[Highlight] Stephon Castle putting Cade Cunningham in hell for two-and-a-half minutes
I don’t use it lightly but Castle is a dawg on defense. He really display a mentality “I am gonna follow you every step and make it hard for you even if that means I do nothing else this game.”
Dude still does pick up double doubles here and there even despite being a stud on defence. He’s got that championship level dawg mentality through and through. He has 9 this season and a 40 point triple double.
Hes the main reason the spurs won
No so fast buddy. Cade beat his press several times in this clip alone and is a bit to physical for castle to lock up on his own.
His job seemed to be to funnel him in to Victor and not bite on the pump fakes.
That looks almost Jrue-esque
The dancing dreads helps
Constantly active hands, relentless pressure, jumping off 2 feet, squeezing by every screen…very Jrue-esque.
Doesn’t have the lower body strength of Jrue but the technique is there. I was gonna say he looked like Herb fighting through screens which is crazy given his offensive game.
Castle is built solid though. He’s a tough MFer.
He definitely looks tough, but he’s a bit lankier than Jrue (which doesn’t hurt on defense).
Castle is a top tier defender. Kid is amazing, physical, smart. The Gods really smiled at San Antonio back to back to back with Wemby Castle Harper.
They also pick on character
You might say they made some primo draft picks
Shit
Dead. 💀
Fantastic.
How so?
He means that character is a trait that the Spurs look for when trading/drafting.
Sounds like some fan lore. They draft consensus BPA like anyone else. They just got some lottery luck
Hehehe that’s funny
Dejounte Murray and Primo make it kinda self evident. Fan lore is cool though, I enjoyed watching yall beat the Pistons who have the same delusions
Wemby could have had a sexual assault allegation in his past and he was going #1
All-Defense
There’s also a small chance the Hawks pick jumps up and yall get ANOTHER lottery pick lmao
Wemby Castle Harper.
you mean rigged it for the golden boy lmao
Imagine if you took Kon instead of Harper
Castle was a ROY because of all the injuries to the spurs and he just did what he wanted and was a statpadder literally staying in blowouts.
Lol so every draft is rigged now for you conspiracy theorists? And wow, Castle played basketball, even if it’s not a close game. What a statpadder, right?
God I’m so proud of this team. They’re all absolute studs on defence. Not a single player on Mitch’s rotation you could say is mid.
Far cry from the Bryn Forbes days.
Forbes actually try hard on defense. He’s always solid on positioning and all that. It’s just that he’s too limited in size, lateral speed and length.
He tried but still got cooked.
It was a damning indictment on the squad that he was even part of the rotation.
To be fair, he was a damn good shooter. If he was drafted today, teams would play him like Payton Pritchard, and his defense wouldn’t matter as much
That’s nba champion Bryn Forbes
Why you hurt me by bringing this up? Bryn Forbes AND Marco Belinelli…
I’d be quite nervous if I were OKC with the spurs and a resurgent Celtics with Tatum in the next two seasons
a few years ago, i never thought i’d one day be saying Keldon Johnson is a solid defender, but here i am
barnes is awful at times
He looked like he was going to easily be a 40% 3pt shooter early in the season, but reality kicked in on Dec 13th playing OKC. Dude went 0-8, and hasn’t really shot well since.
i was talking about defensively but yes his offense can be terrible too. it’s why i wanted champagnie to start instead of him after the new year. he does everything barnes can do plus rebounds way better
He shot 43% last year when nothing mattered. He’s still shooting 37% this year which is still slightly above average, but yeah, he absolutely does not show up for big games. Which is kinda his MO. He might play himself out of the rotation if he can’t hit shots in the playoffs.
Imagine if the Spurs get the #2 pick via Atlanta and draft Dybansta. Barnes will be put out to pasture.
Fox but he’s just there as the vet until they don’t need him
this kid is legit
Give this man all Defensive 1st team - he deserves it. Idk what else he has to do.
Locking up Cade on a Nationally televised game against the two hottest teams in the league probably helped.
Except it wasn’t nationally televised! Thank you, Peacock and NBA.
In 2026 this is a nationally televised game
Funny thing is coming out of HS, Castle was never really heralded as an elite defender and that was a question mark heading into his freshmen season at UConn. Then he turned into UConn’s best lockdown defender on the perimeter, and has carried that over to the NBA.
I’m telling you, if he can ever develop a decent 3-pt stroke, 1st team All-NBA potential for him.
man to man defense into a god level
Castle leap this year has been incredible. I really loving how castle is so fearless on the defensive side of his game .i also loving that castle is working on developing his midrange short so he doesn’t have to attack the rim all the time.
Yeah, after that horrendous stretch in Jan where he literally shot 15% for a few games, barreling to the hoop without much of a plan other than hope for a foul, he’s added a pull-up middy to his arsenal that has helped him immensely. And he’s also shooting the ball from 3 better lately.
Dude is legitimately an insane two way player already
But I thought basketball isn’t physical in today’s era and no one plays defense
any time the boomers talk about basketball not being physical and no one playing defense like Kobe did, this is a great game to point them to.
Cade had to deal with this from Castle only to get to the paint and be met with Wemby ready to spike his shit.
Area 51 on full display.
I CAN’T GET ENOUGH SPURS
Castle, Wemby and Carter Bryant, then add a guy literally nicknamed “Swipa.” Fucking sheeeeesh - no wonder our defense has been so amazing
This is a great highlight video. You can totally see the frustration grow in Cade as the video goes on
Every day I am thankful the Rockets didn’t draft Castle
He’s really got that “offense through defense” mentality. Cade is too small to push him off.
Castle worked hard but that was great team defense mostly
The second play is a great pass that should be a made layup
That’s our Dawg!
The deeper Cade gets in the playoffs, the tougher it’s going to get for him and the more it’s going to become obvious that the Pistons need another elite perimeter player capable of attacking 3 on 4 and 4 on 4 when Cade is being hounded. I watched Hali go through it with the Pacers…he got better at both being a decoy/letting his teammates attack and beating pressure by constantly pitching the ball and retrieving it via hand-offs. I’m not sure Cade is ready to do either. When push comes to shove I don’t think the Pistons have the problem-solving capabilities and the offensive talent to win multiple tough 7 game series.
Don’t worry pistons picked up Huerter. Problem solved
With Halliburton, he also knows his limitations as a 1 on 1 player. If his shot isn’t going, he’s usually better off ball being a decoy and making the hockey assist here and there. Cade is much better 1 on 1and therefore, the pistons want to work off him and rely on that way more
Dont worry cuz, they have ultimate professional tobias harris
Experience from guarding Harper in practice
This is why I say cade is selfish, he never passes. I hate him
Cade is not selfish. Just showing you don’t know what you’re talking about
He only passes when he wants to pad assist numbers. Terrible floor leader. Too in love with his own name
You’re just not a serious person lol. Nice bait
Which old school wrestler’s finisher was the “Torture Rack”?
That’s what this clip reminded me of.
Lex Luger! Holy shit you just unlocked that memory for me.
This is not just Castle lol. I’m not saying he didn’t do a good job, or isn’t a good player. But you have Wemby as backup on 90% of these plays with multiple blocks. When Cade would get by Castle he’d literally have to step back because of Wemby.
It’s definitely something to figure out but a bit of an overreaction to push a narrative.
For sure but Steph’s aggressiveness also makes that gameplan work
I don’t want to see this again lol
hes becoming my favorite player
He reminds me so much of Chicago Jimmy Butler. His presence is just like this absolute junkyard dog every minute he’s out there on both ends of the floor but he’s also very calm and composed, never gets rattled or overexcited
Half of these is Cade gets passed him and has nowhere to go because Wemby is just lurking. Driving isn’t an option besides when we had JD drive through Wemby’s chest. That needs to be our gameplan
Yeah this is great hounding defense but it schemes this way beacuse of Wemby.
Wolves can do the same with Gobert back there. It’s a great thing to be able to be aggressive defensively knowing you are still funneling your opposition to an elite shot blocker.
This is where a good midrange pull up game or post offense might help take away that pressure of having to deal with Wembys 2nd level defense.
Reminds me of peak kawhi level defense. You just couldn’t shake him off you.
Why doesn’t Detroit have another ball handler bring the ball up instead of wasting Cades energy against a press the whole game? Do they literally have zero other ball handlers? This is beyond stupid by Detroit.
Literally a perfect example of how to stop 90% of what the pistons do.
now that the yall said that dylan harper is his favorite player, “and he took it personally” might be Castles POV
My man had a rough night lol
And they got Carter Bryant aswell, who’s like a bigger, more athletic Castle on D. The basketball gods smiled at the Spurs.
Stephon Prison Castle
Cade isnt ready for the playoffs.
No way the Pistons come out of the East if this is the pressure that gets to him.
Cade was getting by him and getting open… Just a bad shooting night
nah people have already decided any other opinion in this thread is wrong, not common sense like you
I thought the same. Credit to Castle for the full court pressure but Cade got by him plenty of times in this video and missed open shots he typically makes. But seems like there’s an agenda to be pushed here so whatever.
I mean.. good effort I wouldn’t call that hell. Maybe heck. Cade got by him a lot there, and also got a number of fine looks. We just cherry picked two minutes of footage where he missed. He didn’t have a great shooting night but I chalk that up to elite rim production and night to night nba variance more than castle.
I think it’s fairly evident that Cade lost the mental battle as the game progressed, and Castle maintained his composure throughout. Mental hell is just as bad, as physical
I mean yeah but genuinely that felt like Wemby not Castle. Dudes guard Cade like that every single night, he gets blitzed and double teamed and fouled and hounded, none of that is new for him. I think he got flustered when he gets by Castle just to be met by the alien in the paint. On top of that I’m guessing him being in foul trouble in a game that physical on both ends probably also took him out of it mentally.
I mean yeah but genuinely that felt like Wemby not Castle.
I can see this. It was probably an instance of “man this freak is too fucking tall and then this other guy just won’t stay the fuck away from me”
Variance is a spread from the mean which implies this performance isn’t much off from a normal Cade performance. He hovers around 43% FG. Tonight he was below half of the normal performance. That is not variance. Random off night maybe.
ood effort I wouldn’t call that hell. Maybe heck. Cade got by him a lot there, and also got a number of fine looks. We just cherry picked two minutes of footage where he missed. He didn’t have a great shooting night but I chalk that up to elite rim production and night to night nba variance more than castle.
this, thank you!
This comment has rockets or thunder fan written all over it lmao