UConn in the NBA April ‘25 | Page 2 | The Boneyard

UConn in the NBA April ‘25

ctbro1999 said:
Castle with another solid game. Only took 7 shots (made 5), but went to the line 12 times and dished 8 assists. Once he gets a real whistle and not the rookie whistle, he's gonna be living at the FT line. Though upping his FT% some would be good.
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I'm actually a bit surprised his percentages are so low. He's such a gym rat you'd think he'd improve by now. Then again he has shown quite a few moves he didn't show in college. I have full faith he will improve over the summer.
 
caw said:
I'm actually a bit surprised his percentages are so low. He's such a gym rat you'd think he'd improve by now. Then again he has shown quite a few moves he didn't show in college. I have full faith he will improve over the summer.
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I think this coming offseason is going to benefit him a lot. Looking forward to what he can do in his sophomore campaign!
 
Another 21-5-3, two steals and a block night for Castle in a win. Pretty bad three point shooting night and bad from the FT line but he had a heck of a fourth quarter to carry them back on both sides of the ball.

Clingan had a solid 10-9-4 with two blocks before fouling out in a loss to the Jazz.
 
caw said:
Another 21-5-3, two steals and a block night for Castle in a win. Pretty bad three point shooting night and bad from the FT line but he had a heck of a fourth quarter to carry them back on both sides of the ball.

Clingan had a solid 10-9-4 with two blocks before fouling out in a loss to the Jazz.
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I'm a dubs fan and that was a brutal loss, but Castle made some huge plays down the stretch, including an outstanding pass for an assist with under a minute to go to beat Draymond, who had just made the decision to double him.
 
Took turns cooking 4 different defenders in the first half, clutch 3 to tie it in the 4th, clutch steal, catches DPOY front runner draymond Green out of position for a beautiful pass into a go-ahead layup

Give this man his ROY award!

 
Wondering what is happening with Adama. He was waived after a knee injury but did he have surgery and is he looking at other teams?
 
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REB1094 said:
Took turns cooking 4 different defenders in the first half, clutch 3 to tie it in the 4th, clutch steal, catches DPOY front runner draymond Green out of position for a beautiful pass into a go-ahead layup

Give this man his ROY award!

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Dayum he’s great!
 
REB1094 said:
Took turns cooking 4 different defenders in the first half, clutch 3 to tie it in the 4th, clutch steal, catches DPOY front runner draymond Green out of position for a beautiful pass into a go-ahead layup

Give this man his ROY award!

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Lol that 1 sequence late in the game where he basically stole the ball twice in a span of 3 seconds.
I'm impressed by the way he's able to break down his defender 1 on 1 from the perimeter and take it to the hoop. Not sure we really saw much of that while he was at UConn. Though our offense doesn't run much iso so it makes sense why we didn't see it.
 
ctbro1999 said:
Lol that 1 sequence late in the game where he basically stole the ball twice in a span of 3 seconds.
I'm impressed by the way he's able to break down his defender 1 on 1 from the perimeter and take it to the hoop. Not sure we really saw much of that while he was at UConn. Though our offense doesn't run much iso so it makes sense why we didn't see it.
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I think the NBA rules also are to his advantage. Some of his hesi stuff and off arm pushing would be called as travels or offensive fouls in college. His year at UConn, I think, helped him a lot in terms of learning how to cut and pass to the open man and defend. His one-on-one stuff is a more advanced version of what his highlights were in high school. He seems to have learned some from CP3 also, in terms of some of his passing this year. You don't see many players who you watch and think "I'm not sure another player in the NBA can do that." He is one of them.

He needs to work on his FT shooting first and then next work on finding a few spots where he can be automatic from outside of the paint because he can get to any spot on the floor.
 
caw said:
I think the NBA rules also are to his advantage. Some of his hesi stuff and off arm pushing would be called as travels or offensive fouls in college. His year at UConn, I think, helped him a lot in terms of learning how to cut and pass to the open man and defend. His one-on-one stuff is a more advanced version of what his highlights were in high school. He seems to have learned some from CP3 also, in terms of some of his passing this year. You don't see many players who you watch and think "I'm not sure another player in the NBA can do that." He is one of them.

He needs to work on his FT shooting first and then next work on finding a few spots where he can be automatic from outside of the paint because he can get to any spot on the floor.
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Thing that most impresses me right now is his ability to get by his man from outside despite not having a great 3-pt shot. His defender usually is playing off him a little knowing he's not a great shooter from 3 but despite that he's still able to attack and get to the rim lots of times.

If he ever develops a 35%+ 3-pt shot where his defenders need to faceguard him at the 3-pt line, that'll make him even more dangerous on drives. Combined with getting a better whistle and getting that FT% up towards 80%, he's a legit 25+ PPG player.
 
His body control and change of pace is crazy....we say a bit of it last year, but he's doing it better and against NBA players.

Imagine if we had him on this years team.......
 
NJHusky said:
His body control and change of pace is crazy....we say a bit of it last year, but he's doing it better and against NBA players.

Imagine if we had him on this years team.......
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He was showing this by the time we got the NCAA tournament and especially the final four games. He just had to defer to a lot of good scoring options on last year’s team. That 2024 was just that good. I’m not too surprised how he is doing since he was always a great athlete and the NBA is more of an open game which allows his dribbling penetration to really show. I’m a little disappointed that his 3 pt shot hasn’t improved but I have hope as he has a good release.
 
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NJHusky said:
His body control and change of pace is crazy....we say a bit of it last year, but he's doing it better and against NBA players.

Imagine if we had him on this years team.......
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It won’t be long before you read lots of things like “goshdarn - how good was that 2024 UConn team if Stephon Castle was the fifth option?”

Alabama didn’t even guard him.
 
I've been a fan of the play-in but this year it's just unnecessary, you can lock in the top 8 of the West right now. I'd hate to see one of the teams in the 7-8 spots have an injury to a star playing either of the Kings/Mavs in an extra game.
 
ctbro1999 said:
Lol that 1 sequence late in the game where he basically stole the ball twice in a span of 3 seconds.
I'm impressed by the way he's able to break down his defender 1 on 1 from the perimeter and take it to the hoop. Not sure we really saw much of that while he was at UConn. Though our offense doesn't run much iso so it makes sense why we didn't see it.
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He did it in spurts during the season but it really jelled in the final four games.
 
Gurleyman said:
It won’t be long before you read lots of things like “goshdarn - how good was that 2024 UConn team if Stephon Castle was the fifth option?”

Alabama didn’t even guard him.
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That 23-24 team was arguably the most talented UConn team besides the 2003-2004 team.
 
Castle has been fantastic as a rookie but I do think Clingan would be challenging him for ROY if he had been in a better situation to start the year. The Blazers (IMO) trying to increase Ayton's trade value and playing him so much hurt them a lot both in terms of Clingan's development and any chance they had at the playoffs.

Clingan has 35 games as a starter at about 24 MPG: 7.6 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.6 APG, 2.1 BPG and 0.7 SPG.

The standout is the 2.8 STOCKS per game in 24 MPG. That is outstanding and if he held those numbers for the year he would be third in the league behind Dyson Daniels (3.73 in 34 MPG) and Walker Kessler (3.0 in 30 MPG).

Even as things stand (in total) he is tied for second in STOCKS per minute behind Johathan Issacs, tied with Daniels, Adem Bona and Ausar Thompson.

His rebounding is also quite good even in total (and probably better as a starter), as he has a Rebound Percentage of 17.8% and an ORBD% of 14.2.
 
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ctbro1999 said:
Once he gets a real whistle and not the rookie whistle, he's gonna be living at the FT line. Though upping his FT% some would be good.
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I don't think he's getting a rookie whistle anymore. He's top 20 in the entire league in FTA/36min, and top 10 if you go by just guards.
 
ihatepants said:
I don't think he's getting a rookie whistle anymore. He's top 20 in the entire league in FTA/36min, and top 10 if you go by just guards.
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Over the last month he has taken a ton of FTs, not sure where he ranks but he has pretty consistently been taking 7/8+ per game.
 
husky429 said:
The 23-24 team was better. They were the best UConn team of all time. And the best CBB team in decades. Honestly.
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2003-04 team had Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Charlie V., Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone who all were all NBA Players. They also had a gritty NYC PG in Taliek, Rashard Anderson and Denham Brown. That team probably had more Talent compared to the 2023-24 team. It is close and hard to compare but that 2003-2004 team was really good and destroyed everyone in the tournament besides that talented Duke team they trailed for most of the game. I guess you can say Talent 2003-04 team but results 2023-24 team but the competition was different back then and beating that Duke team was huge. I went to both final fours so I got to see both of those teams up close when they were playing their best.
 
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3rdbass said:
2003-04 team had Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Charlie V., Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone who all were all NBA Players. They also had a gritty NYC PG in Taliek, Rashard Anderson and Denham Brown. That team probably had more Talent compared to the 2023-24 team. It is close and hard to compare but that 2003-2004 team was really good and destroyed everyone in the tournament besides that talented Duke team they trailed for most of the game. I guess you can say Talent 2003-04 team but results 2023-24 team but the competition was different back then and beating that Duke team was huge. I went to both final fours so I got to see both of those teams up close when they were playing their best.
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Hard to compare teams 20 years apart to be fair to both. Top end talent was higher on 04, but the ‘24 team’s pieces worked together like no team I have seen, modern era-wise. The depth of bigs on 2004 would have been a problem, though.
 
3rdbass said:
2003-04 team had Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Charlie V., Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone who all were all NBA Players. They also had a gritty NYC PG in Taliek, Rashard Anderson and Denham Brown. That team probably had more Talent compared to the 2023-24 team. It is close and hard to compare but that 2003-2004 team was really good and destroyed everyone in the tournament besides that talented Duke team they trailed for most of the game. I guess you can say Talent 2003-04 team but results 2023-24 team but the competition was different back then and beating that Duke team was huge. I went to both final fours so I got to see both of those teams up close when they were playing their best.
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Saw both too - both had some health issues along the way that maybe stopped them from reaching their A level sooner or more consistently (the 04 team lost Marcus Williams midway through to academics and had to ride with basically no backup guards).

I think ultimately the 2024 clears. The dips of the 2004 team were more significant. Had a home loss. A lopsided neutral site loss. A two game losing streak. Didn’t win the Big East.

From a talent perspective - Emeka and Ben were next level, but Clingan and Spencer aren’t that far behind, and you could argue Spencer’s efficiency made him even better than Ben as a college player. Taliek and Boone were role players who were limited offensively. The 2024 team really had no holes.

Had MW stayed eligible, the pendulum might have swung the other way. But an un-injured Castle who found his groove sooner might have been a completely different beast by the end of the year too.
 
Charlie V. who was a really good NBA player you forgot to talk about and Ben could backup at PG when Taliek went to the bench and was very good penetrating. Ben Gordon in college, obviously Castle has a higher ceiling in the NBA, was better than any of our guards to me and was a top 3 NBA pick. Like I said talent wise 2003-2004 but I will give you 2023-24 could have a slight edge given how they performed the whole season. Tournament it was close though as both played great and had their toughest games in the final four semi-finals. I guess for me the 2003-2004 has a special place in my heart since that was my first UConn final four I went to thought Stephon Castle is my favorite UConn player even though he was here only 1 year.
 
Gurleyman said:
Saw both too - both had some health issues along the way that maybe stopped them from reaching their A level sooner or more consistently (the 04 team lost Marcus Williams midway through to academics and had to ride with basically no backup guards).

I think ultimately the 2024 clears. The dips of the 2004 team were more significant. Had a home loss. A lopsided neutral site loss. A two game losing streak. Didn’t win the Big East.

From a talent perspective - Emeka and Ben were next level, but Clingan and Spencer aren’t that far behind, and you could argue Spencer’s efficiency made him even better than Ben as a college player. Taliek and Boone were role players who were limited offensively. The 2024 team really had no holes.

Had MW stayed eligible, the pendulum might have swung the other way. But an un-injured Castle who found his groove sooner might have been a completely different beast by the end of the year too.
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Both the 2004 team and the 2024 team were excellent and elite teams when looking at a list of all time best college basketball teams. The one thing that doesn't get mentioned enough here is that the 2024 went undefeated at home and that includes games without either Castle or Clingan. The 2024 UConn team blew out most of their opponents in Storrs or Hartford as well as other nearby venues not considered home court such as MSG (7-0 record) as well as Providence (road game at Providence) and Boston (Sweet 16 and Elite 8).
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Hard to compare teams 20 years apart to be fair to both. Top end talent was higher on 04, but the ‘24 team’s pieces worked together like no team I have seen, modern era-wise. The depth of bigs on 2004 would have been a problem, though.
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Yes, definitely hard to complete. PF spot would be a difficult guard for the 23-24 team.
 
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