Stephon Castle is averaging 19, 4, and 6 on 47/40/79 splits and 59% TS so far in his 1st ever playoff run Stone
He wouldn’t be starting on that team, Fox would. Wemby could hide his defense somewhat, but he still wouldn’t have the drive and dish capabilities of Castle. His one elite skill would not make up for Castle being better at virtually everything else and has an NBA body (6’6”).
lol at people acting like Castle is only good because of Wemby no Wemby in game 3 against the Blazers on the road…he drops 33 and 5 Wemby barely played 10 minutes before getting ejected game 4 against the Wolves…he drops 20, 6, and 4 on the road Castle’s stats in games without Wemby this season: 18, 7, and 7 on 60% TS Reed Sheppard would never Reed would barely be getting any minutes if he was on the Spurs, let alone starting Castle is significantly better in every way except for spot up 3 point shooting…better handle, better passer, better ability to get to the rim and finish through contact, way better at getting to the line, more skilled, and the better defender Reed had all these wide open looks against the Lakers: clank Reed Sheppard took 88 shots against the Lakers (made just 27 of them for 31% shooting), and only managed 4 total free throw attempts…88 shots to 4 free throws is an insane ratio Reed got 4 free throws in 6 games…Castle averages 6 free throws a game these playoffs we got robbed in the draft
Yea castle is wholeheartedly better than reed but to sort of defend Stone, Castle wouldn't work out with a team that already had a PG: https://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/rockets-nba-draft-clingan-sheppard-19518004.php This is funny: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5574543/2024/06/20/rockets-draft-notebook-donovan-clingan/
Poor analysis in general, to be honest. Anecdotes and small sample sizes... that's how bad conclusions are reached. Reed is the superior defender, has better court vision, turns the ball over FAR LESS, and is the better shooter. Reed had a higher win share this year than Castle despite playing less minutes per game. Castle is a 30% shooter from 3-point land. You think the Rockets need another bricklayer from 3? LOL -- this is one of our biggest weaknesses from the last 2 years. GOOD DAY
the Spurs have Stone could’ve made it clear that FVV is just a stop gap PG, that dilemma could’ve been easily hashed out Spurs traded for Fox his rookie season and gave him a fat extension, and it hasn’t been a problem
I don’t think castle is better than amen, if we had drafted him we would have 2 amens, and highly unlikely castle would be how he is currently based on our record of player development
Castle shot 33% on 1.4 makes per 36 this season, and is shooting 39.5% on 1.9 makes per 36 in the playoffs right now... and Reed shot 29.5% from 3 in the playoffs. Castle has more work to put in on his jumper for sure, but he's not the horrific shooter people try to make him out to be, he is improving.
if I remember right at the time, there was some concern about the skill sets of castle overlapping with Thompson and Eason. And it’s definitely hard to gauge, considering the spurs are just an overall better environment. But yeah, I would probably shift my previous defense of Shepherd to the fact that castle would’ve been a better pick. that being said, hindsight is just that and I still like Reed. a lot will depend on how much work he puts in the summer and how much we invest in him next year minutes wise.
You have to remember that we suck at player development and the Spurs are one of the best player development organizations in the league Castle will probably have a better career than Reed, but god only knows what he looks like if he's getting coached up by Ime Udoka.
Castle’s jumper is nowhere near as bad as Amen’s IMO…Castle is a weak, but improving shooter who is showing real promise in that aspect whereas Amen is a total non-shooter Castle in 24 games post-ASB had 48/42/76 splits and 60% TS taking 3.5 threes a game, and that has continued in these playoffs…it would take a miracle for Amen to do that over any stretch of games and Castle has so much more potential than a Reed Sheppard on both ends that I’m still rolling the dice with him when we’re talking about a top 3 pick when you see what Castle is doing on the court compared to Reed, they don’t look like they belong on the same court…like if you brought both of them in for a pre-draft workout, Castle would’ve embarrassed him in everything except for the spot up shooting part of the workout Reed Sheppard struggled to just dribble the ball against pressure, and he’s supposed to be a PG…I’m seeing Castle run the offense and score buckets against McDaniels, Dosunmu, Ant, and Shannon Jr
Statistically Reed is the superior player -- I don't think it's close. And this is true despite Reed having a buffoon of a head coach who does his level best to destroy Reed's confidence and places him in a totally incompetent offensive scheme. Castle is athletic and strong, yes, but Reed brings intelligence, vision, intangibles, and outside shooting to the table. Those are harder to replicate. Plenty of athletic strong guys out there... we need SKILL. And Reed's development arc is still earlier than Castles -- Reed is still developing peak confidence -- something Ime has damaged. GOOD DAY
