Player The blessed howl's moving Castle of Stephon Javonte

[spursparker9]

Yea...off hand injury definitely will affect off hand layups, off hand dribbles etc.

I think hand injury is hard to recover if you never give it a complete rest. Maybe some players (like kobe) can play through it if his pain threshold is high enough

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

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

Fair. Are you willing to attribute most his recent struggles to that? To me it seems like he’s pressing more than anything

 

[Ice009]

You guys are right, it can affect dribbling, passing, off-hand layups.

For shooting, since it's the off hand, it depends what kind of injury it is. If he can't hold the ball properly with his left, it'll affect his shooting too, but if he can hold the ball no problems with the left, then it should be minimal impact on his shooting.

 

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2011233586637312441

 

[Raven_]

Looked a lot better offensively, doing the same things he always does. But defensively, once again he got the hardest assignment and did nothing with it.

 

[NotoriousHOP]

Stephon "Turnover" Castle

 

[spursparker9]

Patented "turnover".

I think Castle won't learn until there is a playoff game and the scores are tied 120-120 with 10 secs left. Spurs possession and Castle made a turnover and the opponents scored and win the game

 

[RC_Drunkford]

sometimes he just makes his mind up way too early on what he's going to do. Like those kickout passes to players who are being tightlyguarded. You just know as soon as he drives that that's gon be the pass he will throw and they are so easy to telegraph that the opponent gets a steal everytime.

 

[NotoriousHOP]

At the moment he's been figured out. Opposing teams are waiting for the kick out because they know he is sloppy with them. They also know where to be and how to wait when he drives to the rim. He has to be one of the most blocked players in the league. I have a lot of faith in his potential but he needs to change up a few things to find ultimate success.

 

[scott]

12 TOV in the last two games is rough

 

[spurraider21]

football has the "Fuck it... -insert elite wr- down there somewhere" meme where the qb kind of just launches the ball in the general direction of a star receiver hoping something good happens

Castle has a similar mentality, but its more like "fuck it... contact with a defender is down there somehwere" approach. he kind of just drives hoping to jump into somebody, maybe make the tough shot, maybe get a whistle, but lately doesnt really show the craft to create good looks.

we saw much earlier in the season he was being very nifty with his finishing ability and creating last minute separation with quick directional changes. but lately its just been contact first, questions later

 

[LeBowen]

I can't think of any legit point guards that were turnover prone early on and managed to fix that issue throughout the years.

 

[scott]

I can't think of any legit point guards that were turnover prone early on and managed to fix that issue throughout the years.

It's a good thing...

...wait for it...

...that Castle is a 3.

 

[poopbox]

It's a good thing...

...wait for it...

...that Castle is a 3.

Don't tell Castle

 

[spurs10]

Don't tell Castle

Tell Mitch

 

[Quentin_Compson]

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.

Some great points there!
I think a lot of people underestimate just how far away Castle is from being an even passable shooter. He is not even close to being at 30% on his three pointers, his FT percentage isn't a great indicator, and, personal eye test warning, he just doesn't have much of a touch shootingwise. Sure, some of this might get better, but I would say that in the probable outcome, the likelihood of him becoming an average shooter is lower than the other way around.

 

[gilmor2002]

To me, Steph is too 1-dimensional as contrast to a player like Manu or Harper. He bulldoze his way to the rim and there are not a variety of ways that he can alter directions while he was at it. Good players like SGA, Tatum, Brown, Curry can change directions or last-min pass out to the open guys doing that.. not Steph. And he passed too freely without anticipating his passes will be intercepted easily

 

[Seventyniner]

I can't think of any legit point guards that were turnover prone early on and managed to fix that issue throughout the years.

Dejounte Murray went from TOV% of 22.7, 16.6, 15.4 in his first 3 years to 10.2, 11.8, 10.2, 11.3 in his next 4.

 

[brazil]

Great bounce back game tbh... not surprising tho in a night where Spurs shot 16/37 from 3s

 

[STAT88]

Ive been quite critical of Castle but last night he was awesome.

Mixing up that little free throw line jumper when his drive was wall’d off instead of barrelling through was encouraging to see. Needs to do more of that.

Zero turnovers and 10 assists is great. Especially considering he’s top 5 in the league in turnovers per game. Hopefully the reduced usage (by way of increase in Fox and Harper usage) helps clean up some of Castles TO’s, as well as stopping the barrelling drives and mixing in some mid range/floaters so he’s not caught at the rim having to pass.

Three things would really take his game to the next level.

1. Continue to limit turnovers.. that should come with reduced usage more in line with his playmaking/scoring ability.

2. Have at least 1 counter to his drives getting wall’d off. That would either be a mid range jumper or a floater or a little SGA like shoulder bump/chicken wing and fade away when he gets to the paint. That one free throw line jumper he made last night is a good start but needs to show he can knock it down more than once a month. He’s got the size at 6’6 to shoot over most guards easily.

3. At least get his 3 point shot to 30% as a starting point. That would be an improvement on the current 27.6%.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

had 10 assists with less usage. Hope Mitch continues to let Fox and Harper be the main ballhandlers.

 

[spurraider21]

had 10 assists with less usage. Hope Mitch continues to let Fox and Harper be the main ballhandlers.

to be clear, the usage stat doesnt track anything like how much time he possesses the ball. it tracks what % of the team's possessions during hsi time on the floor result in said player attempting a shot, turning the ball over, or getting free throws (notably, it excludes assists)

 

[bozhemoi]

Teams adjusted to how Harper and Castle like to attack. Now they're adjusting back.

 

[1kangaroo]

Oh shocking a young player having growing pains while learning to play in the NBA and having a rough stretch in year two and having to learn to make adjustments after other teams scout you

 

[RC_Drunkford]

to be clear, the usage stat doesnt track anything like how much time he possesses the ball. it tracks what % of the team's possessions during hsi time on the floor result in said player attempting a shot, turning the ball over, or getting free throws (notably, it excludes assists)

yeah but that stat was a lot higher for Castle this season than in that game. Castle had slightly more usage than Fox prior.