{"id":264652,"date":"2025-11-05T16:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264652\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:28:11","slug":"san-antonio-spurs-guard-stephon-castle-ready-for-breakout-in-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264652\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle ready for breakout in Year 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 Wilt Chamberlain Trophy is sitting inside Stacey and Quannette Castle\u2019s Atlanta-area home for the proud parents and their visitors to admire. <\/p>\n

Respectfully, San Antonio Spurs<\/a> guard Stephon Castle<\/a> \u2014 the winner of the award given to the NBA\u2019s top rookie \u2014 would rather it be there than sitting in his home in San Antonio collecting dust.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents love that stuff. Having visual representation of accolades, they love that stuff,\u201d Castle recently told Andscape. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s just basketball. So, I don\u2019t need a trophy to tell me how good I am. I know I put the work in, so I let my parents appreciate it. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a great accolade to have. But it\u2019s not really something that I\u2019m really displaying. Everybody knows I won rookie of the year. It\u2019s over with now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs selected Castle with the fourth overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft out of Connecticut. The Covington, Georgia, native averaged 14.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game in 81 games during the 2024-25 season. A global media panel of 100 voters chose Castle as NBA Rookie of the Year after he received 92 first-place votes, seven second-place votes and one third-place vote, giving him a total of 482 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot. I put a lot of work in going into last [season],\u201d Castle said. \u201cSo, to have that award, that took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. Now, I can just go out there and hoop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StephonEntering his second season, Stephon Castle may be up for NBA Most Improved Player and All-Defensive Team this season. <\/p>\n

Michael Gonzales\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Entering his second season, Castle may be up for NBA Most Improved Player and All-Defensive Team this season.<\/p>\n

The athletic 6-foot-6, 215-pounder entered tonight\u2019s game against the Los Angeles Lakers (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET) averaging 20 points on 55.4% shooting from the field, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.8 steals through six games. He is the only second-year NBA player averaging at least 20 points, five rebounds, five assists, and he\u2019s one of only 17 in the league.<\/p>\n

While Castle isn\u2019t certain whether he will return to the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend, he does have a goal to make the all-defensive team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t think it\u2019s a lot of pressure [going forward],\u201d Castle said. \u201cI feel like once you get it, your name is installed in history. And then you have to go make your career after that. I\u2019m not going out there saying, \u2018I\u2019m the rookie of the year and give me a vet [officiating] call, respect me.\u2019 You got to go out there and play. I\u2019m not really thinking about that [award] when I\u2019m playing in the game. I\u2019m just trying to improve every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs rookie Stephon Castle puts in a full NBA All-Star Weekend \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson told Castle entering the offseason that he wanted him to impact winning without the basketball on both ends of the floor. So far, Castle has lived up to that request as he is successfully guarding the top guards and small forwards of opposing teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great opportunity for his versatility,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe can impact winning whether he is on the ball, off the ball, defensively. He is going to guard a ton of different profiles in terms of premier players on teams. He has an opportunity to affect the game as much as anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castle\u2019s second season improvement and highlights have been overshadowed by the MVP-caliber start from his 7-4 teammate Victor Wembanyama. A now-healthy Wembanyama is averaging 26.7 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, a league-best 4.7 blocks and 1.3 steals. His 2024-25 season ended prematurely in February because of a blood clot in his right shoulder. The Frenchman\u2019s much more aggressive offensive play has been one of the biggest sparks of this early NBA season.<\/p>\n

Castle believes Wembanyama is going to be the NBA\u2019s top player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he\u2019s playing right now was the way I\u2019ve been seeing him play all summer,\u201d Castle said. \u201cHe\u2019s been waiting to get back out there since All-Star break, so I know he\u2019s hungry for this. It\u2019s a big year for him. But he\u2019s been putting the work in. He\u2019s been showing it all summer that he\u2019s going to be the best player in the league. I honestly wasn\u2019t surprised by his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StephonStephon Castle hopes to lead the San Antonio Spurs back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n

Michael Gonzales\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Spurs were an afterthought in terms of NBA contender hopefuls until Wembanyama opened the season with 40 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks and several rim-rocking dunks in a season-opening 125-92 win at Dallas on Oct. 22. <\/p>\n

Castle has also been a strong co-star while the Spurs (5-1) opened the season with a 5-0 record. San Antonio also has rookie guard Dylan Harper, who has the potential to join Castle and Wembanyama as rookie of the year, but he is expected to be sidelined several weeks with a left calf strain. Star guard De\u2019Aaron Fox (right hamstring strain) will also be a major addition once he debuts this season.<\/p>\n

The Spurs haven\u2019t been to the NBA playoffs since 2019, but big change definitely seems on the horizon with Wembanyama and Castle leading the way. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we have in our locker room,\u201d Castle said. \u201cWe are going to be a tough team to beat this year, especially if we hang our hat on the defensive end. Whether we get talked about or not, we know teams are going to have to compete when they play against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn\u2019t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Wilt Chamberlain Trophy is sitting inside Stacey and Quannette Castle\u2019s Atlanta-area home for the proud parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-264652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}