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Prospect Scouting Report: Stephon Castle – At The Hive

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We’re only a few weeks away from the 2024 NBA Draft, so it’s time to get (somewhat lately) started on some prospects. We’ll start with a guy that’s perhaps the most popular target among Charlotte Hornets fans–UConn guard Stephon Castle.

Measurements

Height: 6’5.5″
Wingspan: 6’9″
Standing reach: 8’6″
Weight: 210 pounds
Standing vertical: 28.5″
Max vertical: 37″

Strengths

Point of attack defense, interior scoring, winning plays, positional size

Castle’s perimeter defense is a joy to watch. His footwork is pristine. He stays glued to ball handlers and gives them no space to operate. He fights through screens and clearly takes pride on getting stops. Given his size and length, he should be able to guard one through three without issue, and his physicality makes it so he won’t be overwhelmed if he gets switched onto a big.

While his outside shot is a question mark, he still manages to get his buckets as a slasher. That pristine footwork and physicality I mentioned with his defense shows up here as well. He has an impressive package of euro steps and other step throughs to create angles for himself around the basket. He uses his body to knock defenders off balance and create space. He has good touch and can finish with either hand.

That defensive intensity is a part of the winning play style that Castle brings to the floor. He plays with a ton of effort and intensity and does the little things that help teams win. He makes the extra pass, doesn’t take plays off, and has a good basketball IQ.

Question Marks

Outside shooting, desire to be here

The biggest red flag with Castle’s game is his outside shooting. He’s never been an efficient 3-point shooter at any level, and that continued through his freshman season. He finished the season with a 3-point percentage of 26.7%, though he did up that to 32.6% in conference play. His shot during his UConn career looked like it was devoid of confidence. His lower body sway wouldn’t match his upper body cadence and his elevation was inconsistent, almost as if he were trying to iron out his technique each and every attempt he took. He shot really well in combine drills and he shows touch in every other part of his game, so there’s a chance this comes around, but that’s always a very risky bet to make.

Castle has thrown a wrinkle into the pre-draft process by proclaiming that he sees himself as a point guard, he reportedly only intends on working out for teams without a starting point guard. That would suggest that the Hornets wouldn’t get a workout and he’d instead focus on teams like the Spurs, Wizards, Jazz, etc.

It may seem like a diva move on the surface, but I don’t think it’s as significant as people might think. It’s the job of agents to get their client in the best situation possible, and I don’t think anyone would disagree that it would be preferable for a prospect to end up in a spot where they get the keys handed to them. That doesn’t mean Castle would be disappointed to be here or would be disgruntled should the Hornets take him, rather that if he had a choice, he’d want to go somewhere with a clear path to playing time right away. Still, there’s nothing wrong with being apprehensive about his perceived pickiness of NBA situation.

Overall outlook

On paper, Castle is about as good of a fit with the Hornets as any player projected to go around their pick at number 6. His gritty, defensive-minded approach is a perfect complement to Ball’s showstopping offense and rather apathetic defense. The Hornets have been lacking nastiness on the perimeter outside of sometimes Cody Martin, and Castle provides a significantly more talented version of that. He could be a Marcus Smart sort of player. If the outside shot comes around with it, the Hornets start to look like a young, complete team.

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