Harrison Barnes: Stephon Castle carries himself like he’s 26

New San Antonio Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes sees a maturity in Stephon Castle’s game that isn’t like your average NBA rookie.

(via San Antonio Spurs):

Reporter: “What are your early impressions of Steph Castle?”

Barnes: “Steph’s been great. I think his ability to really defend at a high level is something that impressed me. Obviously he’s young, but he’s got a mature body to go out there. He can pretty much switch 1-4. He wants to be great. He wants to be good. So, I’ve liked his ability defensively to pick up the concepts pretty quickly and kinda just go out there to make an impact.”

Reporter: “The pace he plays with on offense, is that rare for a teenager?”

Barnes: “Yeah, I mean just in general, he carries himself like he’s 26. His game. His feel. Doesn’t really get sped up too much. Has great poise about him. So I think it’s great for him to come in as a rookie to have a guy like CP (Chris Paul) who you can look to and say, ‘Look. If I want to be a point guard in this league. If I want to be whatever position in this league. I can learn how to play pick-and-roll. I can ask you what you’re seeing and different types of things.’ And then defensively like I said, the point guard position is stacked in the NBA, so his ability I think with his attributes to go out and defend and make things difficult will be good for us.”