Stephon Castle sensed secret animosity from Dylan Harper early on

At first, Castle says, he sensed "secret animosity" from Harper, who dogged his new teammate up and down the court—"trying mad hard," Castle adds—in practice. Harper had been drafted onto a team already stacked with talented guards; as Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson points out: "There's a natural narrative that could be put on the situation—[a] crabs-in-the-bucket, which one of you guys is going to make it out type thing." But Castle saw Harper's potential as a backcourt mate immediately; from the start of the Spurs' training camp, he carried the bench during scrimmages. "It was never 'We're better with that guy versus that guy,' " Johnson says. "It was always them together."