they're basically maximizing value from possession-maxing ancillary abilities with elite offensive rebounding and turnover generation relative to position. If Castle isn't able to minimize turnovers and his shooting remains problematic, this is a third avenue of success for him, although this relies much more on leaning into his wing skills. This is also not a max-level player, although it will be interesting to see the type of contract the Thompson twins get

The most likely thing to happen is that he'll improve a little bit from buckets 1, 2, and 3 but not lean fully into any given pathway.

 

[spursistan]

I don't think he was ever this bad at any point in his rookie season. He legit look like a scrub out there..I don't know what's going on with him, but Mitch has to shorten his leash because he's point-shaving heavily right now

 

[Rafa]

I don't think he was ever this bad at any point in his rookie season. He legit look like a scrub out there..I don't know what's going on with him, but Mitch has to shorten his leash because he's point-shaving heavily right now

Mitch has made it clear he won’t change, he keeps putting the ball in Steph’s hands despite zero creativity, lost ability to drive and score, being a TO machine, and having no shot. To do that when you got Fox on ur team can only mean Mitch decided he’ll live or die by Steph

 

[LeBowen]

Shooting struggles were expecetd, I don't get how does he go from bulldozing everyone and finishing with ease over rim protectors to not being able to make easy layups.
He's at 37% from 2pt over the past 8 games, just embarrassing.

 

[Mugen]

I don't think he was ever this bad at any point in his rookie season. He legit look like a scrub out there..I don't know what's going on with him, but Mitch has to shorten his leash because he's point-shaving heavily right now

What's going on with him is that teams have scouted his drives so they're laying off his hesi and pump fakes and forcing him to finish over size. If he's not getting bailed out with foul calls, he's useless offensively right now.

Castle was an elite cutter and we've somehow completely erased that skill from of our playbook by putting him on the ball the majority of the time he's in there.

 

[STAT88]

It’s getting ugly now. This is before tonight’s abomination against the Wolves.

With Castle on the bench the offense would be ranked second in the league just behind Boston.

With Castle on the floor it would be the 17th ranked offense in the league.



The other issues is he’s not additive to the Wemby-Fox combination I.e the franchise guy and the max contract guy.



Mitch needs to make a call and change up his role in the SL (off ball, cutter etc.) or bench him for Vassell.

 

[dn0774]

I'm as big a Castle guy as there is but it is tough watching him just throw games right now. Teams put length on him and sag off so he can't get a step on them and when he does his bully drives he can't finish over said length. Memphis put JJJ on him quite a bit the other day and teams clearly took note. This was the logical conclusion of Castle in his current form.

His early season passing and finishing gave me hope that the need for him to be a decent shooter in the near term was overblown. It is on him and the coaching to figure out a new game plan with his current skill set or then need to move him to the bench/reduce his role sadly. Having Fox playing off guard is already not a great use of Fox, but if Castle is on the floor that is what Fox has to do or else Castle is just useless on offense.

 

[couchman]

He has hit the wall hard.
I think he needs a few dnp to reset and rest.
Hopefully Devin comes back soon and we can start Fox, Devin, Champ, Barnes, Wemby.

 

[onechance87]

He has hit the wall hard.
I think he needs a few dnp to reset and rest.
Hopefully Devin comes back soon and we can start Fox, Devin, Champ, Barnes, Wemby.

Hes just being exposed.Hes being dared to hit outside shots and cant get them to fall.So hes forcing shots at the rim and
trying to make plays but ends up turining it over.Hes pretty much turning into sochan on offense,Just useless on offense.
Its a must he starts knocking down shots,Same goes for fox and harper.They are killing us lately.

 

[tim_duncan_fan]

It would help if he would throw in a stop-and-pop middy now and then. Just running into the packed paint over and over again won't work.

 

[Raven_]

Mitch has made it clear he won’t change, he keeps putting the ball in Steph’s hands despite zero creativity, lost ability to drive and score, being a TO machine, and having no shot. To do that when you got Fox on ur team can only mean Mitch decided he’ll live or die by Steph

this was clear very early on last year when he got rid of many players that gave a different look. It got weird this year when harper started playing in the same way as he does, instead of playing the pnr and stuff

 

[RC_Drunkford]

It’s getting ugly now. This is before tonight’s abomination against the Wolves.

With Castle on the bench the offense would be ranked second in the league just behind Boston.

With Castle on the floor it would be the 17th ranked offense in the league.

View attachment 396

The other issues is he’s not additive to the Wemby-Fox combination I.e the franchise guy and the max contract guy.

View attachment 397

Mitch needs to make a call and change up his role in the SL (off ball, cutter etc.) or bench him for Vassell.

the problem is, if you break up the Fox/Castle line up, Castle has to play with Harper. And both of them together are even worse. Right now they are basically unplayable together.

 

[Ice009]

Out of everything he's doing, his free throw shooting is the biggest issue for me. He cost us a game with the Wolves loss with his clangs at the line. I don't care about all the other stuff as much, but there is no excuse missing so many free throws. In a one point game, it'll cost you, and it did last night.

I'd actually like Chris Paul on the team right about now to try and help stabilize his erratic play with good advice. Mitch doesn't seem to know what he's doing. Mitch hasn't changed nothing up. Teams are changing up how they play Steph, but Mitch doesn't seem to try anything else.

It would help if he would throw in a stop-and-pop middy now and then. Just running into the packed paint over and over again won't work.

I'd been hoping he'd incorporate a mid-range shot. He was taking some earlier in the season and making them. Not sure what has happened. Looks like he has no feel for shooting whatsoever right about now. You know, watching him in practice clang shots in some of those video, just not a good sign, but I just wanted to ignore it thinking he'll come good. He looks like early TP where they used to call TP's shots snowflakes (where none of his shots are alike) - regardless of form, that's what the results of his three point shots look like - same with his free throws. This Jimmy Baron guy should have been fired, not promoted (didn't they promote him from shooting coach?). I believe someone like Chip would have helped more. They can't f around with teaching him to shoot as it'll be too late if he doesn't develop it properly at his younger age. I'm a bit down on him for the first time ever.

 

[Mitch Cumsteen]

He was hitting at least some of those middies earlier in the season. He's clanking just about every 8 footer he takes now, and he's usually wide open on them. I've never seen anyone miss so many of them short. Those should be automatic.

The rim finishing has been a disaster. He's getting blocked at the rim more than any player I can remember. He is drawing a lot of fouls though, which is something positive, even if he misses too many free throws he's putting the team in the bonus. And his defense has been great. But holy crap his shooting has taken a turn for the worse after some promising early season results.

I think he'll get the rim finishing figured out. He's just got to mix it up a little between his hesi and going strong to keep the defense off balance. It would help if the rest of the team could knock down some open threes. Vassell has been missed a lot more than I would have imagined with regard to opening everything up, even though Champagnie has played really well.

 

[spursparker9]

Not sure if it is true, but the video has pointed out that Castle is dealing with a left thumb injury since late December. I also noticed that there was a bandage thingy on Castle left hand for a few games already.

The injury might be the cause affecting his shooting. Dunno why the Medical Team is not resting Castle...as a thumb/hand injury would affect shooting, passing, layups etc... But then again, Fox also play through his finger injury last year and still managed to drop 60.

Maybe it is up to the player's pain threshold and if it affect his performance.

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Not sure if it is true, but the video has pointed out that Castle is dealing with a left thumb injury since late December. I also noticed that there was a bandage thingy on Castle left hand for a few games already.

The injury might be the cause affecting his shooting. Dunno why the Medical Team is not resting Castle...as a thumb/hand injury would affect shooting, passing, layups etc... But then again, Fox also play through his finger injury last year and still managed to drop 60.

Maybe it is up to the player's pain threshold and if it affect his performance.

That it’s his non-shooting hand makes it easier to have him play. These guys aren’t getting paid what they are to only play when 100% zero ailments.

His issues at this point are decision making, handles, turnovers all knocks he had before his injury.

a lot of other people have said so but Fox needs to be primary ball handler whenever he’s on the floor. that’s what he’s paid to do. castle and harper gotta keep developing even if they’re already good (current slump notwithstanding)

 

[Exstatic]

That it’s his non-shooting hand makes it easier to have him play. These guys aren’t getting paid what they are to only play when 100% zero ailments.

His issues at this point are decision making, handles, turnovers all knocks he had before his injury.

a lot of other people have said so but Fox needs to be primary ball handler whenever he’s on the floor. that’s what he’s paid to do. castle and harper gotta keep developing even if they’re already good (current slump notwithstanding)

An off hand injury could easily affect both handles and passing.