There's three issues as I see it. 1. His play is inconsistent as you'd expect from a player with essentially one season worth of NBA minutes. Has games where he seemingly can't hit a shot and games where he's a Curry clone. Also his playmaking is all over the place, some rookie mistakes, some next level brilliant plays. Of the issues, this one i think should solve itself over time. 2. The Rockets have no real offensive system... because they have no real coaching at least on that side of the ball. 3. The Rockets have terrible chemistry overall. Everyone is trying to do something different and play a different way. Also ego and personal agendas seem to be an issue with a lot of them. Competent coaching would help this, but I don't know if it would solve it.
I know I've said this many times at this point, but it's still important to remember that the 2024 draft class was a weak one. There weren't really any guys who jumped off the page as "yeah, this dude is going to be a star". Even now, I'm not really convinced I see more than fringe all-star level futures from any of that draft's best performers. Sarr and Clingan look pretty good, but look more likely to be along the lines of Evan Mobley and Brook Lopez respectively if they develop well and don't plateau early. Castle looks to be more a Jrue Holiday, and even then only if the jump shot really comes along. In that context, Reed makes sense as a likely 6th man with a chance at becoming a fringe all-star point guard.
That’s why they don’t play a lot of screen and roll with him. The handles aren’t there but there’s no explosion off the ball as well. He’s not Jamal Murray and Murray isn’t even that explosive. That’s why the Rockets are very limited in their actions. He can’t play get action or consistent screen and roll and ineffective off DHO’s.
Yeah I don’t know what the thought process was with Sheppard. They may have thought they had a void in shooting and he would fill that role. Maybe they thought he could be a versatile combo guard that can be a lights out shooter. I don’t know what they saw. He was a combo guard in college and wasn’t a big playmaker pg as Dillingham played that role. He was simply a shooter and most of his assists were on kick outs after driving to the rim. I think they thought Castle may be redundant with JG and Amen who have shooting or consistency issues. But to me he was absolutely the best player left on that board and you have to get the best player. Sheppard doesn’t even fit the Udoka mold of tough defensive guards. It’s a head scratcher and if there’s one move during the Stone era that can be heavily criticized it’s this one
I think it will take several years for him to reach another couple levels and break out. Maybe year 4. There’s a lot of work to be done
I don't think it's at all guaranteed that Castle will have a better career than Sheppard at this point, but I do know that having yet another guy you don't have to guard at the 3P line would have made this team's offensive struggles even worse. Castle probably struggles to break 20mpg on this team due to the spacing problems, and also doesn't perform as well with us as he is in San Antonio (both due to our crappy coaching and due to our roster construction). The situation you draft a prospect into really makes a big difference.
Castle is Amen lite with tighter handles and more rugged....he is going to shine regardless but yeah he won't win as much here than with Wemby..... Amen has done it, he would be doing it as well. But he is going to put up individual numbers.
Aside from Castle being a somewhat better jump shooter (but still a bad one), Amen is better at virtually everything than Castle, IMO. Castle may be slightly better in terms of his handles and passing, but Amen is much more athletic, longer, better rebounder, better at steals/blocks, better at getting to the rim and better at finishing when he gets there, at least as good as an on-ball defender. Pretty sure 30 out of 30 front offices would take Amen right now if they had to choose between the two.
Amen is still a wing hybrid that can pass well and Castle passes as sort of PG...... that distinction alone is pretty important to teams that have no PG to run the whole show...... By the time u realize that Amen is a better rebounder and thief, the other team has already drafted a rebounder and a Stock specialist at the Wing and elbow.
