3 New Year's Resolutions for the San Antonio Spurs

Tre Jones and Jeremy Sochan need to shoot more

Jakob Poeltl will never be a shooting threat. Johnson and Vassell are both elite shooters at this point, but the Spurs only have two real deep threats in their starting five. Until McDermott and Richardson come off the bench, no one is seriously guarding the perimeter against these Spurs. 

In his second year at Duke, Jones shot 36% from deep on 3.7 attempts per game. At Baylor, Sochan shot 30% on 2.7 shots. Neither one of those are world-beating numbers, and I don’t expect either of them ever to enter the three-point contest, but Jones shoots only 2.6 threes a game and makes only 30% of them, while Sochan shoots two, making 18% of them. 

The Spurs are long past the point of trying to win games this season, and their losses are more important than their wins, so they may as well try and improve. They already took drastic measures to improve Sochan’s free throw shot, and it seems to have worked out so far. 

My instant solution to getting Jones and Sochan to shoot more? Just tell them to shoot more. Neither one of them seems like their confidence would be shattered if they tried something new and didn’t have immediate success, so why not have them double their three-point attempts? In Sochan’s case, his percentage can’t get any worse, and I suspect Tre Jones is secretly lethal in the corner. His first several looks will be nearly wide open because, as of now, no one in their right mind would guard him too closely.

This is a simple problem with a simple solution. Post more shots, and hopefully make more as the season ends and next season starts.