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I look at Castle as a necessity because SGA and Luka aren't going away any time soon and the Spurs are going to need a big defensive guard to throw on these guys in the playoffs from the next 8-10 years. Someone who can deal with their strength. But unless he becomes a league average shooter it means the Spurs are going to have to have shooting at both the SF and PF.It would be interesting to consider where Danny Green would go in a modern draft. Three-and-D prospects aren't easy to find in college because the diffuse talent pool means guys will often play positions above where they'll end up in the pros. Danny's senior year at UNC, he shot 41 percent from three on seven attempts per 40. His advanced stats were pretty strong as well. With teams still in the mindset that shooting could be outsourced and three-and-D wings being all the rage, you'd expect Green to have been taken higher. But he was a mid-second-rounder. History says Danny was definitely underdrafted -- dude ended up being a top-10 player in what was a pretty decent draft class. But the marks against him were seen as too big for him to overcome. Maybe with today's focus on shooting, Green could have been drafted much higher. But then I think about Harrison Ingram, who last year had a number of superficial similarities to 2009 Green. He was drafted at around the same spot that Danny was, so maybe it wouldn't have made a difference.
That's all to say that if the Spurs felt like some prospect was going to be the next Danny Green, it's definitely worth it to draft him at 13/14 and probably at 8 as well. Green was insanely valuable in multiple systems. Actual great role-players are worth their weight in gold. This class as a distressing number of non-shooters at the top of the board. I'd honestly feel uncomfortable if the Spurs drafted yet another guy who's a project in that area. The only position where I think that's okay is for the back-up center spot, but you'd ideally want a good roadmap toward good shooting in those cases as well to leave open the chance that prospect could play some minutes with Wembanyama.
I personally see all five positions as open in this draft. The team needs rotational guards, wings, forwards and bigs, and if you add in the potential of them trading some rotation players in another attempt to improve the top-end talent, then even the current locks are up for discussion. There are a couple of players who seem like good sixth-man candidates, and that's important if the Spurs are going to move on from Johnson and/or Vassell within the next couple of years. I also think they should take the backup center spot seriously and both draft a center and sign a vet this summer. Whether that vet is an MLE signing or a min guy would depend on whether they draft a center in the lottery or in the second round.
I also think they should consider how much they want to bank on Castle being a real piece going forward. In my opinion, he is the clear ROY winner and has some nice potential. But he was extremely inefficient on both ends. On one hand, he might have that "it" factor. On the other hand, it's going to be hard for the team to seriously compete with Castle starting and shooting as poorly as he usually does. I think the team has another year of figuring things out ahead of it, but if they do decide to try to take a step forward, and Castle can provide the bulk of the value for a third star, it could make sense to move him and focus on shooters to fill out the starting lineup.
