After Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain went down with a season-ending injury, many rookie names emerged as the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year Award. However, with the season now winding down to its final two months of action, San Antonio Spurs’ rookie Stephon Castle is now expected to be the big winner by the end of the campaign.

Before the acquisition of De’Aaron Fox, the Spurs have been starting Castle so far and has seen a strong production over the course of the season. With the likes of Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, and Yves Missi all coming up with unsteady production, Castle emerges as an easy pick to be the Rookie of the Year so far.

Rookie seasons could be tough for players. But Castle has been slowly adjusting to the Spurs playbook and has fit in well so far, and it cannot be denied that he has been really a huge boost for the team with the way he has evolved in the game, which proves that he may well be a strong candidate for the ROTY now more than ever.

Building Castle

Castle was deemed to be suited to be coming off the bench for the Spurs at this point in time. He came off the bench in that thriller in Charlotte – and went on to drop a season-best 33 points while hitting 10 of his 15 shots, including 10-for-11 form the charity stripe. Despite being a reserve, it does seem that Castle has a lot of game in him, and the Spurs definitely got the best out of that pick so far.

Playing alongside the phenomenal All-Star in Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle has eased in well to make himself a perfect fit for the Spurs so far. This season, Castle is averaging 12.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game – making him a huge punch for the Spurs now more than ever.

San Antonio is 12th in the Western Conference right now and is fighting its way for a Play-In spot, just four wins behind the 10th seed as of the time of writing. Should the Spurs make a deeper push, Castle’s case for the ROTY just builds up even better.

At this point, Castle is definitely the best for the Spurs in the Draft, and they are not making them regret in their choice to trade Rob Dillingham instead of him.

Castle on the Lead

As of the time of writing, Castle is second in the best odds to win the Rookie of the Year award among multiple sportsbooks with odds of +320. Miami Heat’s Kel’el Ware tops off the list with +130, while Wells is behind Castle at +450, followed by Atlanta’s Zaccharie Risacher at +600.

However, Castle is the top pick among NBA writers so far, who also have a vote for the Rookie of the Year award by the end of the season – and it cannot be denied that this makes him an easy pick to win the award now more than ever.

The expectations are high for Castle, who has been really good for most of the season. Now that he’s playing fewer minutes with De’Aaron Fox taking over his starting role, it is easy to expect that he will have to come up with efficient nights to keep his pace for the ROTY by the end of the season.