Stephon Castle had the kind of defensive season that should put him in the conversation, and yet Bleacher Report left him off its top 30 entirely.
That omission is hard to square with the way B/R built its own list. In June, the outlet noted that the former UConn champion received more votes than any player who failed to make either All-Defensive team. Even if you don’t buy Castle as the 11th-best defender in the league, that still leaves a massive gap between “not on the list” and “not a top-30 defender.”
San Antonio’s defense had plenty of star power with Victor Wembanyama anchoring everything, but Castle gave the Spurs real support on the perimeter. The 21-year-old was tasked with the league’s best scorers and held his own against them.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander managed just 6-for-19 shooting, or 31.6%, in direct regular-season matchups with Castle. In the Western Conference Finals, Castle spent 43-plus minutes as SGA’s primary defender across seven games and limited him to 20-for-44 shooting, while forcing nine turnovers and holding him to 25% from three.
Luka Doncic also had a rough time with Castle on him. The Slovenian star shot 8-for-21 in those matchups.
San Antonio finished with the NBA’s third-best defensive rating last season at 110.4, and that doesn’t happen with Wembanyama alone. The Spurs had more than one defender worth mentioning, and Castle was clearly one of them.
Bleacher Report’s list makes room for five Oklahoma City players, including Chet Holmgren, who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and is widely viewed as the league’s second-best rim protector. That’s a lot of representation for one team, especially on a top-30 defender ranking.
B/R also says it grades players on this list by Defensive Swing Rating, and Castle’s number checks out. His minus-3.8 mark last season, per Cleaning the Glass, landed in the 82nd percentile and was better than 13 of the 30 players ranked ahead of him.
It matched Scottie Barnes, who came in sixth. Ausar Thompson was second at minus-1.2, and Amen Thompson was fifth at plus-1.3.
The numbers, the matchups, and the workload all point the same way. Castle did enough to belong on the list.
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