3 Things Sochan must improve on in offseason

2. His Shot

The one true knock on Jeremy Sochan when he entered his name in the 2022 NBA draft was that his shooting, both in terms of numbers and mechanics, needed some work. The Polish Assassin shot 29.6% from three and 58.9% from the free throw line during his lone season as a Baylor Bear. The front office and coaching staff knew that when they drafted him, putting together a plan to “fix” his shot—a development that would be necessary for Jeremy to stay on the court.

You may remember that about 20 games into Sochan’s career, he began shooting his free throws one-handed. As soon as he stepped into the building, Jeremy and the Spurs began working on building out his shooting mechanics, as insider Matthew Tynan frames it in the thread linked below, “from the ground up.”

There are telltale signs of improvement here, starting with the fact that Sochan has shot 77% from the line this season. That is just a tick behind the league average rate of 78.3%, a mark that will set the record for the highest average FT percentage of all time. Next, although his three-point percentage doesn’t appear to be much better than college (30.8% this year), there are plenty of noted developments that suggest steady growth over time.

First, his 31% percentage is a great improvement when compared to Jeremy’s rookie season, when he shot 24.6% on 134 attempts. Second, he’s shot the ball a lot more this year—227 times—than he did as a college student or last season as a rookie. Third, his overall mechanics, from his base to his alignment to his overall motion and follow-through, look considerably better. There is reason to believe that a second full offseason with shooting coach Jimmy Baron will do wonders.