Stephon Castle, Jaylen Wells Duel in Grizzlies Win Over Spurs

The 2024 NBA Draft class has performed about how many expected, not necessarily packing a star punch, but offering a plethora of unique role players.

On Friday, two of the top frosh performers in the entire league faced off in another Grizzlies-Spurs matchup. And their draft paths couldn’t have looked more different.

Stephon Castle, the Spurs defensive-minded guard, heard his name called fourth, joining one of the top up-and-coming cores in the NBA led by ’23’s top pick in Victor Wembanyama. Jaylen Wells, the Grizzlies forward selected at No. 39, was a relative unknown to many coming into the league.

Wells has been the ultimate role player so far this season, surprisingly blending into the Memphis starting lineup seamlessly, and thriving there with shooting and stingy defense. Castle has been one of a few newbies that could exhibit star-power, but has only shown it in spurts in an otherwise solid first year.

On Friday night, both saw their version of success.

Wells hit an hyper-efficient eight of his 11 attempts shots, scoring a blistering 22 points. He splashed six of eight threes, adding three rebounds and two assists for the white-hot Grizzlies.

Castle, too, as not to be denied, adding 21 points of his own on 7-for-11 shooting, with four rebounds, four assists and one steal.

The Grizzlies ultimately came out with the big win, beating the Spurs, 140-112, behind a 29-point bench effort from Santi Aldama. But both rookies — who at this point very well could be battling straight on for the Rookie of the Year Award — were excellent.

With an early injury to 76ers’ guard Jared McCain, Wells and Castle were left as the two frontrunners for the award. And both have assumed the mantel well, leading the class in total points at No. 1 and No. 2.

So far this season, Wells has scored 11.6 points on 43% shooting overall, hitting 37% of his threes on great volume, with stifling perimeter defense to boot. Castle’s offered his own patented defense, also scoring 11.6 points — albeit in drastically different ways — adding 3.6 assists, too.

For now, we'll continue to monitor the development of both as we near the mid-way point of the 2024-25 NBA season.

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