Frustrating Stephon Castle strategy is eerily similar to a hated Spurs experiment

By now, San Antonio Spurs fans have caught on to Coach Mitch Johnson's Stephon Castle experiment. He's been playing Castle at point guard despite having an all-star guard in De'Aaron Fox starting alongside him.

Initially, things were going well, with Castle thriving while playing alongside Fox and gaining valuable experience as a primary playmaker. Now, it's painfully obvious that the Spurs should hand the keys to the offense to Fox.

After all, when it was Fox leading the Spurs' offense without Castle and Victor Wembanyama, they were scoring at the equivalent of a top-five offense. With the Silver and Black's offense now in a rut, they should end the Castle experiment and go back to a more tried-and-true point guard.

Ironically, what the Spurs are doing with Castle now is similar to what they did with Jeremy Sochan at point guard. Those were dark times, and it didn't ultimately amount to much, with Sochan almost certain to be traded.

The Stephon Castle experiment at point guard must end

I get what Johnson is trying to do. Between Fox and Castle, Fox is the better shooter and therefore more capable of playing off-ball. Meanwhile, the best way to keep teams from ignoring Castle is to put the ball in his hands and surround him with four shooters.

That worked like a charm until it didn't. Injuries to Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, plus Harrison Barnes forgetting how to shoot, compromised the Spurs' spacing.

Wembanyama and Vassell are back, but Barnes is still struggling, as is Castle, increasing the need for Johnson to make a change. It's true that having Castle play off-ball might cause issues such as teams sagging off him or even having their center guard him.

But he was still effective playing primarily off-ball as a rookie last season and can certainly adjust his game like Fox has been forced to. Just the fact that Fox is averaging 20.2 points and 6.1 assists while playing shooting guard is impressive.

He isn't even close to the best we've seen him play as a member of the Sacramento Kings. That's a problem. San Antonio is paying him like a max-level player, but his production isn't living up to it, through no fault of his own. Sure, he is playing well, but him playing off-ball is limiting his potential.

The Spurs could be sleeping on their best offensive weapons

Not only that, but it's also delaying him building chemistry with Wembanyama. Thanks to injuries, they have played surprisingly little together despite having been teammates for nearly a year.

Putting the ball back in Fox's hands would allow them to get reps in the pick and roll and potentially unlock a deadly weapon. One that could help take the Spurs' offense to a whole other level.

In fact, that combination has the potential to be almost as good as the Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pairing. Considering how great those two have been together for years, the Spurs could be handcuffing their two best players.

Sure, Castle has developed into a terrific lob thrower and has made big strides as a passer. But if the Spurs can get Fox back to the 26 points and 7 assists level he was at with the Kings, then that would be far better for the Silver and Black. End the experiment.