Castle's NBA Rookie Ladder leap shows why he was always ROY favorite

Stephon Castle entered his inaugural NBA season as tied with three others for fifth place in Rookie of the Year odds with Dalton Knecht and Matas Buzelis. Some immediately questioned the order for a few reasons: Castle's experience as a core piece for a championship college program, the coaching he received from UConn's Dan Hurley, and the maturity he carried himself with were some of them.

The NBA Rookie Ladder reflected the ignorance when it first dropped a couple of weeks ago—the Spurs' rookie wasn't on it. Fortunately, it hasn't taken long for the experts to see the error of their ways. Castle is now listed as number two on NBA.com's weekly Rookie Ladder. He went from ninth to sixth, and now he only trails the Philadelphia 76ers' Jared McCain.

ROY odds are beginning to shift right along with the NBA Rookie Ladder

Castle now stands alone with the third-best odds to walk away with the Rookie of the Year award, according to FanDuel. The path to back-to-back ROY winners in San Antonio is becoming clear, and the season has only been underway for a little over a month. It makes you question what the oddsmakers were thinking when almost every player listed above him is now far behind.

Zach Edey led the field, but that made no sense considering how many questioned whether he'd even be a good player in the league. Reed Sheppard was next, but he is a small guard with good offensive potential, but the size and athleticism of the league were always going to be something he had to adjust to.

Alexander Sarr was the Washington Wizards' second pick overall. That sentence alone is enough to remove the athletic Frenchman from contention, yet he was third on the list. The Wizards haven't had a player win Rookie of the Year since Wes Unseld in 1968, and that trend is not about to change now.

The Atlanta Hawks selected Zaccharie Risacher with the 2024 number-one overall pick. He was fourth on the oddsmakers' list, and while his odds haven't plummeted to the same degree the other players have, he's also behind Castle now.

When Steph was selected, it was clear that he was the most pro-ready prospect in the draft besides Dalton Knecht. Interestingly enough, Knecht is one of two players ahead of Castle now. He had an impressive stretch of games last week that catapulted him up the rankings. He's begun to cool off, but playing in a large market like Los Angeles will give him an edge.

Jared McCain is the surprise player of the draft. He's number one, and deservedly so. The 76ers rookie is averaging 16.5 points per game; he's cracked 20 or more points seven times and eclipsed 30 points twice. The problem for him is the amount of losing Philly's been doing. They're currently 3-14.

Record isn't generally a large factor for the Rookie of the Year award, but when one of those rookies is impacting winning on a team that only had 22 wins last year, it becomes a bigger piece of the story. The Spurs have won almost half the games they did the entirety of last season, and there are still so many games to be played.

The slightly younger half of Area 51 is a better defender than both of those players. He's spent a lot of time guarding the other team's best player, and he'll get recognition for that. Castle is averaging 11.5 points on the season, but that number in his 12 games as a starter has increased to 14.7.

If he can keep up his offensive numbers while continuing to lock down on defense, Castle will win the award fairly easily. He'll then be joining Victor Wembanyama, Tim Duncan, and David Robinson as the only Silver and Black members to achieve the honor of hoisting the ROY trophy. That's not bad company to be in.