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Legion Hoops: Charles Barkley says Castle and Harper are going to be the new Steph and Klay, per @rBillSimmonsPod. “If I’m a guard in the NBA, I do not want to see them boys the next 10 years.“ (h/t @WembyAlienEra)
Reporter: He (Wembanyama) has a pretty special off-season workout regimen, where he's working out with monks or whatever. What do you want to see him do next? Stephon Castle: I don't know, man. Vic is random. I mean, we never know what's going on. I’ll log in on Instagram one time, and he's somewhere random. So I mean, I don't know what his story is, but I just know it's going to be beneficial for him. Reporter: You going to join him? Stephon Castle: I don't know if I'll join him. But I'm going to support him from a distance, though.
Tomer Azarly: 2K announced that you can now set your MyCareer in different eras. So if you had to take yourself back to a different era of NBA basketball, which one would it be and why? Stephon Castle: Probably like the 90s era. Probably like the 90s era. Tomer Azarly: What about the 90s era do you like so much? Stephon Castle: I just think the game is so different now. So being able to see what it would have been like to see myself in those type of games, against those type of play styles, I think it would be cool to look at.
Can you catch me up on what Stephon Castle’s off-season work has entailed with you so far? Simplis: “It’s been a lot of shooting. It’s been a lot of adjustments for us with them going so deep into the playoffs. I wouldn’t say we lost two months. But the year before, we were two months in by the time I saw him this offseason. So a lot of it was moving slow and not going full throttle. He had a long season. Then after the season, he took two to three weeks off. So we didn’t want to jump back in there and take a chance of having any injury. So it’s been a slow buildup in a short period. Now we’re starting to ramp it up a little bit as we get guys ready to go back to their destination. It’s been a lot of shooting focus, pace focus, shot-line pocket focus, off-the-dribble. Then it’s focusing from the gathers to the energy into the dribble and into the gather and the shot-line focus. With that, we’re starting to move a little bit. We’re starting to do it at game speed in the last week.”
Why have those areas been Stephon’s off-season focus? Simplis: “Obviously, shooting overall in the NBA is at a premium. But with Steph, it’s also about making sure that we create the proper energy and synergy on every rep. He’s such a high-volume guy defensively that sometimes his sequence in his shooting patterns is off. So I think fatigue sets in. If you don’t have the proper energy from the ground through your shot line, sometimes the ball reaches the pocket later than it’s supposed to during your sequence. We wanted the ball in the shot line while his hips are still in a bent position.
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A lot of times when guys fatigue, coaches will yell to players when they’re shooting short to use more legs. But in all my years, very rarely have I seen someone use less legs or less depth in their hips when they’re shooting the ball. What tends to happen is the transition from dribble to pick up to shot-line or even catch tend to slow up just a tad. So by the time that ball shows up to your shooting pocket, your legs are already fully extended. So we still want that ball in the pocket while he’s still coming from the crouch position, into his full extension and then into his jump. So the focus has been on the cadence of the dribble into the gather, and then gather through the shot-line. So we have the same sequence as much as we possibly can, whether he’s fresh or fatigued. If you noticed in some of his videos, naturally the arc changes. His arc is a little bit more pronounced. The shot then becomes a little bit more fluid. It’s not just upper-body based.”
The team posted a photo to social media of Wembanyama with seven of his teammates from his gym in nearby suburb Nanterre, France: Carter Bryant, De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Harrison Barnes, Jordan McLaughlin and free-agent signing Tobias Harris. The significant contingent, which comprises the majority of the Spurs’ projected playing rotation, is expected to spend around a week working out together at the home of Wembanyama’s former club Nanterre 92, of which he now owns a piece. Center Kelly Olynyk, who was with the Spurs last season but is currently a free agent, is also attending the workout.
Seven of Victor Wembanyama's teammates, including recently signed free agent forward Tobias Harris, have joined the 22-year-old superstar for workouts this week in France. The Spurs on Tuesday posted a photo on their official X account of Wembanyama alongside Harris and six players who helped the Spurs win the 2025 Western Conference championship: Harrison Barnes, Carter Bryant, Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper and Jordan McLaughlin.
"They want to grow," Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said last week when he revealed on the YouTube show TRASH TALK that "eight or ten" players were expected to join Wembanyama in France for workouts. Buford said Wembanyama organizing the practices underscores his leadership skills. "Just seeing Victor calling his team and saying, 'Hey, come over here and spend a week with me' (shows his leadership)," Buford said.
Bobby Marks: Difference in year 1 25% max $43.5M 30% max $52.2M San Antonio has Stephon Castle extension eligible next summer and Dylan Harper in 2028.
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I just went through every pick from 2020 through 2024. That’s 150 first-round picks. First question: did they make an impact for more than a month or two for the team that drafted them? The obvious choices are Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball (2020); Cade Cunningham (2021) and Stephon Castle (2024). Throw in guys like Onyeka Okongwu (2020) and Anthony Black (2023) who clearly are difference makers for the teams that drafted them or traded for them on draft night. How many of that 150 total made the “good list”? 46. In total, less than a third of those first rounders have proved, on their original team, that they belong. For every Franz Wagner and Alperen Şengün we had a Patrick Williams or Kai Jones.
Crazy Stats: Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Caste finished the 2026 postseason with combined totals of 942 points, 355 rebounds, 200 assists, 42 steals, and 86 blocks. No other pair of teammates in @NBA history has combined to produce as many points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks in a single playoff run, and only 11 duos have exceeded four of those marks.
