Stephon Castle Outlines 'Unrealistic' Expectations for Spurs Without Victor Wembanyama

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jonah Kubicek | Last updated Mar 3, 2025 3:33 PM ET

Since losing Victor Wembanyama for the season, the San Antonio Spurs are 2-5, which makes sense. During the season, Wemby averaged 24.3 points, 11 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 3.8 blocks and was easily the best player on the Spurs roster. As Norm Macdonald would say, he was the Spurs' "great hope."

In his absence, De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have stepped up to play larger roles, although neither of them are capable of leading a motley roster into the postseason, despite their efforts. After the most recent 146-132 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Castle outlined an "unrealsitic" expectation.

"It's hard playing without Vic," Castle admitted. "He does so many things on the court for us, on both sides. We're just trying to do whatever we can to fill that void and not trying to selfishly take it upon yourself to try and do it, but try and do it as a full team. He's really the only one who can do all those things, be that versatile, at that size, so just having one guy on our team try to make up for all that is just unrealistic."

The Spurs have insisted that they aim to win without Wembanyama, but their on-court results don't instill a lot of confidence. The Silver and Black have slid to 13th in the West and are a full six games behind the Dallas Mavericks, who hold the final spot in the Play-In Tournament.

While Castle and Fox have played better than advertised in recent games, they are no substitute for one of the very best players in the world, and the Spurs likely know that their best chance is to re-tool for next season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: