Point Guard Predicament: Spurs see-saw between Jeremy Sochan and Tre Jones

We’re now through the first five games of the San Antonio Spurs regular season, and the young squad came out at the end having won three of the five, including a 20-point comeback in their first game against the Phoenix Suns. And through it all, as Coach Popovich confirmed in the preseason, it has been Jeremy Sochan leading the way as the Spurs’ starting point guard.

Understandably, this has led to some peaks and valleys over the course of the past five games, and fans have since dubbed this whole experience the “point Sochan experiment.” To say the very least, the decision to start Sochan over Spurs fourth-year guard Tre Jones has been a controversial one that has split the Spurs’ fanbase and analysts alike. Given all the commotion the situation has caused, it appears that even Sochan himself has taken notice.

So, is Sochan at PG the right move? If it isn’t working, why would the Spurs be motivated to continue pushing it? Are there better alternatives? This experiment has prompted a lot of very legitimate questions from fans, and this will serve as a way of trying to answer most of them while remaining respectful toward all parties involved. 

A personal take

I’d like the the contents of the following few pages to serve as a holistic overview of the point Sochan experiment rather than a highly subjective or angry rebuttal to the idea. It should go without saying that, regardless of my personal feelings on the matter, the Spurs know much, much more about basketball than I’ll ever hope to. If the team chooses to go in a different direction than what I suggest here, I’ll have complete confidence in them doing so, and I think others should, too.

But I want to also provide my personal stance on the matter so that it doesn’t remain ambiguous, so I won’t mince words. Playing Tre Jones as the Spurs’ starting point guard would lead to the most cohesive, winning basketball this season and would be the best-case scenario for multiple parties, likely including Sochan. 

It’s worth recalling that Jones originally made a name for himself during his freshman season on a stacked Duke team that featured the likes of Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, and Cam Reddish, among others. Jones undoubtedly knows how to play next to NBA-caliber players and maximize their potential in doing so.

Jones then followed his first season with an even more impressive sophomore campaign, having earned the ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season. Despite having a lower NBA ceiling compared to others, he was selected in the draft to be a reliable floor general with a high basketball IQ, and to have already achieved that status and more after only three seasons and change in the NBA as a former 2nd round pick is a rare and impressive feat. So, even beyond his previous experience playing next to star-level players, Jones is also the most natural and competent PG on the Spurs roster, period.

In the words of The Athletic’s, Sam Vecenie, “It was worth experimenting with Sochan-at-PG to start…” but naming the starting PG between Tre Jones and Sochan goes well beyond the question of “who’s the better player?” Even if the answer to that question is Sochan, starting Jones would quickly have a beneficial ripple effect on the rest of the team. Furthermore, the benefits of starting Jones at PG far outweigh those of Sochan at the moment, some of which I’ll dive into a bit later.

Why are the Spurs forcing the issue?

The need to change things up in the starting lineup in the first place starts and ends with Victor Wembanyama. While healthy, Jeremy Sochan played as the team’s starting power forward this past season while Tre Jones started at point guard. With Wembanyama now occupying the starting power forward spot, though, that meant one of Jones, Sochan, or Keldon Johnson would have to be pushed to the bench. Devin Vassell is and will continue to be a lock for the starting lineup, as he’ll be one of the two best players on the team. And being that the Spurs are utilizing Wembanyama at power forward early in his career to preserve his health, Collins will also likely be a starting lineup lock for now.

Sochan is not a natural point guard, nor has he played the position in a starting role for the large majority of his basketball career. But he has the size, athleticism, playmaking talent, and ball-handling ability to suggest that he could be a PG in some capacity in the future. The Spurs choosing to start Sochan at PG serves to accelerate his development playing in such a role. In other words, he’s being thrown into the proverbial fire regardless of how ready he is. If we take everything outside of Sochan’s development out of the equation, I’d argue this experiment makes quite a bit of sense from that perspective.

In his rookie season, Sochan was praised by most and mocked by others for switching to one-handed free throws in actual NBA games—something that is very obviously a rarity— and it cannot be stressed enough just how few young or veteran NBA players would be comfortable with such an immediate change. But as a result, Sochan dramatically improved his free-throw percentage and is still hitting one-handed free throws today. I would consider this a good, recent example of the Spurs successfully experimenting with Sochan

In the same vein, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many cases of a young player being selected in the draft as a forward and switching to a lead guard role in their sophomore season, let alone at all. Again, though, despite such a drastic change, Sochan is taking his starting PG role in stride. So, for the record, I think it’s time we more deliberately give Sochan his flowers for once again being so willing to accept such a jarring challenge on a dime. This new role isn't supposed to be easy for him, and his growing pains are showing on the court in an obvious way.

Here’s the big challenge for the Spurs moving forward, though: the team wants to prioritize maximizing Sochan’s potential on offense—both on and off-ball—but they also need to ensure that his development doesn’t come at the expense of the other young Spurs’ progression. That is where the point Sochan experiment, at least to the extent we’re seeing it now, begins to quickly unravel.

Why starting Tre Jones benefits everybody

In Jeremy Sochan’s pre-draft evaluations, he was often labeled as a 'positionless' player or, at the very least, dubbed a point-forward. And, while that’s true to a point, the dangerous thing about throwing that language around (something I was guilty of) is that it leads fans to believe that players are able to seamlessly change positions and on-court responsibilities when this is actually quite far from reality in the large majority of cases. In Sochan’s case, he’s been struggling with that change at times, falsely leading some fans to believe that he’s regressing or isn’t as good of a player as some selected after him in the draft.

Tre Jones is debatably the only “traditional” point guard on the Spurs roster, so even if slotting him in the starting lineup will come at the expense of a bit of size and defensive versatility, he will provide several benefits that Sochan simply can’t at this stage of his career. All of the following are just a few of the laundry list of potential benefits of starting him.

1.) Jones maximizes players’ off-ball potential

While Sochan has been the one handling the rock the most out of the players in the starting lineup, there have been multiple occasions where the Spurs have actually employed more of a “point guard by committee” approach, and while that can work in theory, no Spurs player outside of Jones has the requisite combination of ball-handling ability and playmaking talent to exploit opposing defenses with any real consistency, particularly against talented defensive teams (e.g., the Los Angeles Clippers). 

Jones is one of the most reliable guards in the NBA, having earned the 8th best assist to turnover ratio in the entire league this past season while averaging 6.6 assists per game. He’s proven that he sets his teammates up well and keeps turnovers to a minimum, and that’s what he’d continue doing this season in a starting role. This would mean more touches and lobs for Wembanyama, more chances for Sochan to show off his outstanding instincts as a cutter, more open spot-up threes for several players, and more. Jones gets to continue playing to his strengths and everyone else gets better in the process.

2.) Keldon Johnson regains a primary offensive role

Keldon Johnson is debatably still a second option on offense, even with Wembanyama and Vassell on the floor, but were he to come off the bench after Jones is slotted into the starting lineup, his role would be even less ambiguous on a night-to-night basis. Giving him a sixth-man role that allows a bit more offensive freedom could allow him to maintain his impressive production from this past season and his value as an asset in the process, benefitting both him and the team. This move would also ensure more offensive consistency from the Spurs bench unit, potentially leading to more winning basketball.

3.) Sochan gets to develop where it matters

While Sochan has gotten to the free-throw line a hair more so far compared to his rookie season, having him share the court with Johnson, Vassell, and Wembanyama means his role as a scorer is now scaled back even more than it already was, meaning his chances to develop as a scorer are fewer and farther between. So far this season, he’s taken fewer shots and has been less efficient on those shots, particularly inside the arc. Allowing Jones to initiate the offense more regularly while Sochan is on the floor will give him more opportunities to score off cuts, practice his spot-up shooting in game settings, and more opportunities for offensive rebounds and put-backs.

4.) Blake Wesley may see the floor more

An unfortunate, overlooked effect of the point Sochan experiment is that Blake Wesley is seeing very little in-game action--7 total minutes played, to be exact. Wesley hasn't necessarily proven himself or deserves minutes over any particular player, but spending a 1st round pick on a player in the draft only to have them ride the bench is not ideal for anyone involved. But were Sochan to revert to playing most of his minutes off-ball, more PG minutes could open up for Wesley in the process, and it would be wise for the Spurs to see what they have in him considering the sheer amount of future draft picks the team owns. 

The middle-ground solution

So, to condense all of the information presented here into the bare minimum, the Spurs appear to want Sochan to develop as a lead ball-handler, but the benefits of starting Tre Jones at PG are becoming too obvious to ignore. Furthermore, Sochan serving as the starting PG could accelerate his development if all goes well, but starting him at PG potentially has several negative implications for other Spurs players. So, what’s the solution here?

Priority number one, point-blank, is to put Victor Wembanyama in the best position to succeed as early as possible. That starts with him sharing the floor with a veteran center like Zach Collins and ends with having Tre Jones at the helm for the majority of his time on the floor. Wembanyama’s sheer gravity paired with Jones’ talent as a floor general is a recipe for success for everyone involved, whether that means easier looks at the rim for Wembanyama, more cutting opportunities for Sochan, more space for Jones to find his own shot, more open spot-up shooting opportunities, etc. The possibilities are endless.

With that in mind, though, it’s abundantly clear that the Spurs see something in Sochan beyond just being an off-ball threat, and the team should prioritize exploring his ball-handling potential on offense sooner rather than later while they can still afford rough patches during the season. So, while I think the Spurs should start Sochan at SF over Keldon Johnson, that doesn’t mean he exclusively has to play at that position.

Having Jones as the first player off the floor with Johnson coming off the bench as the sixth man would allow Sochan to play a few minutes as the team’s secondary PG (ideally against slightly easier competition). When Sochan needs rest, the remaining PG minutes before Jones re-enters can primarily go to Blake Wesley or, if you’d like to put on your tin foil hats with me, perhaps even Wembanyama for a possession or two now and then. A three-man rotation at PG allows the Spurs’ ball handlers to have fresher legs, and the Spurs can see what they have in Wesley before coming up on the tough decisions they’ll have to begin making soon.

Do Sochan’s growing pains mean that Jones is a surefire bet to retake the starting PG job? Not necessarily. Five games is still quite a small sample size, and outside of the Houston Rockets, the Spurs haven’t exactly had an easy schedule to begin the season. The Mavericks, Clippers, and Suns are all legitimate playoff teams with a significant chance to make a deep run. The Spurs can undeniably still afford to experiment, make mistakes, and lose games being that they won’t be pushing for a deep playoff run any time soon. 

So, if they feel that Sochan can make significant strides, even if it means working through growing pains and losing some games along the way, expect to see Sochan as the team's starting PG for the foreseeable future.