Stephon Castle is officially a San Antonio Spur. Listening to the organization's general manager, Castle was already a Spur, in a sense, before Brian Wright and company took him with the fourth overall pick in the NBA's first round of the draft.
The team's Hall of Fame head coach, Gregg Popovich, often famously praises players who've “gotten over themselves.” Wright strikes that exact tone in describing the former Connecticut Husky.
“He played on the ball and off the ball in high school and was doing things that he just wasn't able to showcase sometimes at UConn because they were so good and they were deep and they were experienced,” Wright said. “That ability to sacrifice for the betterment of the team is something that stood out to us as well because that's something that you're going to have to do across the course of your career; everybody.”
“He's a team-first guy.”
Wright had plenty to say about the Spurs' fourth lottery pick in the last four years.
Spurs GM opens up about Stephon Castle
The Spurs' top executive on the basketball side answered quickly and decisively when asked what he liked about Castle.
“A lot of different things. He's very versatile. He's tough. He's smart. Most times, you don't see highly rated players go to a school [college] and be willing to play a role, Wright continued,” He's a hard worker and he comes from a program where you know they're getting coached hard every single day. They work hard, they practice hard, they're competitive and they execute. That meant a lot to us.”
Like with Victor Wembanyama last year and Jeremy Sochan, Josh Primo, and Devin Vassell as lottery picks in the previous three drafts, the Black and Silver had been tracking Castle for some time.
“It wasn't like this was the first time he'd heard of him. We'd seen him in the high school scene, he was a pretty highly-rated high school player. We try to spend as much time with those guys as possible and get to know them,” Wright said. “Spending time at practice, going to games, even in the grassroots scene when we're allowed to see those guys, we tried to make sure that we guys on them. He'd been somebody that we knew a lot about and when the opportunity was there for us, we were really excited to draft him.”
While Castle has played point guard and wants to play the position, Wright doesn't think it matters where the 6-foot-6 guard lines up.
“He's a basketball player. I think you'll see him all over the place. As much as he played point guard in high school, you would see him setting a screen-and-rolling to the basket and finishing. That type of versatility is great. Guys come in and work and show you where they're best. We'll see where that lands but he's got great skills, great versatility and we're excited to see where that goes.”
Castle will get his first taste of the NBA when the Spurs begin Summer League play next month.
Follow Us
Subscribe