The Spurs have found a lot to like in their early-season shape, but Stephon Castle’s new offensive lane is starting to look like a bad fit.
Castle opened the year with a burst, knocking down five threes in the season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, the numbers have trended the wrong way.
He’s down to 15.3 points per game, hitting just 32.8% from deep on 6.7 attempts a night. For a player whose shot diet has tilted heavily toward the perimeter, that slide has hit his production hard.
The bigger issue is that the outside shot isn’t the only thing going sideways. Castle has also been unusually inefficient around the rim.
Last season, he finished 71% of his looks within three feet. This season, that number has fallen to 51.2%.
Add in a sharp dip in free-throw volume - from 5.6 attempts per game to 1.9 - and it’s easy to see why his scoring has stalled.
That’s why the Spurs may need to rethink how they’re using him. If Castle is going to spend more time away from the paint and take on a bigger 3-point load, he has to be a dependable shooter from outside. Right now, he isn’t.
The move off the ball has helped the rest of the offense in some important ways. De’Aaron Fox, even with his scoring down, is leading the team in assists and building the kind of chemistry with Victor Wembanyama the Spurs have been waiting for. It has also created more room for Dylan Harper to handle the ball, and he’s currently second on the team in scoring, a sign that he may already be the club’s second-best player.
But that arrangement comes with a cost, and Castle is paying part of it. The Spurs need to find a middle ground that keeps Fox involved while giving Harper and Castle room to do damage.
There have been rough nights along the way. Castle went 6-20 against the Dallas Mavericks, and even though he heated up in the fourth quarter, he still made only 2 of 9 from three. When the jumper is off, the limitations show fast.
When it is working, the offense looks much cleaner. He scored 14 points in 24 minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers, a reminder of how much easier his nights become when the outside shot is falling.
Still, the adjustment seems clear. More than half of Castle’s shots are threes, and that shouldn’t be the center of his role. Harper, who is shooting much better from deep, looks like the better candidate to take on more of that burden.
Castle would be better served by leaning into shots at the rim and in the mid-range, even if that means improving his finishing to make it all work. Getting to the line more would help, too.
So would finding easy looks in the dunker’s spot when Wembanyama is away from the paint. There have already been a few recent actions that freed him up for alley oops, which is a good sign.
The most important piece, though, is Castle attacking off the dribble more, even if he’s handling the ball less in this new setup. If the Spurs want this version of the offense to work, that has to be part of the answer.
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