Glaring Stephon Castle problem rears its ugly head again in OKC clash

Watching Stephon Castle through the first two games of the Western Conference Finals has been interesting to say the least. The second-year guard posted nine turnovers in the Spurs' Game 2 loss against the Thunder. That makes it 19 total for him on the series, which is the most in any two-game stretch in league history.

Now, I don't want to take all the credit away from Castle. He's still been reliable as a scorer, fearlessly attacking OKC's interior and keeping his efficiency in check. Between the first two matchups, he's averaging 21 points on 48% shooting.

But if the Spurs want to keep themselves afloat this series, their most glaring improvement has to be ball control. And that starts with the guy who was the best playmaker for them all season long.

Stephon has to tighten up with his decision making

As great as Castle is with his ability to get downhill, he does tend to get a bit too aggressive, and it leads to an unhealthy amount of giveaways. He's either throwing errant passes or getting the ball stripped from him, and the Thunder are converting on these. They're averaging 27.8 points off turnovers so far.

Stephon's approach of playing with reckless abandon is both a blessing and a curse. You're either going to get jaw-dropping poster dunks like we saw tonight or ill-timed giveaways that disrupt the Spurs' scoring runs. It's quite the roller-coaster.

That explains why his on-court numbers haven't been great so far in this series. He recorded a plus-minus of -1 in the first game and -11 in the second. Again, it's not due to his lack of scoring. The giveaways are just creating too many easy opportunities for the Thunder. And against a team like that, you really need to limit easy opportunities.

There's an underlying truth about Castle we need to recognize

One thing that everyone needs to remember is this: Stephon Castle is a second-year guard playing in his first postseason. Mistakes like these are going to happen, particularly for a guy who's being asked to initiate offense at a volume he's not used to.

Yes, he needs to fix this issue if the Spurs want to turn their NBA Finals dreams into reality. That part isn't up for debate. But it's also fair to recognize that this is still a crash course and learning process for Castle. Staying sharp against a defensive attack that features Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, and others is not easy.

Is this an excuse for Stephon? Not at all. But fans tend to overreact and question a player's value to their team in situations like this, and I want to get ahead of that. It wouldn't be fair to write Castle off at such an early stage in his career due to an issue that every young guard struggles with.

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