By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-03-09 09:27:41
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔经历了一个起伏不定的新秀赛季，但这位天赋异禀的年轻后卫可能正在找到他之前一直缺乏的稳定性。
在因为失误和效率低下，导致上场时间缩减——最终在对阵鹈鹕的比赛中仅仅出战了极具争议的12分钟后， 斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle) 强势反弹。在过去的五场比赛中，他场均贡献24分、5个篮板和5次助攻，投篮命中率超过50%。
最近这一连串的出色表现引人注目，不仅仅是因为它极大地提升了他在年度最佳新秀的竞争中的地位，还因为它展现了斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的天赋所暗示的他应该能够定期提供的表现，但一直未能稳定呈现。似乎斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的现实正在开始赶上人们对他充满诱惑的想法。
在最近的爆发之前，人们很容易认为斯蒂芬·卡斯尔有点被高估了。他确实有一些闪光点和精彩的比赛，但你永远不知道它们什么时候会到来。他的表现如此不稳定，以至于任何在一个糟糕的夜晚看到斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的人都有理由质疑他是否能在联盟中拥有作为首发球员的未来。对手放空他去协防其他地方，但他却无法足够频繁地让他们付出代价。作为一名组织者，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔偶尔会尝试一些他暂时还无法做到的事情，因为比赛的节奏对他来说还没有慢下来。他经常毫无计划地冲进油漆区，最终被盖帽或者投出艰难的投篮。防守是他大学时代的招牌，但有些比赛中，世界上最好的球员也能随意在他头上得分。
通常，数据可以纠正任何因目睹糟糕夜晚而产生的仓促结论，但在斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的案例中，数据似乎证实了他没什么特别之处。本赛季至今，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔场均贡献13分、3个篮板和3次助攻。他的三分球命中率为28%。扣篮很精彩，但斯蒂芬·卡斯尔已经被盖帽46次，比马刺队阵容中的任何人都多，并且在突破时，他的命中率仅略高于42%。对手在他防守下投篮的命中率也差不多，而且他在单打和挡拆防守方面都处于百分比排名的后三分之一。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔理所当然地被宣布为年度最佳新秀的领跑者，但这仅仅是因为这一届新秀实力平庸，因为他的数据与过去该奖项的获得者相比相形见绌。
最近的爆发并没有改变之前的一切，但它正在提供证据，证明那些更了解情况的观察者已经知道的事情：尽管数据平淡无奇，经历了一段艰难的时期，但斯蒂芬·卡斯尔可能很快就会成为一名特殊的球员。这位新秀不是一名神射手，但他本赛季已经有20场比赛命中了多个三分球。他的投篮姿势需要调整，但并没有完全崩坏。他的突破并不总是干净利落，但他拥有运球、力量、减速和爆发力，当他低下头试图到达篮筐时，他会成为防守的噩梦。有些失误很糟糕，但我们讨论的是一位20岁的新秀，他在唯一一个大学赛季主要打无球后，正在工作中学习。而且有些时候他的防守看起来很精英，这在年轻球员身上并不常见。
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的赛季在数据方面令人失望，并且有足够多的糟糕比赛影响了他在轮换阵容中的位置，但自始至终，他的潜力都是不可否认的。他可能在统计上是自马尔科姆·布罗格登以来最差的年度最佳新秀，但他是否获得该奖项并不重要。布罗格登的那一届新秀中还有杰伦·布朗和其他四名球员，他们都有过全明星经历，而他们作为新秀的数据都比斯蒂芬·卡斯尔现在的数据更差。他还在进步中，但他的潜力是显而易见的。
所有缺少的就是稳定性，而且看起来斯蒂芬·卡斯尔可能比预期更早地找到它。五场比赛不算多，但这位新秀看起来终于知道了自己的角色，并且有信心每晚都能胜任它。如果他能强势结束本赛季，他将通过展示他不仅仅是一台集锦机器，而是一位有能力的年轻球员，并且比他的数据所显示的更接近于实现重大飞跃，来让那些怀疑论者闭嘴。
点击查看原文：Stephon Castle is turning potential into consistent production
Stephon Castle is turning potential into consistent production
Castle has had an up-and-down rookie season, but the talented young guard might be finding the consistency he was missing earlier.
After seeing his playing time dwindle due to mistakes and inefficiency, culminating in a controversial 12-minute night against the Pelicans, Stephon Castle has bounced back with a vengeance. He’s averaging 24 points, five rebounds, and five assists in his past five appearances while shooting over 50 percent from the floor.
The recent stretch of great play is noteworthy not just because it’s giving him a big boost on the Rookie of the Year race but also because it has featured the kind of production Castle’s talent suggests he could provide regularly, but hasn’t consistently delivered. It seems like the reality of Castle is starting to catch up to the tantalizing idea of him.
Before the recent stretch, it was easy to consider Castle a little overrated. There were some flashes of brilliance and great games, but you never knew when they were going to come. His performances were so uneven that someone catching Castle on a bad night could reasonably question whether he’d have a future in the league as a starter. Opponents left him open to help elsewhere and he couldn’t make them pay often enough. As a playmaker, Castle occasionally attempted things he couldn’t do yet because the game had not slowed down for him. He often ventured into the paint on drives with no plan and ended up getting blocked or taking tough shots. Defense was his calling card in college, but there were games in which the best players in the world scored on him at will.
Normally the stats serve to correct any rushed conclusions that result from witnessing a bad night, but in Castle’s case, the numbers seemed to confirm that he was nothing special. For the season, Castle is averaging 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists. He’s shooting 28 percent from beyond the arc. The dunks are nice, but Castle has gotten blocked 46 times, more than anyone on the Spurs roster, and shoots just a shade over 42 percent on drives. Opponents shoot about the same with him defending them and he’s in the bottom third in percentile as an isolation and pick-and-roll defender. Castle was rightfully proclaimed the front-runner to win Rookie of the Year but only because this is a terrible class, as his numbers pale in comparison to past winners of the award.
The recent stretch doesn’t change what came before it, but it’s providing evidence of what the more plugged-in observers already knew: despite the pedestrian numbers and the rough stretches, Castle could be a special player sooner rather than later. The rookie is not a marksman but he has 20 games with multiple made threes this season. His form needs tweaking but is not broken. The drives are not always clean, but he has the handles, the strength, the deceleration and the explosiveness to become a nightmare to guard when he puts his head down and tries to get to the rim. Some of the turnovers are bad, but we are talking about a 20-year-old rookie who is learning on the job after spending his sole college season playing mainly off the ball. And there are times when the defense looks elite, which is not something that usually happens with young players.
Castle’s season has been underwhelming in terms of numbers and there were enough bad games to affect his place in the rotation, but through it all his potential has been undeniable. He might statistically be the worst Rookie of the Year since Malcolm Brogdon, but whether he gets the award or not is not what matters. Brogdon’s class also had Jaylen Brown and four other players who have All-Star appearances in it, all of whom had worse stats as rookies than Castle is posting. He’s a work in progress but the upside has been evident.
All that was missing was consistency, and it seems Castle might be finding it sooner than expected. Five games is not much, but the rookie has looked like he finally knows his role and is confident in filling it nightly. If he can close the year strong, he’ll silence the skeptics by showing that he’s not just a highlights machine but a competent young player who’s closer to making a big leap than his numbers suggest.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock