Early development struggles prove Spurs were right with heavily-criticized trade

Transitioning from amateur to professional sports is one of the hardest adjustments any young athlete can make. The jump from playing against peers to playing against professionals is a seismic shift that can take rookies a year or more to acclimate to. But that doesn't stop fans from expecting rookies to contribute from day one.

Doesn't it feel like we're putting unfair expectations on rookies today? You can blame it on a run of immediately successful rookies or our collective shortening of attention spans and levels of patience, but the fact remains that fans expect more of rookies than ever before and then are stunned when they don't live up to those expectations.

Unfair expectations or not, it seems like this year's crop of rookies are struggling more than usual. Yahoo's Tom Haberstroh did an excellent job laying out the hiccups the rookie class has faced, and, spoiler alert, it's a lot.

Remember, even after the Spurs took Stephon Castle with the 4th overall pick, many fans, myself included, were furious after San Antonio traded out of their next pick.

The Spurs owned the Toronto Raptors 8th overall pick but elected to make a deal with Minnesota that sent the pick that would eventually become Rob Dillingham to the Timberwolves. Looking back on it, it might have been the smart move after all.

Rookie struggles point to Brian Wright making another smart trade

Situation is critical in a player's path to success, and if there is one criticism I have for Haberstroh's assessment of this rookie class, it's that he overlooks the situation each rookie is in and how that's impacting their playing time or impact.

Haberstroh accurately calls out that Rob Dillingham—the player that so many Spurs fans wanted to see as a backcourt partner to Stephon Castle—has yet to see real NBA minutes. He's been glued to the bench for the Wolves first four games. Maybe part of that is Dillingham failing to show head coach Chris Finch that he's ready to contribute, or perhaps something else is at play.

Don't forget this is the same Timberwolves team that went to the Western Conference Finals last season and has even loftier aspirations this time around. If Dillingham wants to play, he's going to have to force Finch's hand through what he's showing in practice.

That clearly hasn't happened yet, and that's either an indictment of Dillingham's talent or it's a consequence of Finch having appropriately high expectations as the head coach of a championship-contending team. I'd bet it's more of the latter.

Despite his lack of playing time early on, you could still be forgiven for being upset over the Rob Dillingham trade if Stephon Castle was struggling. But through five games, the young guard from UConn is performing well in his limited role.

Castle is playing just under 21 minutes per game, an appropriate amount for a player selected as high as he was, and he's doing quite well in his role. He's playing the same level of hard-nosed defense that became his calling card in college, moving the ball well and is opportunistic on the offensive end.

He's doing exactly what the Spurs asked of him. Maybe there is something to setting realistic expectations after all!

It's still early in the season, and the same rookies who are falling short of expectations today could surprise us tomorrow. But based on what we know now, it looks like the Spurs were right to make the moves they did during the 2024 NBA draft.

They've got an impressive rookie at a position of need and built-in flexibility for down the road when it should come in handy. Not a bad day at the office for Brian Wright and company.