Spurs Should ABSOLUTELY NOT Trade Pick #4..
ever since the last game of the season against the Pistons almost two full months ago now the Spurs have been rumored to be trading for just about every available and even some unavailable guards across the league Improvement at the point guard position seems to be everyone’s point of emphasis on what the team needs and who they should put around wimy going all the way back to the trade line we heard talks of Trey young since the season ended and that didn’t happen there was talks of is dejonte Murray to head back to San Antonio are the Spurs interested in Darius Garland and I think they’re more rumors but talks of old ass CP3 coming to help develop some of the young players and kind of quarterback the offense recently you’ve heard are they going to package some things or move back or do whatever else and potentially take a flyer on Brony to try and even lure LeBron from the Lakers the one constant that seems to be gaining momentum over the last few weeks close to a month at this point is lottery pick Stefan Castle now in my opinion he’s the most obvious pick for a team like the Spurs looking at a lot of the prospects especially Lottery prospects I don’t see the true point guard or even a combo guard that is going to come in day one and be the quarterback of an offense style point guard when you look at Castle and his mixed bag of skills that he already has especially his intangibles I don’t see a reason why he can’t immediately get some valuable minutes and be productive and along the way over one two maybe three seasons really develop him whether it’s as a shooter a more traditional point guard if they’re looking for a guy to try to replace Trey Jones or to have a little bit more depth and a very reliable easily exchangeable two guard to to go with Vel I mean at this point we’ve all heard coach pop sound bite from the Oklahoma City playoff series years ago about him telling the team he wants to see more nasty and then you go to last year at the end of the season when he had his pressure and he’s singing the Praises of Zach Collins for his his toughness his physicality his grit all those things that the team seems to be lacking but that pop and the the organization as a whole seems to really like that’s what jumps off to me when I watch Castle’s highlights for me this pick is all about Shoring up the defense and I know that there’s three-point shooting issues there’s the whole point guard issue Castle wasn’t projected to be a defensive stud coming out of high school when you factor in his size his strength his mentality how well he’s willing to be coached and then you pair that with a coach like Hurley and you con system and of course the players that he was able to play alongside to me it just goes to show the potential of this kid’s upside it’s safe to say that the Spurs coaching staff and system built around wimy would be a good landing spot for just about any lottery pick type of guard when you factor in a guy with such a high motor and a willingness to be coached hard it just seems like a perfect match when you look at the playoff teams eight of the top 10 defenses from last season made it past the playin games and for me this pick would be more about getting the Spurs to that level than trying to become an offensive Juggernaut Castle’s only 19 years old he’s listed 65 66 somewhere around there in around 210 to 215 he’s not freakishly long and he’s not crazy athletic but his willingness strength ability to go through pick and rolles his aggression on defense using his his body and specifically his chest and not being too handsy reaching or making gambles to me just makes him the perfect piece at the point of attack it allows a very good Defender like Sohan to just stick with defending the wing whoever the wings are it allows you know in my opinion the guy who got robbed of the defensive player of the year wimy to focus more on protecting the paint and be a rim protector you know the Spurs finished in the bottom half of the league and defense and in my opinion it’s not so much just that you don’t have defensive players there was a lot lost in rotations off of screens where guys couldn’t recover people were trying to play Help defense and rotating late I think a guy like that you basically have very solid Defenders at all three levels at any given point on the court drastically changes your overall team defense now the biggest knock on him especially being a shooting guard is his three-point shooting you know he shot 27% I think it was his his one year in college that’s never going to be a good statline for any shooting guard looking at him from a potential point guard standpoint I feel that’s really not a huge necessity from day one he doesn’t possess Kyrie like handles but he’s a good ball handler for sure and he’s averages less than two turnovers a game he seems to be very good at finding the open man especially the bigs and has strength to finish through contact the Spurs as a team definitely need to improve from The Arc I mean they were third from the bottom of the barrel this past season a guy that can get to the rim find open Shooters doesn’t turn the ball over I think that really allows the rest of your Shooters and skill players to not have the obligation of rotating who’s carrying the ball they can focus on getting off their screens getting to their spots especially if you got a guy like him that can that can find them allows your Devon vel’s Malachi Brandon Jeremy sonan Kellin wimy all decent three-point Shooters if they’re not having to create those threes on their own or take everything in a one oneon-one as a step back or off of a dribble pullup I I think you’ll see individual three-point percentages starting to go up and collectively you know the team’s going to look better from it as far as his shots concerned he shot 75% from the free throw line in college it seemed like a lot of his threes that he missed were very hesitant like indecisive didn’t seem to have much Rhythm but you know going back to what you see when he actually takes a squared up jump shot when you see his free throws I feel like he has a good foundation to be coached up to be a very serviceable three-point shooter especially if he can get open looks and and kick out when I look at team needs along with the lack of star power in this draft and then factor in the Spurs way of doing things to me this just clearly makes the most sense does he immediately prove the point guard position probably not does he move the team significantly up in the three-point charts no but again going back his defense his rebounding his passing the intangibles that he has in my opinion he’s the best overall fit to a team that’s be honest I mean everybody’s excited about the season wimy had but they’re still rebuilding they’re trying to rebuild and continue this build now pretty much through and around wimy the Spurs aren’t the type of team to chase stars and play a bunch of iso ball they’re a system team they run a lot of pick and roles they rely heavily on ball movement pop is constantly stressing the importance of defense and minimizing turnovers I think he can fit in all of those categories regardless of what guard position or rotation he is in and on top of that he has plenty of room for growth and development especially with that coaching staff guys like wimy Sohan and Kellin especially they’re all guys that can play multiple positions effectively and I feel like Castle would give a fourth option of a guy that’s kind of a Swiss army knife type player we all know pop loves playing with his rotations and seeing what the offense looks like with different Combos and creating def defensive mismatches I feel early on he’s the best prospect that gives them another option at that there’s obviously more true point guards available there’s better Shooters available there’s better you know just in general Playmakers in this draft but in my opinion Castle is the best overall guard and can be the most impactful within the team system look
I make my case for why I think the San Antonio Spurs should draft rookie Stephon Castle in the 2024 NBA Draft instead of trading the pick for a big name point guard.
