Spurs’ championship hopes hinge on Stephon Castle becoming their new Kawhi Leonard

The 2026-27 San Antonio Spurs mirror the 2013-14 championship team, but for them to win it all, they need Stephon Castle to become their next Kawhi Leonard.

Entering the 2013-14 season, San Antonio was coming off a devastating NBA Finals loss, but they were hopeful that their young core would step up and play a larger role. Sound familiar?

San Antonio is probably hoping that their young core of Castle, Dylan Harper, and Victor Wembanyama will level up all of the summer and be dramatically improved this season. Castle, in particular, could be crucial to those plans.

Stephon Castle mirrors Kawhi Leonard in key ways

Castle is already arguably the Spurs' second-best player and showed another gear in the NBA playoffs. He increased his scoring from 16.7 to 18.2 points per game while also being tasked with defending the other team's best player.

If that weren't enough, he led the team in assists in both the regular season and in the playoffs, something Leonard never did with the Spurs. Yet Leonard's impact went beyond regular stats.

At similar points in their careers, Castle has better offensive numbers than Leonard. In his second season, he averaged 16.7 points, 7.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.1 steals. Compare that to Leonard, who averaged 11.9 points, 1.6 assists, 6 rebounds, and 1.7 steals.

Leonard has the edge in terms of shooting across the board, as well as rebounds, steals, and overall defense. However, Castle is playing a larger role in the Spurs' offense than Leonard did at the same point in their respective careers.

For this Spurs team to also win a championship, Castle will have to play an even larger role than Leonard did.

The Spurs are counting on Castle taking a big leap

Castle has been hard at work on improving his jumper and could build upon the development he made last season.

San Antonio may have him spend more time playing off-ball, allowing him to expand his offensive game by working as a catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter. That's in addition to taking on more responsibility as a shot creator, scorer, and defender.

That is eerily similar to Leonard, who was also asked to defend the other team's best player while increasingly being tasked with the scoring.

What's surprising when looking at the two players head-to-head is that Leonard didn't actually make a massive leap statistically in his third season, averaging a respectable 12.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game.

It wasn't until the NBA Finals that he really made a name for himself. Leonard averaged 17.8 points and 6.4 rebounds and helped limit LeBron James en route to winning Finals MVP.

Stephon Castle is the Spurs' deciding factor in a championship

What separates Castle from Leonard is that he is playing much more with the ball in his hands, with a 24.9% usage rate compared to Leonard's 18.4% usage rate. Leonard wasn't tasked with being the primary or secondary playmaker on the 2014 championship team, while Castle was last season for the Spurs.

Whereas Leonard made the bulk of his impact on defense heading into his third season, Castle can already impact the game in more ways. Improved shooting could quickly transform him into a 20-point-per-game scorer, while his passing helped propel the Spurs' offense.

Defensively, Leonard was better, but Castle still has another level to reach, possibly helping him close the gap between him and peak-Klaw. San Antonio needs him to excel in all three areas to help carry the Spurs to a title.

That means he can potentially make a bigger impact this season than even Leonard did during the Spurs championship run.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow