I've been sipping the Kool-aid watching every video on him since we drafted Sheppard and this kid really has underrated vision. He makes the right play often and throws some crazy passes (similar to Jokic/Sengun) where no one on the other team even sniffs it coming. His defense does raise some concern since he has a hard time keeping up with his man and often lets him blow past him while he goes for the steal/block. But, he is good at reading lanes hence the high steal rate. It's not surprising people were mocking him at #1 because his numbers could've been way higher if he had a starting role in Kentucky (not sure why he was coming off the bench). I'm convinced his ceiling is like Steve Nash and his floor is a JJ Reddick. edit: also love that he says he loves watching CP3 and it shows in his playmaking
The Spurs will fix him, 100%. Two years and even brick layers like Jeremy Sochan are showing signs of life (24 to 30% year to year). Castle may never be a great shooter, but it's not like he can't hit FTs. If he went to Detroit, I'd bet he'd bust. In SA, he'll work his way up to the low-mid 30s from 3.
For the crazy ones, here is every shot, assist, rebound and turnover of his Kentucky career: I haven't watched it all, but a couple of take aways: I didn't realize how much he was driving to the basket. In college he had no problem to drive to the paint - but he didn't manage to get seperation. It kinda looked similar to Luka, as in he didnt look that fast or shifty, but still got to his spot (not implying in any way, that he is in any way comparable to Luka, just an observation that he got into the paint without flashy or lightning quick movements). He is also very crafty with his shot - when he is driving he could pull up at any moment, shoot a floater, do a layup, scoop or up and under. But he struggles to finish against defenders - looked a lot like early Green just driving into the paint despite the defense being right there. His passing is underrated. Like I said, he didnt have a problem to drive to the basket, and he loves to drive and kick the ball - he is really good at finding open shooters. He was a little more hesistant with throwing the ball to a cutter or a lob to someone close to the basket, but he also had some really nice passes here. And in transition he is really, really good. Working with FVV should really help him, both in finishing drives as well as passing in tight windows. I agree with DaDakota, that he does look like a PG to me. He doesn't have flashy handles, but he is a decent ball handler and he is really smart with the basketball. If his ability to drive to the paint is translateable to the NBA, there is no question to me, that he can be a pretty good fast first PG that doubles as a spot up shooter. His 4.5 assists in college while coming off the bench and being a secondary playmaker also look pretty good.
Steels, simple passes, size. For all the Steve Nash comps I think he got a lot more John Stockton in him than Nash.
In the mic'd up vid, Reed looks 2 inches taller than Dillingham who is listed as 6'1 and 3 inches shorter than Castle's 6'6. It would help if Reed put some pomade in his dome. 6'1-6'3 is more than enough to play guard. Don't know why people freak out about that. It's not like he is playing PF/Center and revolutionizing Basketball.
Even if he eventually fixes his jumper, we were the spot for him. Between amen, senguin, Eason and green we have too many players already who need to improve their jumper.
I'm excited for this kid, but definitely worry he's too small to thrive in the NBA. People will point to guys of similar size who've done it, but the exceptions prove the rule. Hope he makes it. Would be nice to have a star player on the roster.
