Stephon Castle 'Sent Signals' During Draft to Avoid Rockets

The current iteration of the Houston Rockets is comprised of a litany of young prospects, with a blend of proven veterans with championships on their resume, like Kevin Durant, Fred VanVleet and Jeff Green. Prior to Ime Udoka’s arrival in 2023, the Rockets' infrastructure looked much different.

Under Mike D'Antoni, Silas's predecessor, the Rockets lacked youth and were one of the league's oldest teams. Houston underwent a full scale rebuild, unsurprisingly, to address that scarcity of youth, after James Harden and Russell Westbrook deemed it time to swap jerseys once more.

Stephen Silas, Udoka's predecessor, was in. The Rockets essentially became an amateur team. A glorified AAU team, if you will.

Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore were all byproducts of Houston’s rebuild. Udoka entered the picture after years of Silas's reign.

Houston found themselves in an extremely lucky situation during the 2024 NBA Draft, as they were gifted the third overall pick, despite posting a 41-41 record in the previous season.

Questions arose regarding what exactly the team would do (and should do) with the pick. Donovan Clingan was a name thrown out, as was Reed Sheppard and Stephon Castle.

There had been talk that Castle wasn't interested in going to certain ball clubs, specifically teams that had a point guard in place. Which seemingly ruled out the Rockets, who had just signed VanVleet one year earlier.

As it turns out, it was all merely a smokescreen and plot to get to Castle’s preferred destination -- the San Antonio Spurs, as explained by Sam Amick of The Athletic.

"At the time, there were reports that Castle’s choice not to conduct private workouts with several teams was driven by his desire to avoid teams that already had an established starting point guard

One of those teams was the Houston Rockets, who ultimately took Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky with the third pick. Per league sources, Rockets coach and former Spurs assistant Ime Udoka was a huge fan of Castle’s (which Castle said he was well aware of). But with veteran Fred VanVleet manning the point guard position and young Jalen Green at the two-guard spot, Castle and his camp sent the kinds of signals Houston’s way that eventually led to him landing in San Antonio. Just as he’d hoped."

Castle and Sheppard will forever be intertwined. Many believe the Rockets should have drafted him anyways.

The fit alongside Amen Thompson would have been interesting to see. And it's important to remember that the Rockets had a major shooting void in the season leading up to that draft, as they ranked 23rd in outside shooting.

It's also worth noting that Sheppard received consideration for the Sixth Man of the Year award, in what was basically a redshirt rookie season, this past year. So it's not like the Rockets made a bad pick.

Again, they needed shooting. And Sheppard finished this past season with the ninth-most threes.

As for Castle, he and his Spurs take on the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday in New York, with the Knicks up 2-1.

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