Spurs 1st Round Recap: Stephon Castle, Trading 8th Pick, More Cap Space
More updates on the Spurs drafting Stephon Castle, officially trading the 8th pick, and San Antonio having more cap space for the upcoming weekend.
Before going through the latest updates of the opening night of the draft, you can read my instant reaction on the Spurs drafting Stephon Castle with the 4th pick, trading the 8th pick (Rob Dillingham), and San Antonio’s early cap space projections.
One new bit of information regarding Castle is he’ll be wearing jersey number 5 for the Spurs, the team announced. Some notable players who have worn number 5 for the silver and black were Dejounte Murray, Cory Joseph, and Robert Horry.
Spurs General Manager Brian Wright on Drafting Castle
Following the first round of the draft, Spurs General Manager Brian Wright spoke with us (the media) about drafting Castle. Since at that time the 8th pick trade had not been made official, Wright and the Spurs weren’t allowed to comment on the trade, per league rules.
Wright said the Spurs have been scouting Castle for a long time:
“But obviously, knowing that we had a potential to draft pretty high, wasn't like this was the first time we heard of him. We've seen him in the high school scene. He was a pretty highly rated high school player, and so we tried to spend as much time with those guys as possible and get to know him. So spend time at practice, going to games, even in the grassroots scene, when we're allowed to see those guys, we try to make sure that we get eyes on them. So he'd been somebody that we knew a lot about, and when the opportunity was there for him, we were really excited to draft him. “
Wright on Castle as a player:
“He's very versatile, he's tough, he's smart. You know, most times you don't see highly rated players go to a school and be willing to play a role, right? He played on the ball and off the ball in high school, and you know, he's doing things that he just wasn't able to showcase sometimes at UConn because they were so good and they were deep and they were experienced. And so that ability to sacrifice for the betterment of the team is something that stood out to us as well, right? That's something you're gonna have to do across the course of your career, everybody. And so that stood out as a great quality, but he's tough, he's smart, he's a team first guy. He's a hard worker, and he comes from a program where, you know, they're getting coached hard every single day. They work hard, they practice hard, they're competitive, and they execute. And that meant a lot.”
When Wright was asked about Castle playing point guard, he said Castle has a wide array of skills where he can play different positions:
“He's a basketball player. And so I think you'll see him all over the place. You know, as as much as he played point guard in high school, you would see him setting the screen and roll into the basket and finishing. So that type of versatility is great. And again, guys come in and work and show you where they're best. So we'll see, we'll see where that lands. But he's got great skills, great versatility.”
One of Castle’s weaknesses entering the NBA will be his outside shooting. Wright was asked about his shot and he thinks the mechanics are there for Castle to make improvement:
“Mechanics and free throw percentage. And you break the season up into stretches. You know, you miss some time. How did you shoot coming back from injury? How did he finish the season? Like, I think you look at all those things. And, you know, on a team like, like Connecticut, you know, you don't have the ability to shoot yourself out of a slump sometimes, right? So you get eight shots or seven shots. Sometimes you don't get to shoot 18 times to shoot your way out of a bad shooting game. And so you have to take the whole context into the equation. So we believe he'll continue to improve there, and again, it starts with who he is as a kid and how hard he works.”
In my scouting report on Castle, I wrote about how he plays with a lot of poise. He always seems like he’s in command and doesn’t get overwhelmed often. Wright mentioned something similar when asked about Castle’s character:
“That willingness to sacrifice, and he was always he's kind of like a quiet, stoic type of personality. But you watch him when teammates have success, it didn't matter if he had 18 points in that game or six points and he was fired up for his teammates, right? So you try to pick up little things along the way that tell you about him as a teammate. What's he like in that locker room? And there were just a lot of positives.”
Spurs Officially Trade Rob Dillingham to Minnesota
Later in the evening after the draft had concluded, the Spurs made the trade official with Minnesota.
The Spurs acquired a pick swap for Minnesota’s 2030 first round pick and Minnesota’s 2031 first round pick.
The Wolves acquired Rob Dillingham, whom the Spurs drafted with the 8th pick.
Wright was asked about the Spurs continuing to acquire picks for the future, and he said, that usually ends up being a good strategy:
“Typically, it's a pretty good strategy,” said Wright. “So we'll try to continue to make sound decisions with whatever we do, you know, and we want to continue to improve the team. We know that we've got a great runway here. We've got some great young talent, and we look to build around them in the right way.”
No Decision Yet on Devonte’ Graham, Julian Champagnie, and Charles Bassey’s non-guaranteed contracts
The Spurs have upcoming decisions to make with Graham, Champagnie, and Bassey’s contracts.
The Spurs have until July 1 to guarantee Graham’s $12.6 million salary for next season. If he’s waived before then, only $2.9 million is partially guaranteed. Champagnie ($3 million) and Bassey ($2.5 million) are each on non-guaranteed deals, but their deals don’t become fully guaranteed until August 1.
When Wright was asked about whether the team has made a decision on the three player’s contracts, he said, “no, no decisions yet at this point.”
The Second Round Thursday
With the draft switching to a two-day event, the second round will take place Thursday at 3 PM CT. The Spurs still have selections to make with the 35th and 48th picks.
Here are the prospects who will still be available according to my Spurs Draft Board.
Some players who were projected to be selected in the first round are still on the board:
Johnny Furphy
Tyler Kolek (who the Spurs reportedly worked out)
Kyle Filipowski
Who are some players the Spurs can try to sign or trade for with their new cap space amount?
Tuesday evening when I was writing my Draft Roundup Volume 4, I kept thinking about the reports of the Spurs trading back. That prompted me to look at their cap space scenarios just in case they traded one of their picks back, and didn’t acquire any salary.
That ended up being the case with the Spurs trading the 8th pick, where the Spurs can now open up to $26.4 million in cap space starting July 1.
Here are some free agents that fit with San Antonio that the Spurs could look at sending offers to with their cap space. The projected salaries for the players come from my free agent guides:
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