Stephon Castle Driving the Basketball

Diving into Stephon Castle's ability to drive the ball at the NBA level and get to the free throw line.

Photo credit: Spurs.com

During the first quarter of the San Antonio Spurs’ loss Tuesday in Phoenix, rookie Stephon Castle drew a shooting foul against Devin Booker on a drive for an and-1 opportunity.

Rewinding back to May 5, 2024, when I wrote my scouting report on Castle as a draft prospect out of UConn, it was evident his ability to drive the ball and get to the free throw line were two of his strengths on offense.

Size - At 6’6” and 215 pounds, Castle has size that he’s able to use on both ends of the court. On offense, he can draw contact and he knows how to use his body to get separation from his defender. He’s able to get to the free throw line on his drives, where he’s trying to seek contact with the defender.

Toward the end of the scouting report, this was part of the answer for the question ‘How would Castle fit on the Spurs?’

On his drives, he should be able to draw fouls, which would help in an area where the Spurs struggled this season.

21 games into his rookie season, Castle has indeed been able to not only drive the ball at the NBA level, but he’s also able to absorb contact and get himself to the foul line.

That’s what I really want to do here, is focus on Castle’s drives and foul drawing ability so far through his rookie season.

Castle is currently averaging 11.5 points per game (6th in scoring on team) and he’s attempting 3.1 free throws per game (3rd on the team).

When we look at Castle’s shot diet, we see that 47% of his shots are coming in the paint.

When he does take an attempt in the paint, he’s trying to get to the dunk/layup range more often, with 33% of his attempts coming from the restricted area. He’s making 61% of his attempts near the rim. Just 14% of his paint attempts are coming from the less efficient floater range area.

The Spurs are also allowing Castle to figure out his game at the NBA level. He has the second highest usage among the starters at 21.3%, behind only Victor Wembanyama.

When it comes to drives specifically, Castle currently leads the team in total drives at 144, per data from Second Spectrum on NBA.com.

When Castle drives the ball, he’s pretty even in either trying to score or distribute. He’s shooting on 39% of his drives and passing on 37% of his drives. One area where he stands out compared to his teammates is in getting to the foul line on his drives.

Castle is getting to the foul line on 10% of his drives and he currently leads the team with 30 free throw attempts on his drives.