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Christopher Boan is a writer with BetTexas.com, covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Stephon Castle’s NBA Rookie of the Year Win: How Past ROTY Winners Like Him Fare in Sophomore Seasons
Utilizing Basketball-Reference.com, BetTexas.com - home to all movement across the Texas sports betting landscape - analyzed the average statistical changes ("bumps") for NBA Rookie of the Year (ROTY) winners from their rookie to sophomore seasons (2014–15 to 2023–24), incorporating advanced metrics alongside the previously calculated basic stats. The nine players analyzed are Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Malcolm Brogdon, Ben Simmons, Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, LaMelo Ball, Scottie Barnes, and Paolo Banchero.
Average Sophomore Stat Bumps For ROTY Winners
Points Per Game | +3.38 |
Rebounds Per Game | +0.39 |
Assists Per Game | +0.72 |
Field Goal % | +0.68% |
PER (Player Efficiency Rating) | +1.19 |
True Shooting % | +1.73% |
Win Shares | +1.78 |
What Can Spurs Fans Expect From Stephon Castle in 2025?
After posting 14.7 points, 4.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game in 81 games played for the lowly Spurs in 2024-25, the question for the year ahead is where Stephon Castle can take his hardwood domain in the new league year. Based on the ROY winners since 2014-15, we can guess that Castle’s point production should surge in the season ahead, with the last 10 winners scoring 3.38 PPG more during their second NBA seasons versus their rookie campaigns, along with a .68% increase in field goal percentage, 1.78 improvement in win shares and a 1.19 increase in Player Efficiency Rating.
Since that 2014-15 season, the NBA ROY with the largest improvement, points per game wise, was Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, who improved his scoring by 7.6 PPG from 21.2 in 2018-19 to 28.8 PPG the year after.
Conversely, the winner of the award that dropped off the farthest in Year Two was Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, who averaged 15.3 PPG in 2021-22 and 2022-23 for the Eastern Conference club.
For Castle and company, the hope is that Year Two will allow the UConn guard to follow in the footsteps of Doncic, with an eye towards building up the 20-year-old’s 42.8% field goal percentage and 28.5% figure from behind the arc for San Antonio this NBA season.
For now, at least Castle has a good benchmark to base his sophomore season off of, with the last 10 winners of the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award paving the way for the rising star in the new league year.
USA Today photo by Scott Wachter.
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