Spurs' Stephon Castle Wins 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the Year over Risacher, Wells

The San Antonio Spurs are celebrating their second straight Rookie of the Year winner after guard Stephon Castle took home the honor.

Castle follows 2023-24 recipient Victor Wembanyama and is the fourth ROY winner in franchise history, also joining David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaylen Wells and Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher were the other finalists for the award.

Wembanyama was quick to congratulate his teammate on social media:

Before the season tipped off, there wasn't a standout preseason candidate for Rookie of the Year in the same way Wembanyama was pretty much the wire-to-wire winner. Over time, Castle became the clear favorite, though.

The No. 4 overall pick averaged 14.7 points and 4.1 assists in 26.7 minutes per game. One of his best performances came in a narrow loss to the Charlotte Hornets in February, when he scored 33 points on 10-of-15 shooting off the bench.

After winning 22 games in 2023-24, the Spurs added Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes to their young roster in an effort to take some steps forward. The midseason acquisition of De'Aaron Fox was a massive blockbuster and sped up the franchise's timeline for contention.

Two developments have muddied San Antonio's outlook, though.

Legendary head coach Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke in November and announced in February he was sitting out the rest of the season. A week before the team learned Popovich wouldn't return to the bench, team doctors discovered deep vein thrombosis in Wembanyama's right shoulder, which shut him down for the season too.

The Spurs were 23-29 heading into the All-Star break, with 3.5 games separating them from the Sacramento Kings for the final play-in tournament berth. With the addition of Fox, the playoffs weren't an unrealistic target.

But Wembanyama's medical situation erased all of those hopes.

Castle's emergence was at least a bright spot for San Antonio and pointed to a strong future as long as Wemby makes a full recovery by next season. A core of Castle, Wembanyama, Fox and Devin Vassell has the potential to be really good, and the front office has a lot of flexibility to keep adding talent.