The Houston Rockets strengthen their rising backcourt with Stephon Castle

As the 2024 NBA Draft approaches, the media is slightly beefing up its draft boards as championship-contending NBA teams strategize for their next step in the draft. With the college withdrawal deadline and the NBA draft, decisions are still being made and analyzed as the draft moves forward into late June.

For Stephon Castle, the one-year guard at UConn who helped the Huskies reach their second straight national title, he continued to progress on the big boards as his combination of size, creation and downhill strength made him a desirable hope in his class. He is increasingly sought after as spring approaches summer, with teams in the top 10 fine-tuning their potential selections.

Here, we’ll briefly discuss his possible fit with the Houston Rockets, who were ranked third overall in this year’s draft and finished 11th in the Western Conference with a 41-41 record.

As we outline Castle’s potential landing spot in Houston, this would be an interesting landing spot.

He has expressed his desire to be one of the premier ball handlers and playmakers – alongside Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson, now a sophomore, the core of the Rockets backcourt – Castle certainly could to be the kind of creator he wants to be. be, just in this second unit. And his ability to work on the ball could also be integrated with his abilities as a front man, allowing him to build on his skills as a primary ball handler while also providing immediate value as an offensive creator outside of the ball.

With a really solid defensive system and personnel, Castle’s fit into this lineup would be pretty seamless, most likely taking Aaron Holiday’s backup point guard role while pairing him alongside Cam Whitmore in the second unit. But on the court with Alperen Sengun, it could be an intriguing offensive dynamic as two rim-hungry scorers.

Castle is a guard who should have a good chance of making a very valuable impact in his first season in the league, and who could help a team get a few more wins than they otherwise would have.

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