The San Antonio Spurs have selected Stephon Castle No. 4 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft. Castle, a top recruit in the 2023 high school class, played his lone college season at Connecticut and immediately emerged as an impact player. He quickly became a starter and averaged 11.1 points per game for the Huskies. He was stellar on both ends of the floor during UConn's second consecutive national title run, and now, he joins a San Antonio team hoping for similar success.
Castle is among the best defensive players in the draft. He has a relentless motor on the perimeter and a 6-9 wingspan that makes him a terror to opposing ball-handlers. While there are questions about whether he will be able to play point guard in the NBA, he is a high-IQ player with plenty of upside. The biggest question for him, as it is with so many players in this class, is whether or not his jump shot will develop. Castle shot 20-for-75 on 3-pointers at UConn, and guards who struggle from deep are finding offensive life harder and harder in the modern NBA.
The Spurs entered the draft in an extremely enviable position. They have the NBA's best young player in Victor Wembanyama. They have a number of other young building blocks in players like Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson. And, of course, they came into the 2024 draft with two of the top eight picks. With all of that to work with, the Spurs, unlike other teams, don't need to think about fit or need all that much. They can take swings at whoever they think are the most talented prospects on the board.
That is the benefit of having Wembanyama. He can cover up weaknesses in ways that perhaps no other player in this class can. If a prospect has a defensive flaw, well, Wembanyama can clean up just about anything at the rim. If a prospect isn't a great shooter, Wembanyama offers so much spacing compared to most big men that the Spurs can compensate for that. There may not be a better situation in all of basketball for a young player to enter than the one San Antonio can offer. Playing with Wembanyama and getting coached by Gregg Popovich is a great way to launch a career.
With that in mind, Castle has landed in an ideal situation. The Spurs have a history of developing jump shooters from Tony Parker to Kawhi Leonard, but in the meantime, playing with Wembanyama will allow him to emphasize his strengths early on. The Spurs have been a defense-first organization for Popovich's entire time, and Castle embodies that approach as much as any player on their team.
