Spurs have a pressing backcourt problem that Dylan Harper can’t solve alone

Ahead of the 2025-26 season, there was plenty of chatter about the backcourt of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper being a problem for the Spurs. The issue, in people’s minds, was that they would step on each other’s toes, limiting each other’s output and therefore hurting San Antonio as a whole.

Fast forward to the NBA Finals, and that trio has indeed been problematic for the Spurs, but for the opposite reason. Right now, they don’t have too much point guard play; they actually don’t have enough of it.

De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle specifically aren’t holding up their end of the bargain, and their struggles are not only dragging the Silver and Black down in the Finals but also throwing a wrench in the team’s future plans.

Shaky point guard play has bitten the Spurs hard in the Finals

Dylan Harper, to his credit, has been phenomenal in not just the Finals but the playoffs as a whole. He’s the clear long-term PG1 for this club. His running mates, though, especially De’Aaron Fox, haven’t lived up to the hype.

Fox has been nothing short of massively disappointing this postseason. Outside of the occasional hot shooting quarter, there’s been zero rhythm and consistency to his game. He can’t reliably get buckets from the perimeter, but he’s also almost inexplicably lost his patented burst and pace-pushing ability in the prime of his career.

It would be one thing if he were just having a tough time scoring, but what makes matters worse is that his decision-making has been quite questionable. There was the blatant mishap at the end of Game 4, obviously, but throughout this series against New York, he’s settled for bad shots and committed some seriously head-scratching turnovers. Simply put, Fox isn’t playing like an All-Star, or anything close to it.

As for Stephon Castle, he hasn’t been nearly as flat-out poor as Fox, but the pickle with him is he just isn’t a point guard or a lead handler at this stage of his career. His ridiculous turnover numbers from San Antonio’s Fox-less games against OKC underline that. He can certainly make some plays for himself and others off the dribble, but he can’t handle the responsibility of being the point guard.

Castle’s limitations put the Spurs in a rough spot with Fox playing as inadequately as he has. As good as Dylan Harper has been, he can’t be the only ball handler San Antonio can trust.

San Antonio suddenly has a ball handling crisis that needs to be addressed

Looking around the league, teams with more competent handlers and creators have found a lot more success than teams without them. The Knicks, ironically, are an exception to that, but Jalen Brunson has a rare ability to carry an offense, plus they use Karl-Anthony Towns as an unorthodox hub in the halfcourt.

Other than New York, though, teams like Detroit and Houston that don’t have many players with off-the-dribble juice didn’t look so hot in the playoffs. When Oklahoma City lost Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell to injury, their offense took a major hit.

If De’Aaron Fox can’t be the player he’s paid to be, and Stephon Castle can’t develop into a better lead guard (which is truly up in the air), then San Antonio will need to make some moves as soon as this summer to fix up that department. Dylan Harper can’t do it all on his own.

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