San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle reveals that he wants to improve his shooting entering his second season. (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
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Stephon Castle isn’t sugarcoating it – he wants to lead the San Antonio Spurs not only to the playoffs, but deep into it.
Castle doesn’t need any introduction in the NBA. The 20-year-old is the reigning Rookie of the Year, one of the most electric dunkers and won a national championship at UConn.
However, it’s been a number of years since the Spurs were not only a contender, but even a playoff team. San Antonio hasn’t made it to the playoffs since the 2018-19 season when Kawhi Leonard was still a member of the franchise. They haven’t won a playoff series since the 2016-17 season.
“I would say having success in the playoffs is probably our absolute objective,” says Castle in a one-on-one interview.
When looking at the nucleus of the Spurs, they have some of the top young players in the NBA. They have the top young big man in 7-foot-4 phenom Victor Wembanyama and 25-year-old Devin Vassell, who has previously averaged 19.5 points per game.
On the bright side, they’re coming off of a solid season, going 34-48. While that doesn’t sound like much, it is an improvement over the 22-60 record that they posted over the past two seasons.
Prior to Wembanyama being shut down for the season, the Spurs had gone 23-29. Before a late-season swoon in the absence of Wembanyama, San Antonio was 31-39.
In other words, if the unanimous Rookie of the Year is healthy, the sky is the limit for the Spurs.
“I just feel like we can have a way better season,” says Castle. “Hopefully guys stay healthy. I feel like we have the guys to do it. We’re super excited for what this season looks like, and the guys that we brought in. Just keeping everybody healthy, the more chemistry, that we build with each other, the better.”
Castle once again hammers home that the objective is to make it to the playoffs and make some noise – not just simply get it and call it a successful season.
“We’re looking to make the playoffs this year,” says Castle. “Have success in the playoffs. I feel like that’s definitely something to be optimistic about.”
Stephon Castle On What He Wants To Improve Upon: Shooting
The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 14.7 points and 4.1 assists per game on 42.8% from the field and 28.5% from beyond the arc last season. When asked what are the things he honed in on to improve, Castle doesn’t hesitate – he wants to improve his jump shot.
Considering the NBA is all about offense and shooting in this pace-and-space era where everything is driven by the three-point shot, Castle is honing on the right things to improve upon.
“I feel like I have a lot to improve upon,” says Castle. “From the outside looking in, I feel like a lot of people think I had a great season. But from my side of things, I feel like I could have done a lot better in certain areas.”
One of the key words that Castle uses is none other than efficiency. His efficiency obviously has a lot of room for improvement, as he had the lowest effective field goal percentage of any Spurs player at .476%.
“Shooting, turning the ball over not as much as I want to, and then also just with efficiency,” says Castle. “Getting to my spots a bit more, getting more efficient shots for myself. I’ve found things this summer to be able to improve for next year.”
Stephon Castle Partners With USAA For Fire Prevention
As Castle prepares to start his second training camp with the Spurs, he’s keeping busy in San Antonio. The second-year guard recently teamed up with USAA for a controlled fire demonstration, working with local firefighters to put out a stove fire while offering safety tips. Castle’s cousin is actually in the Army.
San Antonio Spurs star Steph Castle partnered with USAA for a controlled fire demonstration.
USAA
“I partnered with USAA and the San Antonio Fire Department to learn a little bit about the prevention of fires, with all the fires that go on throughout the year,” says Castle. “They said there are 150,000 fires throughout the US every year. Learning about that was great, just being able to partner with them, and all that they provide with fire prevention, fire safety. It was a great day, I learned a lot, and then just a little bit more on the fire safety.”