Southwest Notes: Castle, Eisley, Thompson, Rockets Preseason, China

Last season’s Rookie of the Year, Stephon Castle, will make his preseason debut on Monday, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News reports.

He missed the Spurs’ first three preseason contests with a right knee contusion. Castle suffered the injury during the team’s Oct. 4 Silver & Black scrimmage after banging knees with Victor Wembanyama.

With De’Aaron Fox expected to be sidelined at the beginning of the regular season, Castle is projected to be the Spurs’ opening-night starter at point guard.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

• The Mavericks have hired Howard Eisley as a scout, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype tweets. Eisley was an assistant for Michigan under previous head coach Juwan Howard. He’s also been an assistant coach with the Knicks, Wizards and Clippers.
• Klay Thompson was assigned to guard Hornets point man LaMelo Ball during a preseason game. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd indicated the team can’t depend on him for those matchups regularly. “Melo’s a little different because he can score and pass,” Kidd said, per Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal. “But we thought looking at that (Saturday) was something we needed to see. Making it tough on Melo isn’t easy — he’s gonna have the ball 90% of the time. But I thought Klay did a good job. He can still compete at that level at this stage of his career. We’re not going to ask him to do it every night, but (Saturday) he showed he can compete.”
• The Rockets wrap up their preseason schedule with games on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Playing time and rotations in the next two games will be more reflective of what they want to implement in the regular season, according to Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle. Starters will have their minutes increased to the mid-20s and 30-range, and the team will utilize more sophisticated schemes.
• The Mavericks and Rockets will play a preseason game in China next year, Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Mavs governor Patrick Dumont confirmed via the South China Morning Post that Dallas will participate in next season’s NBA China Games. “Yes, the Mavericks and the Rockets, here in Macau next year. Are you ready?” Dumont said.