Grading Jeremy Sochan’s first 6 games with Spurs

This is a tough one to sit down and start writing the morning after Jeremy Sochan only played 10 minutes in the Spurs’ blowout loss to the Raptors. Jeremy remained in the locker room after halftime, still dealing with the effects of the flu-like illness that caused him to miss San Antonio’s previous game versus Minnesota. In those 10 minutes, Sochan scored once in four shots and picked up two rebounds and a steal.

However, this is an article meant to grade all of the 9th overall pick’s games so far this season, and he’s had some pretty great ones. Before his absence, Sochan seemed to be getting more comfortable scoring, with points totals of 14, 12, and 13 in the three games leading up to his missed game. He also showcased the lights-out defending—his calling card at Baylor—that led to him being a lottery selection.

On to grading the games. I figured that I would give Jeremy a score (1-10) for “offensive consistency” as well as a score (1-10) for “defensive consistency,” and then average the two. Anything more in-depth than that is hard to do; looking for exact statistical markers is unfair this early into the career of a rookie who was pretty raw coming in. I thought about adding a score for “energy,” but Sochan is a lot like Keldon Johnson in that the score would always be a 12.

Note: I will not be grading his most recent game. I think it’s unfair to score a performance in which he wasn’t able to perform to his best ability due to illness. Though I will say I was encouraged that Sochan continued to be unafraid to pull from deep. He shot 0-2 on 3s, but at this point in his career, it’s more about the attempts than the makes.