The writing went on the wall when the San Antonio Spurs announced that Victor Wembanyama would not play another game for the remainder of the 2024-2025 season. A month later that writing might as well been noted in ink when the team shut down De'Aaron Fox. While both are relevant as to why the Spurs didn't qualify for the NBA Playoffs, Stephon Castle doesn't see it so simply.

“We’ve still gotta fight with the five guys we have on the court at all times,” the favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year said.

Castle shared those thoughts following 120-109 loss at the Portland Trail Blazers that officially eliminated them from Play-in contention.

It represented their seventh loss in their last eight games and that one victory came against a Denver Nuggets squad that was missing Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Their struggles that started not long after the calendar year did.  But the loss of Wembanyama changed the trajectory of the Spurs season.

Stephon Castle discusses impact of Victor Wembanyama's absence on playoff chances

The blood clots found in Wemby's right shoulder on the heels of the All-Star Game not only cost the 21-year-old phenom his sophomore year in the NBA, it changed the Spurs approach. After adding veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes in the summer and having just acquired Fox via a big trade with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls in early February, San Antonio was looking to strengthen a playoff push a year after they'd allowed Wembanyama to settle in with a young core.

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“I wouldn't say it's pointless,” Castle responded when asked if it was moot to consider what ‘might've been' had their best player not gone down.

“Obviously, we wanted him to continue fighting with us, try and make the playoffs. It happens,” the 20-year-old guard continued.

The Spurs beat Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns in their first game sans Wemby. It moved them to within five games of a .500 record following a tough stretch leading up to the break. But the good feelings in beating a good team would be short lived. They lost their next four and eight of the next ten games.

With that kind of a stretch and with only a month remaining in the season, it's no coincidence that the very next contest would prove Fox's last. The eighth year guard had been dealing with a broken bone in the pinky of his dominant left hand. It was then that the organization shut him down for the rest of the season. Their desire that he'd be ready for off-season workouts outweighed what was left of the 2024-2025 campaign. It's a sequence that's led to this final week of the regular season.

“It's not anything to put our head down about or say “what if” because we still had a chance,” Castle declared. “We still were putting ourselves in position to win games.”

‘In position to win games' being the key phrase there. Because the actual lack of victories sealed the Spurs non-playoff fate.