Scouting report for the 2024 NBA Draft – Stephon Castle…

Scouting report for the 2024 NBA Draft – Stephon Castle…

en with his brief collegiate career, Stephon Castle has a solid reputation as a “winner” and was a key member of a team that finished 37-3 last season. The UConn Huskies had the top offensive and the fourth-best defense in the country in 2023–24, according to Kenpom.

Despite being a supporter of the UConn Huskies, the then-and now two-time defending champions, Castle, who is from nearby Covington, Georgia, committed to the team. Given that 247 Sports rated him as a 5-star combo guard in the 2023 high school class, it appeared inevitable that he would be a one-and-done candidate in what appears to be a weaker than usual draft class.

However, some think that his academic work was lackluster and grade him accordingly on mock draft boards.

At 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds (based on NBA Combine measurements), Offense Castle is a guard who would fit right in with an NBA wings lineup. He appears to be much stronger than the 180 pounds that he was billed as for college, and he lines up for the Huskies at the 1, 2, and 3 with credibility at times.

Castle has moments when it comes to the ball, but last season he didn’t have much of a chance to play as a real point guard. Teams are eager to run under screens and force him into crowds in the lane because he has a shifty enough handle and enough tightness to create space off the bounce.

Castle shot just 27% of his 2.2 threes per game, but he made a healthy 76% of his free throws, indicating that he has a chance to at least reach league average from long range. He will, at the absolute least, start his career being expected to spot up in the corner and above the break for standstill threes in the NBA, where spacing is crucial.

The nice thing is that when he creates for himself, he recognizes himself as a slasher and uses

The nice thing is that he uses his bulk to make space and correctly perceives himself as a slasher when constructing for himself. He’s also developed the ability to use a slight off-arm or shoulder shove to get up a shot close to the rim because he doesn’t mind using roughness when playing. Castle completed 63% of his rim shots, which is a good percentage for a guard.

His overall feel for the game not quite there offensively. It’s clear he doesn’t read the floor as well as some of the other top guards in this class outside of the (admittedly very layered) structure of the UConn offense, where specific movements were preprogrammed.

It is encouraging he generally stuck to the script, registering 4.3 assists to just 2.2 turnovers per 40 minutes, right at a 2:1 ratio. But when operating ad hoc, he occasionally commits sloppy turnovers, whether by driving into traffic, misreading passing lane defenders, or by dishing out-of-sync passes out of the short roll.