Stephon Castle steered himself to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2024 NBA Draft, deliberately sending signals to the Houston Rockets that he preferred to not be drafted by the team despite strong interest from coach Ime Udoka.

Castle, the 2025 Rookie of the Year, declined private workouts with teams he viewed as poor fits, Houston among them. Udoka, a former Spurs assistant, was a noted admirer of the UConn product. But with veteran Fred VanVleet at point guard and Jalen Green at shooting guard, Castle and his camp guided the Rockets toward other options. Houston took Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky at No. 3.

Zaccharie Risacher went to Atlanta at No. 1 and Alex Sarr to Washington at No. 2 before San Antonio selected Castle fourth overall.

"I think being (in San Antonio) was always number one on my list," said Castle. "Internally, I always felt like I was the best player in that draft. (But) I didn't know what could happen. My agent always told me, like, anything can happen in a draft. Like, you could not work out for a team, not have talked to a team, and they can still take you.

"So, I mean, I wasn't really planning on playing in Houston. I didn't really know how any of that worked. I was kind of hoping I could slide my way to San Antonio. It kind of worked out for me."

Castle projects as a future All-NBA player and would almost certainly go first in a redraft of 2024.