The Spurs’ three-guard lineup of De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle produced a plus-10 net rating across 11 first-half minutes together in a 123-103 preseason win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. The sample is tiny, but the early returns suggest coach Mitch Johnson’s long-discussed pairing could finally have a path onto the floor together this season, even if the fit still needs work on the margins.
San Antonio trailed 23-22 after the first quarter before the trio helped spark a 38-point second quarter that buried Phoenix. Castle led all scorers with 18 points, 14 of them from the free throw line, while Harper added nine points and a highlight-reel tip dunk off a Devin Vassell miss with 34.5 seconds left in the half. Together the three combined for 31 points, 12 rebounds and six assists before intermission, and 39 points over 68 total minutes in the game. Fox played only the first half, logging 18 minutes, 33 seconds before sitting the rest of the way.
Why The Early Numbers Matter
Context makes the plus-10 mark more interesting than a typical preseason stat line. Fox, Harper and Castle played a combined 69 minutes together all of last season, including 25 in the NBA Finals, and opponents outscored San Antonio by 47 points in those stretches. That track record is why Johnson’s decision to run them together from the opening tip against Phoenix stood out as a deliberate shift rather than a tinkering exercise.
The two-man splits from last season also support the idea that the Spurs’ top three guards complement each other individually. San Antonio posted a plus-9.4 net rating with Fox and Castle on the floor together, plus-6.2 with Fox and Harper, and plus-11.0 with Harper and Castle. Stacking all three together was always the logical next step once the individual pairings proved productive.
Johnson’s Rationale For The Lineup Change
Johnson described the move as part of a broader process rather than a finished product. “It’s time to push forward appropriately the team’s natural evolution that will still take time,” Johnson said, according to ESPN. He also made the case for why the fit should work on paper.
“They’re three of our better players,” Johnson said. “I know the majority of their lives, maybe their highlight tape is typically with the basketball in their hands. But De’Aaron Fox has played with other handlers and played off the ball a ton.
Steph Castle won a national championship, basically not touching the ball ever for the start of a possession. They’ve done it here. We didn’t do it a lot last year.
Dylan was a rookie who couldn’t play more than 20 minutes for half the season because he was going to cough up a lung because he wasn’t in shape. I think they can dribble, pass, shoot, defend, make winning plays. They’re unselfish.
They have good size.”
Fox echoed the idea that the group had already shown flashes of this chemistry under playoff pressure. “Obviously, when we were in the Finals, and just throughout the playoffs, there were times where we all three played together, a lot more than we did throughout the regular season,” Fox said, according to ESPN. “But we knew there was a chance that we’d all be starting or at least sharing the court together. We’re all excited for it.”
Harper’s Role Is The Real Question
Harper started just four of his 69 games as a rookie last season despite emerging as one of the Spurs’ best players in the Finals against the New York Knicks, according to Sporting News. Fox and Castle, by contrast, started 72 and 68 games respectively. Harper made clear he wants that to change this year.
“What’s the political answer here? I’m going to do whatever the team needs me to do, man,” Harper said, according to Sporting News. “If that’s come off the bench…
That’s crazy. F*** no. I ain’t coming off no bench.”
That stance puts pressure on Johnson’s roster math. Harrison Barnes, Julian Champagnie and Devin Vassell all started at least 52 games last season, and Sporting News reported that only one of the three figures to keep a starting spot if the three-guard lineup becomes the regular starting group. Johnson has not named which player loses his job, and nothing in the available reporting answers that question yet.
Wembanyama’s Take On The Size Trade-Off
A frequent knock on three-guard lineups is a lack of size, but Victor Wembanyama’s presence changes that calculus for San Antonio. At 6-foot-6, Castle is the tallest of the three guards, and a normal perimeter-heavy group might struggle defensively without a true forward on the floor. Wembanyama, listed at 7-foot-4, framed the lineup as a benefit for him personally rather than a liability for the team.
“I felt like we were trying to do the right things at the beginning, but we scored so few points. When it clicked, it clicked,” Wembanyama said, according to Bleacher Report. “The biggest thing is I’ve got handlers all around me, guys that we want to put the ball in their hands and pick and roll around me.
That makes things easier.”
What To Watch Next
One preseason win does not settle how the lineup holds up over 82 games, and nothing in the reporting addresses how it performs against stronger competition or extended minutes. The Spurs have additional preseason games before the regular season opens, and Johnson’s rotation decisions in those contests should signal whether Fox, Harper and Castle start together on opening night or whether the arrangement remains situational. The fate of Barnes, Champagnie and Vassell in the starting five is likely to be the clearest indicator of how committed Johnson is to the experiment.
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