Introduction
Stephon Castle has been both a huge faller and a huge riser on a lot of big boards this year, including my own. He had a pretty rough start to his season at UConn offensively, but slowly began to turn things around towards the end of the year and in the tournament. This is a tougher evaluation because we have seen different versions of Stephon Castle this year. However, I believe Stephon has loads of potential and will surprise a lot of people with some of the things he will be able to do in the NBA.
Analysis
The best place to start with Stephon Castle is his perimeter defense, which is absolutely the best out of any projected first round draft pick this year. The best perimeter defenders in the NBA play an “in your face” style of defense. They give the ball handler very little room to operate and can completely dictate the outcome of a possession. A lot of these players also are really good at forcing turnovers with active hands and aggressive defense. Jalen Suggs is a great example of this. He gets right up in the ball handlers space and makes it really difficult for them to get a good shot or pass off. He also is really good at getting into passing lanes and poking the ball loose with his lightning fast hands and aggressiveness. He was a big part of why Orlando had such a good defense last season. Stephon Castle plays defense with this type of strength and aggressiveness, and it made him elite at the college level. He did such an excellent job at getting up into ball handlers faces and using his strength to make it impossible for them to do anything of value. He also has excellent screen navigation, which is really just icing on the cake. I don’t think there was a single possession that I watched where a ball handler completely lost Castle off a screen. He is so good at moving around screens, knowing when to go over or under a screen, and recovering in those few instances he does fall a little bit behind. I think the only other freshman I have watched with this level of elite screen navigation was Cason Wallace. It is really incredible to watch Castle do some of the things he does on defense. I suggest you go look at ESPN and look at all of the box scores for teams he played against. He was always tasked with guarding the other team's best guard or wing, and those players always had a really rough night. He would either hold those players to really low scoring totals or really low efficiency. Either way, his perimeter defense was really effective. I think this showed up at its peak in a game against Marquette earlier this year and in the tournament game against Illinois. Tyler Kolek has consistently been one of the best scorers and playmakers in college basketball. He is not an easy guy to stop due to his footwork and dribble ability. He only scored 7 points, went 2-11 from the field, and had more turnovers than assists. That was a really good game for UConn as a team defensively, but Stephon Castle really showed up defensively against Tyler Kolek. He was able to give players like Kolek a really hard time all season long, and it's part of the reason why UConn was able to win. The game against Illinois was arguably even more impressive. Terrence Shannon Jr averages more than 20 points per game and is one of the best scorers in all of college basketball, and he only scored 8 points in that game on 2-12 shooting from the field. UConn as a whole played fantastic defense in that game, but Castle was a huge part of why they were able to shut down Shannon Jr. He averaged 6.7 three point attempts per game during the season, but was only able to get up one shot from beyond the arch in this game against UConn. The pressure Castle put on him in that game made it impossible for him to get off threes, and nobody was scoring inside the arch with Donavan Clingan’s defense masterpiece in that game. These are just two examples of Stephon Castle coming up big for his team and having a huge impact because of his on-ball perimeter defense. He is so good at shutting down guards and wings alike because of how good of a perimeter defender he is. He is a good on-ball defender as a whole too, and I don’t think his ability to hold his own against bigger players gets enough credit. He is so strong and so athletic, and this really helps him when he has to switch onto bigger forwards and some centers. He also is so aggressive and will put up a FIGHT against anyone he has to guard. There were a lot of instances this year where he switched onto players bigger than him in the post and managed to put up a good fight, even when points were eventually scored. He doesn’t back down from any challenge and always puts in the effort to make life hard for whoever he is guarding. There are players who are just too big and strong for him to guard, but I am very confident in his ability to be a player nobody wants to be guarded by. He is going to be an elite perimeter/on-ball defender in the NBA. He definitely isn't as good of a defender away from the ball, but he is not a slouch by any means. He didn’t get a lot of steals this season, but I really like how he is able to disrupt plays with his hands. A lot of this comes from how good of a mover he is. He could be standing in the corner on second and be there to poke the ball away from the ball handler in the paint the next second. He has such great footwork and elite speed+agility to go along with it. I think his steal numbers will go up significantly in the NBA, and he will consistently be near the top of the league in steals+deflections per game. Castle’s elite screen navigation shows up once again with his off-ball defense, and it makes him a really annoying player to play against. Movement shooting isn’t as big of a thing in college as it is in the NBA, but Castle does his best to make sure that good movement shooters can’t get good shots off. He is able to stick with these quick off-ball movers even when a hard screen is set because he is so elite at navigating them and sticking with his defender. His recovery time shows up a lot here as well. He is really good at getting to the open shooter and contesting or even just completely taking away shot attempts. He does foul more than you would like in situations like this, but I don’t think that will be a huge issue in the NBA. The actually somewhat concerning issue I have with his off-ball defense is his communication. He isn’t a bad communicator, but there were too many times where he didn’t properly communicate a switch which led to open shots for the opposing team. I am not super worried about this because I think this is largely due to lack of professional level basketball experience, but he will need to clean this up if he wants to truly maximize his defensive potential. I would also like to see him be more active with his hands. He can be great when he wants to be, but he wasn’t as active as he could have been. I do think this will get better in the NBA though.
This is where the evaluation starts to get more difficult. Castle was a great defender the minute he stepped onto the floor in college basketball, but the same cannot be said for his offense. He had a really rough start to the year. His shots weren’t falling, his confidence was non-existent, and he was consistently creating advantages for him and his teammates. However, he looked much different towards the end of the season. His confidence was back, he was creating a ton of advantages, and his passing looked better than ever. I am going to try and draw from both of the versions that we saw of him in order to accurately judge his offense. There is one thing that I can say with absolute certainty; He is really, really, REALLY good at getting to the rim, and it isn’t in the Ron Holland fashion where he puts his head down and just drives straight to the rim. He is really shifty and slippery with the ball in his hands. His footwork is phenomenal and he has a really great grasp of his handle. Defenders had no idea how to stop him from getting to the rim because of these things. He could break down the defender with his handle or literally just move around them. Dexterity is also huge for him here. He is comfortable dribbling and finishing with either hand, which will be HUGE for him at the next level. It makes him more difficult to guard. I am absolutely confident that he is going to be able to get to and finish around the rim with ease in the NBA. It’s hard not to think about a certain MVP candidate when watching Castle play (more on that later). The problems start to arise when you look at the rest of his scoring ability. He is a really poor shooter at this stage. He shot below 30% from three and below 80% from the free throw line. The weird thing is he actually improved significantly as a shooter over the course of the season. I mentioned his lack of confidence at the beginning of the season, and that was largely a problem with his shooting. He was never able to get in a rhythm, and it led to him actively avoiding taking threes. However, he was much more confident towards the end of the year and especially in the tournament. His efficiency still wasn’t great, but it was improving and he was actually taking threes. He won’t be a good shooter right away in the NBA, but I honestly do not know if he will or won’t improve. There aren’t any signs that strongly favor either side at this point, and it really may end up being determined by how willing he is to try and improve. Ok I’ve waited long enough, I have to talk about the passing now. It is really… weird. There are times where he looks like he can be the lead playmaker for a team and there are times where he looks like he can be a decent connector at best. However, I do think he has potential as a passer. He is good at making reads within the flow of the offense, and I expect that to translate to the next level. He has solid awareness of where his teammates are and his pass execution is pretty good. The main thing he’ll need to improve on if he wants to be a true point guard in the NBA is making high level reads. There were times where I was really impressed with the reads he was able to make, but I think he settles for passing to the first open teammates he sees too much. He doesn’t make that extra effort to look and see if there is a better option available. This is what ends up separating the Dyson Daniels of the world to the Josh Giddeys of the world. Making those high level reads is almost always a requirement for point guards in the NBA, with the only sort of exceptions being the point guards who play with guys like Jokic, Sabonis, and Sengun. Even then, point guards still need to be able make high level reads in a lot of scenarios. This is where there are debates about Castle. Can he make those high level reads and be a true point guard in the NBA. I think he can. He has shown that he is capable of making some of those reads, it just has not been consistent enough. It will depend on what team drafts him, but I think if he lands in the right situation, he can be a true point guard in the NBA. It’s just a matter of being more consistent. That might not be the most popular take, but I believe it to be true. Ok now we have to talk about another really weird aspect of Castle’s skillset; the off-ball movement. Castle is in a weird situation where he is a really good mover off the ball but not a good shooter, so his value there isn’t nearly as high as someone like Gradey Dick or Kevin Huerter. However, it is too intriguing to not talk about. I really like the way he cuts to the basket. His agility shows up here (a common occurrence across his game as you can tell) with his ability to lose defenders. He also is good at moving within the flow of the offense. This will really help him if he ends up not being a point guard in the NBA. Say, for example, the Charlotte Hornets draft him. I think he would be a really good fit as the shooting guard or wing in this scenario because of his ability to move off the ball and his athleticism. The lack of shooting hurts him here, but he is skilled enough to still provide value off the ball.
The most underrated aspect of Stephon Castle’s intrigue is definitely his athleticism. We often think of athleticism in the strict terms of how fast you can run and how high you can jump. This is absolutely not the only kind of athleticism you can have in a basketball sense. Castle may not have the vertical leap that Ron Holland has or the speed that Rob Dillingham has, but he is a top tier talent in just about every aspect of basketball athleticism that we don’t talk about as athleticism, especially with his agility. I’ve talked about his agility in what feels like every sentence of this scouting report because he is SO FREAKING AGILE. The way this kid moves on the court is insane. He can completely move around a player with just a step, and I’ve already explained how this makes him so good in different areas on offense and defense. He isn’t the level of agile as someone like Amen Thompson (who btw is the most athletic player in the league in both the traditional and non traditional way of looking at it), but he is pretty damn close. I think his traditional athleticism is getting underrated too. He doesn’t throw down crazy dunks or blow by players with his speed, but he is still quite fast and has better vertical athleticism than a lot of players. I don’t think he will be in the status of an elite NBA athlete, but a tier or two below because of things like his agility.
Shades of
Now we get to the fun part; comparing Castle to NBA players, or “Shades of” as I call it. I call it that because there will never be a one to one comparison for a prospect. I think we can draw from different examples of NBA players to decipher how Castle might play in the NBA, or what players he has shades of. Let’s just get the big one out of the way and talk about Shai-Gilgeous Alexander. It was really hard for me not to think about that as a comparison because they both have similar ways of getting to and finishing around the rim. Shai has become so deadly in the NBA partly because he is so shifty and gets to the rim without always using speed to blow by a defender. Castle has a similar style of play. He gets to the rim using his shiftiness and footwork to get to the rim and can finish with either hand. They also have similar frames and athletic abilities across the board. However, there are some very key differences between the two, the obvious one being Shai is a good shooter while Castle is not. They also are different types of defenders. Castle is more aggressive and in your face on the ball than Shai is, but Shai is better off the ball and has better hands. So when thinking about this in the “Shades of” format, Castle has shades of Shai with his athleticism, driving, and finishing ability. We need to look elsewhere to find comparisons for other parts of Castle’s game though, and that is where Jalen Suggs comes in. I already talked about that comparison a little bit earlier, but I want to talk about it more now because they are very similar plays on defense. Both of them are in your face and aggressive on-ball defenders who use their strength and athleticism to help make life really hard on the ball handler. The key difference between their styles of defense is Suggs has better hands and Castle is probably a little bit bigger, but they are very similar outside of those things. I think Castle is similar to players like Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Alex Caruso for a lot of the same reasons, although there are other differences when comparing Castle to those two players.
Conclusion
Stephon Castle is a really interesting prospect. He is a really good perimeter defender and athlete with lots of potential as a score and playmaker. He will need to improve his shooting if he wants to fully maximize his potential, but I imagine that he will find some sort of role on an NBA team because of his defense. I believe his floor and ceiling are both high enough to justify him being ranked as a top five prospect on my board at this time, and he may even have a shot at being my number one prospect by the end of the draft cycle. I am very confident in his defense being just as elite at the next level, and I think he could be a 20+ point per game scorer in the NBA if his confidence stays high and he ends up in the right situation.
Shades of – Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, Jalen Suggs, Nickeil Alexander-Walker