Stephon Castle has learned in his two seasons with the Spurs that he will never get anything but honest feedback from Gregg Popovich.

“He’s helped me and a lot of the other guys on the team, just having somebody to talk to,” the 2024-25 NBA rookie of the year said after practice Friday. “Whether games are going good, games are going bad, just knowing Pop, he’ll always tell you the real (truth).”

With that in mind, Castle and his teammates were all ears when the team’s president of basketball operations addressed them earlier this week at the Victory Capital Performance Center.

Popovich, who retired from coaching last May after suffering a stroke six months earlier as the NBA’s all-time winningest coach and a five-time champions, began by congratulating the team on a “successful regular season,” De’Aaron Fox said. 

“Then, two, (he talked about) the changes that are going to happen between regular season and the playoffs,” the two-time All-Star said. “He’s one of the winningest coaches ever, one of the coaches with the most (championship) rings ever, so it’s only right that he felt like he needed to come in and preach to the choir.”

Popovich, who was also attended practice Friday, encouraged the players to “just be us” when they face Portland in a best-of-seven Western Conference first-round playoff series set to begin Sunday night, Castle said. 

“(He said) not to really do anything different from what we’ve been doing all season,” Castle said. “I think he kind of just gave us another perspective on how well we’ve been playing and the position we’ve put ourselves in. (He said) just keep doing what we’ve been doing to get in those spots.”

Castle said that on a one-on-one basis the main advice he’s received from Popovich, 77,  is to “just keep my head” in good times and bad.

“Whether we have a good game or a bad game, just try to do everything the same,” Castle said.