If you’re the San Antonio Spurs, you can only reasonably trade Stephon Castle for one player this summer: Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Castle has just won the 2025 Rookie of the Year title, demonstrating his outstanding talent and enormous potential to one day be one of the league’s marquee players. For that type of player, you must be exceedingly picky in who you are willing to swap him for.
Let us use the Los Angeles Clippers as an example. Back in 2018-19, the Clippers had a promising rookie named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who you may have heard of. Of course, SGA is now one of the NBA’s most potent scorers and all-around performers. But, in the summer of 2019, LA traded him for Paul George.
Sure, it seemed like a good deal at the time. But George was always pricey in that scenario, especially with the season he had just finished. More importantly, the Clippers made a big mistake by sacrificing their young star, and they paid the price. Imagine where that franchise could go with Gilgeous-Alexander, even if Kawhi Leonard never joined the team.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only player that SAS should trade Castle for.
This story is intended to teach us an important lesson. When you have a young player like Stephon Castle, even considering adding him in a trade package requires extreme caution. If you send him away for the wrong delivery, you could jeopardize your entire future.
So, what is the right package, you could ask? In my opinion, it is one in which the Spurs return a top-five player in the league. Yes, I believe you must be that selective when dealing with a talented young star.
San Antonio will most likely want to pursue a bigger name this summer. However, when it comes to somebody they believe is worth dealing Castle for, only the best will suffice. Who do we think are the five best players in the league today? Let’s suppose Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Anthony Edwards are in some order. You do not have to agree with my selections.
Feel free to substitute Luka Doncic or Stephen Curry for one of my options. That will not affect my overall message here: The fact that none of those players, except Antetokounmpo, will be available this summer.
Giannis’ stay in Milwaukee appears to be coming to an end. If that’s the case, he becomes the most obvious name the Spurs should pursue. And, certainly, don’t overthink it; anyone in their right mind would prefer present Giannis Antetokounmpo over current Stephon Castle.
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