Stephon Castle transforms the potential into a consistent production

After watching his playing time subside due to errors and inefficiency, culminated with a controversial 12-minute night against the pelicansStephon Castle has jumped back with a revenge. He average 24 points, five rebounds and five assists in his last five appearances while shooting over 50 percent from the floor.

The recent stretch of great play is remarkable not only because it gives him a big boost on this year’s rookie, but also because it has shown the talent of the kind of production lotter that he could give regularly but has not consistently delivered. It seems that Castle’s reality is starting to catch up with the tempting idea of ​​him.

Before the recent stretch it was easy to consider Castle a little overrated. There were some flashes of brilliance and good games, but you never knew when to come. His performances were so uneven that a person who catches the castle on a bad evening could reasonably question whether he would have a future in the league as a starter. Opponents left him open to help elsewhere and he couldn’t make them pay often enough. As a playmaker, Castle occasionally tried things he couldn’t do yet because the game had not slowed down for him. He often dared into the paint on drive without a plan and ended up being blocked or taking hard shots. Defense was his phone cards in college, but there were games where the best players in the world scored on him at his own discretion.

Normally, the statistics serve to correct any rushed conclusions caused by witnessing a bad evening, but in Castle’s case the number seemed to confirm that he was nothing special. For the season, Castle is an average of 13 points, three rebounds and three assists. He shoots 28 percent over the arch. The cans are lovely, but Castle has been blocked 46 times, more than anyone on the Spurs program list, and just shoot a shade over 42 percent on drives. Opponents are shooting about the same with him defending them, and he is in the lower third of Percentile as an insulation and pick-and-roll defender. Castle was rightly declared the front runner to win Rookie of the Year, but only because this is a terrible class that his number pale in comparison with previous winners of the award.

The recent stretch does not change what came before it, but it provides proof of what the more connected observers already knew: Despite the pedestrian numbers and the rough stretches Castle could be a special player before rather than later. Rookie is not a brand, but he has 20 games with several made triangles this season. His form needs fine tuning but is not broken. The drives are not always clean, but he has the handles, strength, deceleration and explosiveness to become a nightmare to protect when he puts his head down and tries to get to the edge. Some of the revenue is bad, but we are talking about a 20-year-old rookie who learns on the job after spending his only college season playing mainly on the ball. And there are times when the defense looks elite, which is not something that usually happens to young players.

Castle’s season has been overwhelming in terms of number, and there were probably bad games to influence his place in rotation, but through it all his potential has been undeniable. He may statistically be the worst rookie of the year since Malcolm Brogdon, but whether he gets the award or not, that’s not what matters. Brogdon’s class also had Jaylen Brown and four other players who have all-star appearances in what everyone had worse statistics as rookies than Castle Poster. He is an ongoing work, but his head has been clear.

All that was missing was consistency and it looks like Castle could find it faster than expected. Five matches are not much, but Rookie has looked like he finally knows his role and is sure to fill it nightly. If he can close the year strongly, he will make the skeptics by showing that he is not only a highlight, but a competent young player who is closer to making a big leap than his number suggests.