Why The Spurs’ Backcourt Is A Better Fit Than You Thought | Next Season Now With Ty Small

Why The Spurs’ Backcourt Is A Better Fit Than You Thought | Next Season Now With Ty Small

All right, one pretty big conversation that’s been had this off season has been about the San Antonio Spurs. Now, right now, as things stand, I am really happy with where the Spurs are right now in their like post Kawhi Leonard rebuild where they’re trying to get back on this path towards championship contention. Right now, they have a ton of talent. They have the last two rookie of the years with Victor Wimyama and Stefon Castle. But there has been a bit of confusion about the roster fit between De’aran Fox, Stefon Castle himself, and also their most previous pick, uh, the number two overall pick in the draft in Dylan Harper, who we have not yet seen in summer league action. When you have three guards like this and three guys who could be pretty ball demanding, especially with Harper, who’s not a super strong offball player, Andy Erin Fox, who has been the primary ball handler in every season of his career. When you have that sort of situation, especially with a couple of young guys who are just trying to make their way in the league like Castle, like Harper, there are going to be questions about fit, right? There are going to be questions about if this particular back court is something to hold on to down the road for the future. And you’re also kind of thinking to yourself, does this dilute the value of one of your guys? Right? Does having three point guards out there dilute the value of Dylan Harper? Does it dilute the value of Darren Fox? And my question in particular is where does Stefan Castle fit in all of this? Because I love Stfan Castle as a player. Had an amazing rookie season. But the question is, does this dilute his value at all? But there are a few reasons why this may work and why this does not compromise Castle’s future outlook for uh his career, especially being on this particular Spurs team. For one, De’aran Fox is on the roster, but he doesn’t have to be here on the roster long term. If you do find out that he’s not a fit with Harper and Stefan Castle, guess what you can do? You can flip him. He’s not even 28 years old yet. He is still a very productive player. Yes, he has run into some health issues at points in time throughout his career. Last season was not at his absolute healthiest, but he is still a productive guy if you do find out that things don’t work. He is an attractive player to send over to another team for assets. I saw this conversation happening on Reddit a little bit when uh Dylan Harper was drafted and people were wondering if with them picking Dylan Harper if they regretted going out and getting De’arren Fox in the middle of last season. My answer to that is no, right? like they essentially got Darren Fox for nothing for the type of player that he is. They didn’t give up too much to get him. You make that trade each and every day of the week. And if you’re a developing team, you’re going to experiment. So, I really do think this is a lowrisk, extremely high reward sort of situation. If Fox does not fit, he’s not in a situation right now where you can’t move him and you can’t trade him. It’s not Bradley Beal where he’s on this ridiculous contract that you just can’t move away. you can move Fox away for some solid pieces back if it doesn’t work. And if it does work, I think the upside for this team is ridiculously high. As far as my concern for Stefon Castle, I had to remind myself of this. Stefon Castle is a combo guard in each and every sense of the phrase. And being too worried about his fit with Fox and Dylan Harper when they’re on the floor together does not give enough credit to his versatility as a player. It has been that way since his time at Yukon and it has been that way so far through his time in the NBA. He is really good when it comes to coexisting with other players. When he was at Yukon, he was having to coexist with Camp Spencer, Tristan Newton, and also Donovan Klingan who is a big man, but he wasn’t like a primary shot creator in that Yukon offense like he was on the high school level. So what did that mean? He had to find new creative ways to be effective. So he was doing a lot of cutting off the ball, right? recognizing cutting angles and allowing himself to be found in those situations. Maybe being able to put the ball on the floor and drive off the catch. That’s what he was able to do on a stacked Yukon team. That is the sort of stuff that you love about players who play on national championship winning teams. They have a really good ability to coexist with other great players and play well within the system. And we’ve seen that so far here through his first season in San Antonio. And there are situations where maybe Chris Paul was on the floor. he was able to act well off the ball, cutting, attacking off the closeouts, those sorts of things. Maybe acting as a catch and shoot shooter. Right now, he’s not a super strong shooter, but does have some solid mechanics and I think has some stuff he can build upon. He can coexist with other primary ball handlers and shot creators. Again, did it at Yukon and did it in Spurs last year playing alongside with Chris Paul. And there are also possessions where he could act as an initiator on his own. I’m not saying right now he’s in a situation where he’s an elite level playmaker or he’s really breaking guys down off the dribble in one-on-one scenarios, but he can do that, too. So, again, if you’re worried about the offensive fit, just remember what Stefon Castle did at Yukon and how good he was coexisting with other star players on the collegiate level like Newton and Cam Spencer. And think about that when you’re wondering about his fit with De’Arren Fox and also Dylan Harper here on the offensive end for the Spurs. And there’s also this Stefan Castle’s value is not just tied to what he’s doing on the offensive end. Stefon Castle is an elite level to a player. I don’t think we need to count it as a loss if maybe his value is diluted a bit on the offensive end or he’s given a lesser role because I don’t want to say his value is diluted. Maybe he’s given a lesser role on the offense. I don’t think you count that as a loss because there’s also other things he can do to affect the game. And again, that’s due to what he’s able to do on the defensive end of the floor. He was arguably the best defensive rookie just last season. Uh here is a very intriguing stat that I saw about his defensive play last year. He allowed just 0.89 isolation points per possession this past season which was better than a lot of premier defensive players like Tamati Chimera, Jada McDaniels, and also his teammate Victor Womanyama and even Drew Holiday. So again like his value is not just tied to his offense. we should not count it as a loss if he has a smaller role in the Spurs offense or maybe his points dip a bit. I don’t think we need to count that as a loss because you have to look at the other ways he’s affecting the game that aren’t just on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end as well. So, we’ll see what ends up happening. I do think the Spurs have a lot of room to try to make this thing work and experiment. I don’t think they’re in a win or bust situation right now. Like, they still have some room to figure things out, right? Like I I don’t think we need to put that level of pressure on them. Even though they’re good on paper, I don’t think we need to raise our expectations to championship or bust at all right now for this team. And it’s tempting to do it because we just had a really young group win a title, but I don’t think we’re there just yet for the Spurs. They have a few years try to make this thing work. Castle’s young. Wim still young. Uh De’Arren Fox, if he is a part of their long-term plan, he is still relatively young. Isn’t 30 just yet. Obviously, Dylan Harper is young. Still a lot of time to make this thing work, but I’m really just interested to see like what they end up doing this coming season. What the offense with that back court and perimeter is going to look like. But I don’t think we need to be too concerned about how this affects Stefon Castle after he had an amazing rookie of the year level first

The Spurs have been active in reshaping their roster, landing De’Aaron Fox at the trade deadline and selecting Dylan Harper with the No. 2 pick in the draft. While some critics are calling the new core oversaturated, there’s more upside in this trio than people realize — and the fit concerns may be overstated.

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro
1:40 If De’Aaron Fox Doesn’t Fit Long Term
3:00 Why Stephon Castle Can Still Thrive
5:16 Why Castle’s Two Way Versatility Makes This Work

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