2022 Redraft: Do the Spurs make the same selections?

It’s pretty easy for the Spurs and their fans to get psyched about the team’s most recent lottery pick (and highest draft selection since Tim Duncan) after one of his most productive games of the season— Jeremy Sochan dropped 15 points and 8 rebounds on the 4th seed (!!!) Sacramento Kings. 

But this article is about more than one night; Sochan is amidst the most consistent stretch of basketball in his young career. Since his much-maligned decision to shoot free throws one-handed, he has been very solid from the line.

Sochan has also become a highlight machine on a team that was in desperate need of fireworks.

As I said above, this is a piece about much more than a stretch of play. One of my biggest gripes about how basketball is followed today is how reactive fans and media have become. I believe I’ve used the phrase “this is a business of clicks” in another article, so on that basis, I get it. Being the first to a hot take drives interaction. 

However, in my personal analysis, five good games in a row don’t drastically improve my opinion of a player, the same way that five bad games in a row don’t make me feel that much worse about a player. 

The Spurs stand at 13-31 after 44 games. I’m comfortable with using that many games as a sample size to determine whether the Silver & Black made the correct decision by spending first-round picks on Sochan and fellow rookies Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley. 

The latter two have missed many games due to injury and G-League assignments, so their sample size is quite a bit smaller. The label “draft miss” really only applies to lottery picks, so I hope that you will be okay with me focusing more words on Jeremy.

With all of that in mind and what we know with half a season under our belts, let’s do a re-draft of San Antonio’s 2022 selections.