Stephon Castle is turning potential into consistent production

Yesterday at 09:27 PM

Castle has had an up-and-down rookie season, but the talented young guard might be finding the consistency he was missing earlier.

After seeing his playing time dwindle due to mistakes and inefficiency, culminating in a controversial 12-minute night against the Pelicans, Stephon Castle has bounced back with a vengeance. He's averaging 24 points, five rebounds, and five assists in his past five appearances while shooting over 50 percent from the floor.

The recent stretch of great play is noteworthy not just because it's giving him a big boost on the Rookie of the Year race but also because it has featured the kind of production Castle's talent suggests he could provide regularly, but hasn't consistently delivered. It seems like the reality of Castle is starting to catch up to the tantalizing idea of him.

Before the recent stretch, it was easy to consider Castle a little overrated. There were some flashes of brilliance and great games, but you never knew when they were going to come. His performances were so uneven that someone catching Castle on a bad night could reasonably question whether he'd have a future in the league as a starter. Opponents left him open to help elsewhere and he couldn't make them pay often enough. As a playmaker, Castle occasionally attempted things he couldn't do yet because the game had not slowed down for him. He often ventured into the paint on drives with no plan and ended up getting blocked or taking tough shots. Defense was his calling card in college, but there were games in which the best players in the world scored on him at will.

Normally the stats serve to correct any rushed conclusions that result from witnessing a bad night, but in Castle's case, the numbers seemed to confirm that he was nothing special. For the season, Castle is averaging 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists. He's shooting 28 percent from beyond the arc. The dunks are nice, but Castle has gotten blocked 46 times, more than anyone on the Spurs roster, and shoots just a shade over 42 percent on drives. Opponents shoot about the same with him defending them and he's in the bottom third in percentile as an isolation and pick-and-roll defender. Castle was rightfully proclaimed the front-runner to win Rookie of the Year but only because this is a terrible class, as his numbers pale in comparison to past winners of the award.

The recent stretch doesn't change what came before it, but it's providing evidence of what the more plugged-in observers already knew: despite the pedestrian numbers and the rough stretches, Castle could be a special player sooner rather than later. The rookie is not a marksman but he has 20 games with multiple made threes this season. His form needs tweaking but is not broken. The drives are not always clean, but he has the handles, the strength, the deceleration and the explosiveness to become a nightmare to guard when he puts his head down and tries to get to the rim. Some of the turnovers are bad, but we are talking about a 20-year-old rookie who is learning on the job after spending his sole college season playing mainly off the ball. And there are times when the defense looks elite, which is not something that usually happens with young players.

Castle's season has been underwhelming in terms of numbers and there were enough bad games to affect his place in the rotation, but through it all his potential has been undeniable. He might statistically be the worst Rookie of the Year since Malcolm Brogdon, but whether he gets the award or not is not what matters. Brogdon's class also had Jaylen Brown and four other players who have All-Star appearances in it, all of whom had worse stats as rookies than Castle is posting. He's a work in progress but the upside has been evident.

All that was missing was consistency, and it seems Castle might be finding it sooner than expected. Five games is not much, but the rookie has looked like he finally knows his role and is confident in filling it nightly. If he can close the year strong, he'll silence the skeptics by showing that he's not just a highlights machine but a competent young player who's closer to making a big leap than his numbers suggest.