Castle's breakneck development pace adds deadly element to Spurs' attack

Everyone knows that the Spurs are Victor Wembanyama's team, and he's built to drive the team's dominance for the foreseeable future, but he won't be the only young star. In fact, Stephon Castle has already emerged as an elite two-way player, and at this rate, he'll be the best number two option in the NBA.

Stephon Castle is peaking at the best time

Last season's Rookie of the Year has followed up his impressive debut year with a leap in several areas. He always had the defensive chops in his bag, but he's stepped into his own as a playmaker from the very start of the year. Castle is averaging seven assists per game, and he's hovered around that range since October.

He's always shown scoring ability, but he's been more efficient than ever since the All-Star Break. Steph is shooting 49% from the field and 40% from deep in his last 18 games. The former UConn champion is averaging nearly 17 points and 5 boards a night.

He's doing all of this while taking on the toughest assignments on the other end of the floor, and his efforts have led to a +13.1 during the stretch. That's the second highest number on the team, after the towering Frenchman's +17.1 (which is a crazy number, by the way, but I digress).

Castle is developing at a breakneck pace

Before the break in February, Castle was playing very well for a second-year guy, but the efficiency wasn't where it is now. His field goal and three-point percentages were 47% and 29%. Obviously the sample size before his jump was larger, but it's been a month and a half at this point.

This is more than a hot stretch. It's improvement in real time during the season—something he and the coaching staff deserve a ton of credit for. When you combine his offensive output with his defensive impact, it puts him on track to be on the same level as all the other number twos in the league.

The guys on that list are very talented. We're talking Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray, Jalen Williams, Karl-Anthony Towns, and others. Getting the nod over most of them will take consistency over time and big-time performances when it matters most—the postseason—but there's no reason he can't get there.

Brown will be the most difficult to pass. We're talking about an MVP candidate and Finals MVP winner. He's basically a number one masquerading as a second option. However, if we can say that there's only one guy in a similar role whom he can't elevate above, I'd say Steph has done pretty damn well for himself, and having a guy like that next to Wemby would likely guarantee the next Spurs dynasty.

Both members of Area 51 have devastating game-breaking abilities on both ends of the floor. That's going to be a problem for the league for a long time.