The Spurs spent last season juggling an unusual amount of point guard talent, and the ripple effect showed up in De'Aaron Fox’s numbers. While Stephon Castle’s move into a bigger ballhandling role helped accelerate his growth, it also pushed Fox into more of an off-ball job than he was built for.
That shift gave Castle real reps as the de facto point guard after spending his rookie season mostly off the ball. He responded by becoming an above-average passer and, eventually, the team’s best one.
But the learning curve was real early on. Castle led the league in turnovers through his first 20 games last season before cleaning that up with Fox’s help.
Fox, meanwhile, never looked fully settled. Playing away from the ball took him out of the rhythm that made him the player San Antonio wanted when it traded for him.
He simply is not a strong enough shooter to live at shooting guard, and the results backed that up. Over a 10-game stretch last season, with both Victor Wembanyama and Castle sidelined, he averaged 26.8 points and 6.9 assists.
That’s the version of Fox the Spurs need more often.
Castle’s shooting took a noticeable step forward in the second half of the season and into the playoffs, which opens the door for him to fit better at shooting guard. He can still handle the ball plenty, but the priority should be obvious: Fox needs to be the primary creator when they share the floor.
That alignment would do more than stabilize Fox. It could also let Castle explore another layer of his game while giving San Antonio a cleaner offensive structure. If Fox gets back to playing like the star he can be, he can help carry the scoring load alongside Wembanyama.
And with Castle and Dylan Harper also working through offseason development, the Spurs have room for more growth next season. If that growth comes together, it could mean a Fox who looks much more like the player San Antonio traded for and a team that is better positioned for its championship hopes.
In Other News...
Spurs Face A Western Problem Fans Might Be Overlooking
The Western Conference has a way of turning preseason assumptions into quick corrections, and the Spurs may be walking into one of those years. Portland and Utah are being viewed as clubs that could be better than many expected, which matters for San Antonio because every trip through the West has a habit of becoming a test of focus as much as talent. Portlands new coaching setup and influx of roster talent give it a different kind of profile, while Utah still has enough quality to make nights uncomfortable for anybody paying less than full attention.
For the Spurs, the takeaway is less about a single matchup and more about the overall grind of the conference schedule. San Antonio will need strong effort and solid preparation every time it steps on the floor, because teams that look like background noise in October can become the reason a season gets harder by December. In a West like this, the margins tend to shrink fast, and the Spurs cannot afford to treat any of these rising teams as harmless. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Face A Risky Steph Curry Question Fans Will Debate
The idea of Steph Curry landing in San Antonio is the kind of offseason thought experiment that instantly grabs attention, even if it lives firmly in the hypothetical lane. For a Spurs team built around long-term flexibility and a young core, the appeal is obvious: Curry would change the ceiling of the roster in a hurry, while also forcing the front office to confront the realities that come with any superstar pursuit, from salary mechanics to how his health would fit into a careful team-building plan.
Still, the real question is not whether Curry would make the Spurs better, but whether the rest of the equation would even allow the conversation to begin. There are no actual trade talks reported, and the scenario depends on Curry being willing to leave Golden State in the first place, which is why fans are likely to keep debating it more as a dream than a deal. Even so, the possibility is enough to highlight just how much roster flexibility San Antonio has protected, and how quickly that flexibility could become a very different kind of pressure point if a player of Currys stature ever became available. [Read more 🡒]