Recapping San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle’s rookie season

Recapping San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle’s rookie season

Let’s recap Stefan Castle’s rookie season. You are Locked on Spurs, your daily San Antonio Spurs podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Happy Friday everybody. Welcome back to Locked On Spurs, the Locked on NBA Network. I’m your host, Jeff Garcia, sports writer for Kings 5 San Antonio. Always glad to have you all back. You guys are the end of yours. Keep coming here every single day for all things silver and black. Subscribe at lockdall spurs, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Kins 5 plus. You know where to go. Pick a platform. We are there. Go do that ASAP. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get themselves 200 bucks in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. You want to do that ASAP. What are we talking about today? We’re going to look back at last season and put on the spotlight or under the spot, I should say. Stefan Castle. Yeah, we’re going to recap Castle’s rookie season, the pros, the cons, what does he need to do to get better, so much more, and then put a grade on his rookie season. And then uh in the final uh segment, we’re going to look at some locked on Spurs uh comments, see what you guys are talking about. So much more right here on Locked on Spurs. But yeah, Stefan Castle, huh, possibly part of the new big three. We’ll see how that works out. You know, Wimby himself, Castle, and Fox. But as much as there were some good things, and we’ll get to that, too, there were some bad things as well. Of course, it’s probably couched and tucked in a little pigeon hole there, that being his rookie season. So, keep that in mind. Uh, let’s go ahead and bring in our guest. He is Michael Himenez to close out the week right here on Locked on Spurs. He is with Area 210 podcast. That’s on YouTube. We’ll talk about in just a few minutes. Follow him on X at MJacquired Tase. Himenez, welcome back, buddy. Hey, man. How’s it going? I didn’t know you were a Dallas Cowboys fan. What’s that all about? Yeah. Yeah. I thought you knew that. No. I’ve known you for so long. I’ve known you for years. Never knew you were a Cowboy fan. You know why I switched up the cap? I’ll be honest. I’ll show you why. Here you go. Cuz I am just lazy and my Spurs cap needs a cleaning. And that’s why I switched it up. I I was like noticing that on past videos. I was like, “Oh my god, my cap is getting dirty and dirty.” I go, “I got to switch it up.” And I found actually I didn’t I forgot that I had this Cowboys cap. I was cleaning out my closet the other day and I said, “Oh my god, here we go. A pretty much a brand new cap.” As you can tell, everybody needs to hear about the Cowboys and I rarely wear wear it. But uh but yeah, that’s the only reason why I switched it up just cuz I I needed a cleaner cap on camera. Uh you know, who’s a Cowboys fan? Giannis. That Oh, see what you’re doing there. See what you’re doing. You’re just stirring that pot. You’re just stirring that pot. You know, where were you a couple days ago? talked to Buck Yiannis, man. You would have really delicious one. But again, everybody, uh, we appreciate Himenez for taking time out of his busy schedule. We’ll let him go shortly because he’s got to get back to work, but we’re going to be talking about Stefan Castle, who he says is his son and hasn’t Stefon Castle jersey. So, I couldn’t think of a better person to talk about Castle than Mike Himenez. So, Himemenz, let’s go and start off. What do you want to start off with? The the good or the bad? What do you want to do first? Uh, let’s start with the good. I mean, he was just named to the all rookie first team obviously because he was rookie of the year. Yeah. But this one finally was the unanimous selection. All got all one 100 votes there. Um it it was obvious, right? He was the rookie of the year and Zachary got 99 of the votes for first team as well. Uh but the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to Stefon Castle. He met expectations. He exceeded expectations in his rookie campaign. you know, 14.7 points per game. Basically, four assists and four rebounds, but it’s the last 10 games of the season that I really focus on because it was 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds. He showed that he can be a legit starter on this team, legit starter in the NBA. And he took he he turned heads. You saw players like like Draymond Green come out and say that this guy could play. LeBron James come out and and sing his praises. uh a fantastic rookie season for the Spurs and back-to-back rookie of the years. It’s amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Um you know, let’s go look at some of the numbers that he did last year in San Antonio. I mean, impressive. 14.7 points per game, 4.1 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and about 81 games. So, y’all, he played pretty much almost an entire season, just missed one. What I liked about him, the versatility. I mean, he is just versatile. the Swiss Army knife if I ever seen one. From the defensive end to the physicality to the scoring to the ability to attack the rim, facilitate, he did it all. Playmaking improved significantly as the season went on. I we flashed an image of him with allar MVP, rookie, rising stars challenge. I mean, you you mentioned about the post allstar break know towards the end of the his uh his rookie campaign there. You mentioned 18 points per game, 5.1 rebounds, 5.0 assist. We can’t even forget about this. He led all rookies in points scored total. Just total. This guy was a wrecking ball. But, you know, as much as we know offensively what he can do defensively, and obviously that’s where he shines the best. I I think one thing that doesn’t get highlighted enough is his ability to rebound. He averaged about 1.1 defensive rebounds per game. um 3.7 rebounds per game uh total offensive and defensive. I think that is something that needs to be highlighted more. He can create those second chance opportunities or get the rebounds and attack and I think that just led to his size. He’s a prototypical NBA guard, isn’t he? He is like you mentioned a Swiss Army knife and this is kind of the difference between him and Deon Vel. If Deon Vel is not having a good shooting night, he’s basically useless out there. Uh, but when it comes to Stefon Castle, he can do so many different things out there, whether it comes from lock down defense, as you said, facilitate the ball, get some rebounds, get some scoring, attack the bucket. What I enjoyed most about Stfon Castle his rookie year was that often times you hear the phrase the rookie wall because the college season’s only about 40 games, NBA season’s 82 games. He, as you mentioned, he played all he played 81 of the 82 games. 81. Y and I think the one that he missed was after the All-Star break. It was kind of like a he needed some time off. So you you look at it and he didn’t hit that wall. In fact, he got better and better as the season went on and he was playing his best ball at the end of the season. We don’t see that with rookies. And he was NBA ready from the get-go, which is why on lockdown Spurs with you over a year ago, what 15, 18 months ago, we were talking about Stefon Castle months before he got drafted by the Spurs because this was the type of player that the Spurs needed. Brian Wright hit a home run. I think it was a no-brainer, though. Okay. I mean, he was the best player available on the board. Spurs did not, fumbled that bag. They they took the guy that they needed to take. The best player available. I’m hoping that they’re going to do that this year with Dylan Harper. You know, another area on the defensive end that I want to highlight outside of the rebounding is his steel rates. I I his steal rate per game led all rookies. That just goes to show you that he raised commitment to his defensive uh side of the court there. Uh he likes to generate those um opportunities for the Spurs and you know hopefully getting W’s moving forward. So as much as we shine a light on his offense, just incredible and his leaping ability and his you know highlight worthy dunks, that’s good. But when it gets down to it, the dirty work, he’s not shy to do the dirty work. Rebounding, steals, being a pest on defense, he does it all. And he does this with a lowkey demeanor. Himenez. He does. You You never I think I’ve saw him maybe get excited, you know, just boisterous on the court just a handful of times last season, even when he just And by Can we talk about just another intangible, the dog in him? Do you think he probably has the biggest dog in him on the roster? I I will put up lump him up there with with the Chris Paul. We’ll see what he’s telling you or not. But last season, Chris Paul had that dog. But Stefon Castle, I mean, every time he dunked on somebody, you see him just mean mugging those other guys. I love that aspect of him. Him and his shots. Oh, he’s out there. I wouldn’t say he was the Spur with the most dog, but he does have some in him. Uh, but you you you mentioned how he can attack the basket, right? I just love the way that he shifts speeds, right? That’s the the good thing about what he does is that you don’t know what’s coming next. He’s like a pitcher who throws an off speed pitch and then a fast ball, fast ball, curveball off speed. He runs up the court literally at different paces and sometimes he slows down to the point where the defender just flies on by and then he lays it in or dunks it in or whatever the case may be. It’s very poetic what he’s able to do out there offensively and defensively. Pop always loved this. I know Pop is gone and we’re with in the Mitch Johnson era, but Pop always said if you can play defense and play lock down defense, you’ve got a role on this team and you’re going to get your minutes. Notice how they they they played him, right? They they they brought him off the bench for a while, then they got him onto the starting unit and he thrived. He was a different player as a starter than as a bench player. That’s the weird thing, Jeff, is that he was not very good coming off the bench. He was just okay. But as a starter, he was a very, very, very good player. And one thing I will say as a positive of Stefon Castle, he went to the University of Chris Paul the same way that Shay Gildis Alexander did five years ago when SGA shared a back court with uh Chris Paul there at Oklahoma City for that one season. And think and Shay Gillis Alexander named MVP this year. Think about all the corporate knowledge on the court, off the court, how to prepare Chris Paul gave to SGA and he gave that to Stefon Castle. So, there’s a lot of positives there. The trend line is there. And if you look at the rookie stats, Mhm. Castle’s rookie stats were much better than SGA’s. SGA made second team allNBA rookie that that that year five years ago. Castle was rookie of the year. So, it’s pretty interesting to see what what can develop, which is why there’s a lot of hesitancy of Spurs fans when it comes to if the Spurs were going to trade for a Giannis to get rid of a Steph Caps because we know what we’ve got with him and we’re we’re projecting him to be potentially all-star caliber. Led all rookies in total points, led all rookies in total steals, 74. Led all rookies and free throws made at 249. This guy is the real deal for as you mentioned a little while ago. all rookie, first team, unanimous pick. Uh you the list goes on and on. He’s done a lot. I can bounce to Himemenz. I was a little surprised. I did not see this coming from Castle. And I think maybe I bought into the whole, well, this draft, it sucks. It’s watered down. You’re not Maybe you might get a contributor. I I think looking back at that draft class, he Menace years from now, people are going to say like, why was everybody bagging on it? Because there were some pretty good players to come out of that draft class from. Castled or Risha to McCain uh Edy played pretty well you know so I think it was per perhaps not given enough shine as it should have but never focusing on Castle himself I think what he proved last season he that he is a vital cog in this rebuild that he is a pillar he’s not just ah player we can swap in and out and maybe we’ll deal him later on no I think barring the Giannis kind of situation you know but outside of Matt, man, he he’s here for the long haul, isn’t he? He is. And I joked on my podcast a while back, also on Twitter at MJ acquired taste. I was I joked, “What if Wimby became the Robin, the Stefon Castle’s Batman?” And a lot of people got frustrated and pissed off about that because they were like, “How dare you put down Wimby that way?” But the fact of the matter is, you mentioned that that phrase got that dog in him. Castle has more dog in him than Wimby. Wim is obviously more talented in the sense that he’s 7 foot4 and able to do certain things that Castle can’t do. But from a standpoint of just mentality, aggressiveness, Castle has more than that than Webby. And when we look at certain players on the Spurs roster, you look at players like Jeremy Sohan, uh Devin Vel, players like Helden Johnson, they’re going to be NBA players for 10, 12 years. They’re going to have long careers. whether it’s with the Spurs or somebody else, they’re going to have long careers because they’re good enough to be in the NBA. The question was of the young core, who was going to be good enough to potentially be an allstar, to be part of a big three or a big four of a playoff team? Castle has proven he’s better than Vel. He’s better than Sohan. He’s better than Kell in the sense that his upside is so much greater than those three players. And the focus has to be on Castle because Castle, that’s a special player, man. That’s a special player. And now we’re looking at at getting a potentially Dylan Harper with the number two pick of the draft next month. That’s interesting because Dylan Harper plays very similar skill set, similar size as Stefon Castle, but is higher rated coming out of college, has potentially a higher ceiling than Castle. So, this is going to be kind of interesting to see how we’re going to do this. May, you know, everyone’s saying, “Oh, well, you can’t draft that because or you got to trade it away because you already have somebody there.” But you can’t do that. You have to take the best player available. Back in the 80s, you know, they they passed on Jordan to get Sam Buoie because they needed the center. No, you don’t do that. You get the best player available and you figure it out. Maybe they can play together. Absolutely. He is Mike Himenez of Area 210 podcast at MJ Acquired Takes that right now. When we get back, we’re look at the other side of the coin. Uh what are some areas that we didn’t like out of Castle in his rookie season? That’s coming up next right here on Locked on Spurs. Hey, let’s talk about FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s in-game gamewinning shots or a breakout player, there can never be a better time to get in on the action. You got to go to FanDuel. Vando makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player prop, performance awards, same game parlays. 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And we’re back right here Spurs, joined by Mike Menace to close out the week here on Lockdown Spurs on this great Friday afternoon or morning by the time I put this out. Uh he is with area 210 podcast following my next choir taste. We’re talking about Stefan Castle looking back at his rookie season. Uh pros, cons, we’re going to give him a grade in just a few minutes. All right, there’s no doubt about it. You summed it up perfectly, Himenez. There’s a lot more pros than cons for his rookie season and his immediate future. But there are some other downside. I think the big downside so far we saw and the numbers back it up is the outside shooting. This guy, he really struggled especially from the three line. Now he showed flashes of getting better. More on that in a bit, but overall he struggled from the perimeter. uh threeline was insue. But as we’ve seen so far this off season, he’s working with the guard whisperer. Yeah, that’s a real person. Everybody if guard whisperer uh to work on that shot. A lot of Eddie is going up there. He’s hitting threes. He’s hitting perimeter shots, catch and shoot, drive basket, pull up pop shots. I get it. It’s in a contained environment. It’s not NBA game action. But nevertheless, that has to be top priority number one. That shot has to get better, doesn’t it, Jimenez? Oh, most definitely. And it’s so interesting watching Stefan Castle because you may you may have caught this throughout several games, especially in February, March, and April, that three-point shot wasn’t going in. He shot 28.8% for the season. And as confident as he is bringing the ball up the court, as confident as he is locking down somebody defensively, as confident as he is taking it to the hole and mean bugging people and all that stuff, when it comes to shooting from 23 feet out, dude, that confidence goes out the window. And you could see the body language. He doesn’t follow through on the shot. He hesitates and it’s not a fluid motion when it comes to it. It’s not a broken shot though, right? It’s not Jeremy Soan with a broken shot that they’re trying to fix. It looks good, but there’s a confidence level that he’s lacking when it comes to shooting three. He didn’t do well shooting three in college at Yukon. Didn’t do it as a as a as a rookie with the Spurs. Something’s got to change because 28.8%’s not going to cut it because guess what they’re going to do? Defenses are going to are going to dare you to shoot the ball. And if you can’t lock it down at 35%, you are hurting the team when it comes to that. You either a take that out of your bag, become a demar de Roza and be a mid, you know, become nothing but tears or because at that point you’re being detrimental towards the team if you’re shoot. But you got to let it fly for a while, proved to yourself that you can knock it down, but 28.8%. And there was a point in the season, March, February, March, where it ticked upward. It did. But then the last five, six, seven games of the season went back down. So yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um, and you mentioned that slight improvement that he had uh after February 1. I got the number here. It went up to about 30.2% from the three line. Still not good enough, but at least it shows some sort of progress in that three-point shot as the season went on. He has an inconsistent jumper. We highlighted that to start this this segment here. And, you know, he’s got to work on that. Defenses are going to sag on him uh if he doesn’t get better. you know, that’s clogging the lane for guys like Fox if they pick Harper and even for Wimi himself. You know, teams are going to be able to collapse and maybe send more double teams on him. The good news is though, we did see some defenses kind of commit to him uh throwing a double team from time to time towards the end of last season. Maybe that was just a byproduct of no Fox and win. They got to shut down somebody. But nevertheless, if he’s going to see those type of defenses, one way to bust those defenses is knocking down the outside shot. Shoot mechanics. Yeah, that can use a little bit of work. Not too too much. But here’s the other thing, too. Let’s talk about this that I thought was kind of a con as well. Uh turnover reduction. Uh that needs to get better. He turned the ball over a lot. Now, that could just be a byproduct of him being a rookie. I get that. But you got to have that responsibility when the ball is in your hand. Uh you don’t want to mess up pick and rolls. There should be easy pick and rolls. Him and Wimi, whoever’s going to run the pick and roll with him should be better. I like to see a turnover reduction moving forward. Let me ask you this though. Do you think his offensive creativity needs work? Cuz he’s either at this point of his career as he’s technically just just drive in and score in the paint cuz he has no shot creation. What do you think about that? It’s going to be difficult to say so far because we don’t know what we have because Darren Fox is only playing 17 games with the Spurs this past season and he was hurt, right? So, we saw them play together and it’s we saw an improvement in Castle because Castle was able to to play off ball. He was able to to find his spots and and play his role is what he was doing. Um, he will develop a better bag of tricks when it comes to doing things offensively. We’re already seeing these videos of him working on the off season trying to fix his jumper and whatnot. Honestly, fixing the jumper is the only thing he needs to do. I mean, he he he drives the ball very well. He cuts the basket. He finishes breaks very well. Uh it’s this it’s the jump shot. And you can tell that he there’s a lack of confidence when it comes to it because when he shoots the ball, he holds the form, right? He he it’s like he’s he’s hoping and praying that it goes in, which is weird because he’s so much conf he’s so confident in everything else that he does out there. You mentioned the turnovers. There were some turnovers where it appears as though he wanted that pass back like like he like he tossed the the ball to be the the teammate and he was like, “Oh, wait.” You know, and and he wanted to grab the grab the pass back. Uh so he he did that a couple of times. That’s just rookie mistakes, you know, that that’s all that that is. Uh, but I mean for you put it all in totality though, what a great and special player he is. Because the guy who was a rookie, 14.7 points per game, getting better and better, he probably averaged like 17 or 18 as a starter for crying out loud as a rookie. If he develops a three-point shot, he doesn’t have to be excellent at it. We’re not expecting him to be Harrison Barnes or Julian Champeni, you know, 38 to 40% from three. We don’t expect that. But we need Webby and Castle to be around 34 to 36% where they’re respectable to pretty decent at three. If we get that improvement, that leap from them, then this is a team that’s going to be analytically in line to be a playoff team. Yeah, absolutely. And uh you know, just play making, you know, expanding that department. I think that’d be good because again we only have I guess technically a sample size of a rookie season and although that’s good but you know we’ll see how his game expands moving forward you know cuz as of right now without that reliable three shot or mid-range game you know he’s just a drive guy and get into the paint and score. I mean that doesn’t say he’s horrible at it. I think he was like 73% at the rim you know so he’s pretty good at it. There’s no knock on that. But just to diversify that bag he has offensively, I think that is going to do him well. The lessons from Chris Paul, as you highlighted, Himenez would do him well moving forward, but he need continued growth right now on the outside shot, playmaking, uh, cutting down on turnovers. Yeah. So, there’s still work for him to do, but again, he’s just a rookie, and at the trajectory that he’s going, he’s only going to get better. All right. As you can tell, there really was a lot more pros and cons, but nevertheless, there is some room for improvement. So, but what do we grade him? Yeah, we’re going to talk about that coming up right here on Lockdown Spurs. What is our final grade for Stefan Castle’s rookie season? We’re back right here on Lock First joined by Mike Himenez of Area 10 podcast. Follow him on XMJ acquired takes by the way. Did you catch that in the last segment? Took another shot as Jeremy Sohan. That’s what Demen is known for. You know, he had that broken shot like uh like Jeremy Sohan. Uh but nevertheless, uh it be obvious. Leave it to Himenez to throw that in there. All right, by the way, everybody uh time to give us our well, we’re going to give you a grade on Stefan Castle. Himemenz, you are the guest. Take it away. What’s your grade for Castle’s rookie campaign? Well, you have to grade with a curve. I mean, obviously, if you’re rookie of the year and you’re the unanimous first team allNBA rookie, it has to be an A. Grading with a curve. Okay. Now, if this was his production level as a four or five year vet, it’d be a B, right? But because he’s a rookie, could he have been better? Could he have been an A+? Well, if his three-point shooting was better, yes. Okay. But put things all in in in totality as a rookie with that curve, I give it a solid A. I mean, he’s rookie of the year for crying out loud. All but what? Two boats. Two boats. Yeah. Those fools. Those fools. I can’t believe they did that to him. All right, I’m with you right there. He’s He’s an A. Yeah, he’s an A. Uh I’m not going to give an A+ because we highlighted some of the room for improvement, but he could definitely that I mean that’s how close he is to being an elite an elite player in this league. Not just a guard, elite player. So he gets boost. I mean, pick one of those categories we looked at in the con section. That was just going to elevate him moving forward. He is a solid A for me. All right, that’s our grade for Castle in his rookie season. What do you think? How did he do? He let he met us know on X at MJ acquire test. You let me know by going to Lock Spurs YouTube page, leaving a comment. We’re reading in the future episode. And speaking of Lockdown Spurs fan comments, we’re going to do that right now. What are y’all guys talking about over there at the Lock Spurs YouTube page? Well, the big topic is Giannis Spurs chatter, rumbling, rumors, speculation. Yeah, a lot of you guys were talking about that. But we’re going to do a little twist today. Himemenz. Yes, it technically is a comment left on the lockdown Spurs page, but it’s from a Bucks fan. The Bucks fans are invading Lockdown Spurs. They’ve entered the chat. They’ve entered the chat. So, let’s see what they had to say. So, let’s read this comment. By the way, it’s going to give away exactly where they’re from, their handle here. Cheese Head 2025. All right. So, let’s see what Cheese Head has to say. He says, “Locked on Spurs. As a Bucks fan, the Spurs can have Giannis for either Dylan Harper or Stefan Castle, plus the Hawks future draft picks, Minnesota’s pick swap, Boston’s pick swap, and let’s get it here. What else do they want? And Sacramento’s pick swap. So that’s at least this Bucks fan who’s entered the lockdown first chat says it might be the sticker price for Giannis in their opinion. First of all, get your reaction to that. What do you think? You think that’s a hefty, you know, uh, sticker price for Giannis? You’d have to add in there Devin Vel because you need to match salaries to some extent when it comes to it all. Uh, so if you were to say, okay, Harrison Barnes, Vel, Kellen, Harper, which is the number two oil pick. Yeah. And then all those swaps in the future. Honestly, that’s that’s the going rate. That’s the go that that is asking 100 cents on the dollar for that trade. The question is, are the Bucks actually going to get 100 cents on the dollar for him? We saw what the Spurs did in fleecing Sacramento. We we gave up 10 cents on the dollar for De’Aran Fox. Giannis is going to command closer to 100 cents on the dollar. I don’t think it’s going to take that much to make it happen. There is other competition out there. Houston may want him. Brooklyn, the Knicks may want him. So, there’s other teams that want his services and know that he’s a top five player in the NBA right now. What that Bucks fan said was actual and factual from their perspective because that is actually his going rate. But I don’t think it’s going to take that much to make it happen. I mean, I think why one of these teams is going to put up an offer that’s going to be good enough. It’s kind of like selling a house, right? You want to sell it at this price, but more than likely, it’s going to come down to this price, right? But you don’t want to get low ball the way Sacramento did. And that’s what that’s what’s going to happen. There’s only four or five teams that are suited that have the the the resources, have the the the draft capital, have the salaries to match, and have the decent young players to be attractive enough to go get a Giannis. Brian Winhorse of ESPN said that this week saying that the most obvious place to go would be San Antonio. And that would be kind of hurtful a little bit, man. For me as a Spurs fan, as much as I would love to see a team with Fox and Castle and with Fox and Wy and and Giannis, the idea of emptying the war chest for one player is very very very difficult to swallow. If this if the Spurs did not have the number two pick in the draft, if we had the number eight pick the way we were originally slotted, I would be like empty the war chest. No. But when we got the number two pick, when we won the lottery to move up from 8 to two, that changed everything because now you’re getting rid of Dylan Harper, who was the consensus by far the number two player of this draft, the 1A to Cooper flag. I understand from a Bucks fan perspective what they’re saying. That’s hundred cents on the dollar. I don’t think I could do it. Yeah, I don’t think I could do it. But if I right pulled the trigger, guess what? I’m gonna go buy a Giannis jersey. So, you know, I’m ride or die with the Spurs. That That’s the thing. Let’s just say the Spurs go ahead and pony up the sticker price and pay it. Um, it’s not like they’re getting some scrub. I mean, this is a generational Hall of Fame talent to pair with the Wimi. You heard reports, you know, anonymous execs saying, “Oh, if that happens, Wimiest, forget about it. It’s title city. Here we come.” And I get that, you know, but for me it’s just I don’t mind the Spurs paying an expensive price tag. I just want to see what they’re going to use to pay it. Um if it’s Harper and then those picks, I mean, you got to use the picks. They can’t draft everybody and it cost a Kellen or a Vel. I mean, you may have to do it. You gotta spend money to make money. But it’s just for me it’s just difficult he man is to to pass on a talent like Giannis. I know they’re going to be oh well look at his age. He’s already you know probably at the peak of his powers or starting to push down but that’s freaking Giannis if he can get up for like five years at peak Giannis. I mean that’s again it’s not like he only has two more years and that’s it. You know he’s going to be out the door. for I mean he’s going to give you a a long he’s going to be a little longevitywise a little bit longer in the tooth than not for the Spurs. So Oh man, I don’t want to get excited here. I don’t want to get excited here. But the only the other drawback too I want to bring up to you before I let you go is we’re seeing in today today’s era like today uh Friday here on lockdown spurs you the the the air of the super team seems to be dying and I’m afraid you know that’s going to repeat itself. You see what happen at Phoenix, saw what happened to Brooklyn recently. Um I would hate to have so many powers on the team and it just doesn’t work out. Well, there are multiple teams that had that that uh super team mentality in one season. So, they were all going to win. Chips. There’s only one championship to go around each season. Uh right now, we are watching a final four of the NBA that’s going to lead to the seventh different champion in seven different years for the NBA. Right. And so there’s parody going on in the NBA right now. I’m cheering for Indiana to make it happen. Right. But uh there’s parody in the NBA that we haven’t seen in a long, long time. I’m afraid that by getting Giannis, he’s going to stay here for just the two years and then bounce and it’s going to make it a two-year window for us to be a championship caliber team. Whereas, if we stay the course and potentially get leaps from Stefan Castle and maybe Dylan Harper does become the truth, right? Maybe he is a a a all-star caliber. Again, he’s higher touted, higher rated than Castle was coming out of college. Maybe that window becomes larger. Maybe that window becomes an 8 to 10 year window. No different than what Tim Duncan had back in the day where he was able to win 99 03 05 07 and 14. Yeah. Uh that’s that’s the debate. Are we going to go for the larger window or are we going to go put all our chips all in the table and go, hey, these next two seasons we’re going to try to make magic happen and then after that figure it out. That’s the hard part. Is it worth a war chest? Like I said, if if it happens, man, I’m going to cheer for it. I’m going to be excited for it. But if it doesn’t happen, I have reasons to still be excited as a sportsman. Yeah. Yeah. Like I just want to live in fantasy world one more time. Can you imagine those two guys on the court? Well, the big qu the big question with that uh and and we we Joe and I talked about this Joe and I talked about this on the area 2 podcast the other day. Having Giannis on this team could be detrimental to WBY because WBY would not be the alpha of that team. You could make the argument that the alpha number one would be Giannis, number two would be Darren Fox because Darren Fox likes to be Mr. Clutch down the stretch. Maybe, just maybe, this is detrimental towards WBY long term because it doesn’t force him to be the man. He just becomes a really good role player at that point. You know, I I see uh I see I see still Wimy’s team, but actually enhances Wimi because Wimi doesn’t like playing center and some analytics show that Giannis excel ex excels, excuse me, at playing the five. So, I disagree, man. I see it like that. Uh Giannis comes to the Spurs, it’s Giannis’s team. It’s not Webby’s team. It’s Giannis’s team. Just because Webby’s been here for two seasons means nothing because you know what you talk about having that dog in him. Yeah. Guess the one player on the Spurs team that doesn’t have a dog in him. Victor Wyama. We has no dog in him. Has no dog in him. Clip that little piece right there everybody. And I I hope that he develops it. I hope he develops it. And I and I think he can. Yeah. But the first two seasons tell me at one point was he a dog? Yeah. Well, we’ll see what happens. We’ll definitely see what happens. I like idea of Giannis in San Antonio. I I think it’s a as you you hit it kind of the nail of the head pretty good just in a roundabout way. It’s it’s it’s win-win no matter what. If if you pass on Giannis doesn’t happen. Oh no, we got Harper and Castle and Wimi and list goes on and on and on. If they make a move for Giannis, oh no, it’s Giannis and Wimi. Who’s going to score on this team? Offensive, defense, all that good stuff. um all that dog and whose house this is, you know, I think you sort that out. But yeah, it’s just I gotta stop him. I got to stop, man. I had these like crazy visions of them two together right here. He is Mikey Mennez of Area 210 podcast. He had his take on the lockdowns. Well, this case the Bucks fan comment on lockdown purpose. Let me know what you think. Let him know on at MJ acquired taste. Also his thoughts on Stan Castle. Tell us about podcast. You and Joe Garcia, y’all doing it blah blah at least for you uh two times out of the week, but Joe goes five times a week. What’s going on over there in your neck of the woods? Yeah, we have the biggest week that we’ve ever had at the Area 210 podcast. And we’ve been doing this for almost two years, man. So, people like talking about the Spurs. They like talking about the Cowboys, the NFL draft, and NBA draft and all that stuff. Uh Caitlyn Clark and all that. So, we just talk sports. We talk pop culture. We talk about nostalgic things. We go on at 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday on YouTube. Just look up the Alamo Sports uh Almo Sports Podcast Network or Area210 podcast. You’ll find us out there. You can follow me on Twitter at MJ Acquire Taste. It’s a fun show, man. Jeff, you’re oftentimes on the show during the season. Uh you make a lot of comments on there. It’s a lot of fan driven comments and things like that that we kind of go into. Uh but we’re really pleased to have had the numbers that we’ve had recently. Uh we’re nearing 2500 subscribers, which is another milestone for us. And uh it’s getting the numbers are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And it’s it’s so much fun to watch and talk about. Yeah. And believe it or not, the personality that Jeff when he throws me under the bus on Twitter is not the personality that I have in person. Okay. Oh, here we go. People like me. People like me, Joe. And Jeff, I never said they don’t like you. I never said they don’t like you. I never said, “Hey, everybody, nobody likes CES.” I never see. Yeah, but you always go to Himenez say this and you and I asking I’m just asking Jimenez. That’s all. I I can already see it. You’re gonna be on Twitter. Dude on Himenez on the next episode of Locked on Spurs said WBY has no dog in him. I can see that as the headline. Hey, hang on. Hang on. Let let me let me live in fantasy land for one minute with you. Here we go. Look at that. Look at that. He is just the two of us. Just the two of us. We can make it if we try. Giannis and Wimi, you and that be phenomenal. That will be phenomenal. Again, Mikey Menz, thank you for closing out this week here at Locked On Spurs. We appreciate you as always. Everybody else, we thank y’all for being the everydayers coming here to Lock on Spurs every single day for your daily dose of silver and black information, news, topics, and whatnot. Make sure to come back on Monday as we continue talking about the Spurs during their off season. The draft is creeping up on us. So we’ll get ready for that and so much more right here on Locked on Spurs. Subscriber, reach your favorite podcast, iTunes, Spotify, the list goes on and on. Check out locka board show NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every leading up to the NBA draft by locked on NBA board on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. So for Mikey Menz, I am Jeff Dia. We’re going to put a lock in this bes

Just how great was Stephon Castle’s rookie season with the San Antonio Spurs?

With standout performances that led him to be named Rookie of the Year, Stephon Castle’s journey is a testament to his potential impact on the San Antonio Spurs’ future.

Explore how Castle’s versatility and defensive prowess have set him apart, while also addressing areas for growth, like his three-point shooting. The episode features insights from host Jeff Garcia and Area 210 Podcast’s Michael Jimenez, who discuss Castle’s strengths and weigh the pros and cons of his play last season.

Tune in to discover how these developments could shape the Spurs’ path forward and what it means for their young core.

Join the conversation for an in-depth look at the Spurs’ offseason plans and discover which moves could reshape their future.

0:00 Intro: Recapping Stephon Castle’s rookie season
5:52 Castle’s versatility and impact as a rookie
11:55 Castle’s potential as a cornerstone for Spurs
16:50 Areas for improvement: Three-point shooting
22:18 Grading Castle’s rookie season performance
26:40 Discussing potential Giannis trade to Spurs
32:45 Debating Giannis’ impact on Wembanyama’s development

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