Stephon Castle is the Spurs' forgotten man in the De'Aaron Fox/Dylan Harper debate

Dylan Harper vs. De'Aaron Fox has been one of the biggest offseason debates for Spurs fans, analysts, and anyone else who watched the NBA Finals. While the reality of Fox maintaining his starting position mostly feels settled after the team reportedly backed their point guard, the comparisons have continued, thanks to NBA 2K27.

Now, 2K Sports isn't the end-all, be-all authority on how good a player actually is. They make horrendous mistakes all of the time. But the video game giant still restarted a conversation that was quieting under the silence the dead of the offseason brings. So, I feel compelled to throw a new point into the mix: the Stephon Castle effect.

Bringing Harper off the bench helps Castle grow

San Antonio isn't just developing one talented young guard. There is another one there who was drafted before him, and he's also shown superstar potential. Having the ball in his hands has proved to be a good thing for the Spurs' offense, despite what his naysayers tell you.

Still, he's learning how to run an NBA offense. That breeds growing pains. If the Silver and Black started both Slash Bros., errors would occur a little more frequently. It's a natural part of growth and inexperience, so you negate some of that by staggering those players.

Allow Steph the opportunity to be the primary playmaker with a veteran guard to help guide him and the offense along. Then you bring in the driving, slashing, dynamic scoring threat off the bench to keep the pressure up. In that role, he still gets a bunch of time with the ball in his hands instead of deferring to Castle and Victor Wembanyama.

Over the course of a game, Harper will still get plenty of time on the floor with the other two members of the Spurs' new Big 3. For now, Mitch Johnson is doing a great job of balancing winning with developing his young guards and making sure they don't get in each other's way.

This is the cost and the benefit of having an extremely deep roster. There will always be a talented player forced to come off the bench. That doesn't have to be looked at as some sort of negative or a slight to anyone. It's just a reality of team sports, and it's a particular problem that just about every other franchise in the league would kill for.

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