3 Things Sochan must improve on in offseason

1. Decisiveness

The final improvement that would be great to see out of Jeremy Sochan applies to the entire young core, and that’s overall on-court feel and chemistry. There isn’t a real way to “practice” this—it comes with playing experience, time spent with teammates, and self-scouting. As discussed by Osman in the clip below, the youngest team in the league has finally started to settle in and develop as a group, as evidenced by the Spurs’ recent three-game win streak.

A loud (but valid) complaint from anyone who watched San Antonio basketball for the first stretch of the season was that teammates weren’t looking to pass to Wemby in the paint and that when the ball did find him, the timing was off. That stretch of basketball lined up with the Sochan point guard experiment. As Jeremy learned a new position and figured out how to initiate the offense, the Spurs’ ball movement looked disjointed at times.

With Tre Jones now at the helm and Sochan back in his natural position, the offense is a lot more fluid. Jeremy looks much more comfortable moving off-ball as a cutter in a connecting role rather than as the lead guard. More than that, the guys have now played almost a full season together and have experience playing in an offense constructed around the Frenchman.

That being said, there is plenty of room for Sochan to grow as a decision-maker. At 6’8” and 230 pounds, he can make his presence felt in the paint, a great quality for the hopeful long-term answer at PF next to Wemby’s spacing. Something that Jeremy should focus on this summer is decisiveness in that area of the floor. When he gets the ball in the paint, quickly making the right decision, whether that be going up or passing out to a teammate, will be extremely valuable moving forward.

"That's my floor"

As stated earlier, Jeremy Sochan is still just 20 years old—the same as Wemby. The two already form one of the scariest and most versatile defensive frontcourts in the league. Assuming he does not progress at all from this point forward, Jeremy has a valuable role in this league, in a Draymond Green-lite mold. But to make that assumption would be to undersell who Sochan is and who he can be. To quote Green himself, “if I’m him, looking at me, I’m saying, ‘That’s my floor.’”