
The San Antonio Spurs made the ninth pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and selected Jeremy Sochan, the 19-year-old forward out of Baylor.
Here’s a quick analysis of Sochan’s strengths, weaknesses and fit in San Antonio.
Strengths
Very well-traveled in his youth. Sochan was born in Oklahoma to an American father and a Polish mother and grew up in England. Played at La Lumiere for high school and was considered a terrific prospect, but during the pandemic, he decided to leave the United States and went to play with a German team Orange Academy. Committed to Baylor as a slight mystery because of that but exploded on the scene as one of the best defensive prospects in the country. Won the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year award and made the Big-12 All-Freshman team. Has represented the Polish national team at youth and senior levels.
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Great size for a versatile wing forward at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-plus wingspan. Very coordinated athlete with great lateral speed and quickness. Light on his feet. The term “functional” comes to mind. Not wildly explosive off two feet but has some twitch and moves well.
Where Sochan’s athletic gifts show up best right now is on defense. Has more upside defensively than any non-center in this class. He’s terrific on that end for his size, largely because of his movement skills. Lateral quickness stands out. Extremely active feet. Has very real switchability. Genuine one through five defender. Quick enough to contain ones and contest shots while also strong enough to defend all but the biggest fives – as he showed late in the year when starting center Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua went out. Very fluid through his hips and light on his feet. So good at keeping his chest square to his man and can get his chest into a ballhandler’s space. Guards ballhandlers well and gets through screens by getting skinny and over the top. That means he’ll be scheme-versatile, able to play in drop schemes or switch schemes or as a versatile chess piece allowing you to do both.
He can drop his hips if he gets beaten and then turn and recover with his length. Aggressive too. Often looks like he’s closing out heavily to his man but can stop and cut off driving angles and confuse ballhandlers. If he does get beat, he’s great at contesting shots from behind. Always has his hands doing different things. He can get into a ballhandler’s dribble, making them fly up to his man’s eye line, and is always ready to have hands high to contest pull-up shots against him once he’s contained.
On top of it, he’s an exceptional team defender. Has great anticipation. Excellent rotationally and disrupts actions. Forces turnovers by shooting passing lanes and gets some real deflections. Can’t make lazy passes around him. Also, can’t throw long, looping cross-court passes. He’s always ready to be there to try to force turnovers. Rotates on the weak side at the basket and blocks the occasional shot. Also has good mechanics for getting as big and long as possible at the rim and using his verticality. Sochan is genuinely an All-Defense upside defensive player.
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Offensively, he is a work-in-progress but has impressive tools. For his size, has some real versatility allowing him to be a chess piece that you can move around on offense. Can be the ballhandler in screen-and-rolls as well as the screener. Shows real grab-and-go ability in the open floor to start the break. In the half court, understands how to get an angle and drive to the rim with good extension to cover ground quickly. Knows how to put defenders off balance with pump-fakes and jab steps, and it doesn’t take much for him to beat a defender because of his length and quickness combination. Also showed some flashes of midrange pull-up shooting at times. Made eight such shots this past season that were almost all impressive.
Had some impressive lay-in finishes that showcase touch. Finished very well around the rim on shots that were mostly assisted. Made 67.2 percent of his half-court attempts at the basket, with a lot of dunks in traffic. Largely a two-foot jumper but has good timing cutting and finding the open areas for passing angles. Can adjust in mid-air and change the angle because of good hang time, strength and that touch. Finally, makes some good passing reads. Not an incredible live-dribble passer but showcases real upside for his size and youth level. Can collapse defenders and make reads on the fly at times. Plays an unselfish brand of basketball. — Sam Vecenie
Weaknesses
The swing skill is shooting. He hit 33.3 percent of his half-court catch-and-shoot jumpers on a relatively small sample size of only two per game, which does showcase some real potential for improvement. But he doesn’t look all that comfortable taking them yet, hence the volume. Made only 30 half-court jumpers all year, per Synergy. Looks a bit robotic in terms of mechanics. Major ball dip to get into rhythm. Seems to bring it across his face a little bit and has some bad right-to-left misses. Trajectory can be a bit of a moon ball or more of a line drive.
A bit of a two-motion shot and has a very small hitchy thing while bringing it across his face but seems to have real touch. Having said that, he’s also been a sub-60 percent free-throw shooter in his career, which would work toward speaking against his touch. There isn’t a ton of numerical evidence that Sochan will be a shooter. But the mechanics and tape look workable and fixable to where he can at least be a threat. It’s a very complicated evaluation, and I’d very much like to see Sochan end up with a team that has a prior track record of shooting improvement. If he doesn’t shoot, there could be some real concerns about where he provides value offensively.
His aggressiveness on defense is good, but he does need to reign it in a touch. Falls for all sorts of pump fakes. Had some foul-heavy moments and some moments that took him out of plays. Could stand to better balance the staying solid positionally with disruptiveness. — Vecenie
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The fit in San Antonio
The Baylor product stays in Texas and gives Gregg Popovich a defensive-oriented wing to complement Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson and Josh Primo among others. “I think I’m going to fit really well,” Sochan said shortly after being drafted. “It’s a really young squad with a lot of energy and I feel like they’re one of the best teams in assists. So I really feel like I really fit with that. It’s going to be good.”
In the Tim Duncan era, the Spurs always had a defensive specialist, whether it was Bruce Bowen or Kawhi Leonard in later years — and Sochan fits that bill for San Antonio’s current youth movement. He rocks a dyed blonde hairdo, reminiscent of former Spur and Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. His international ties also fit an organization that won by having key players from all parts of the globe including Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands), Tony Parker (France), Manu Ginóbili (Argentina) and Patty Mills (Australia). Popovich already drafted Primo out of Canada a year ago and has another Aussie in center Jock Landale already on the roster. The Spurs have been defined by consistency under the legendary coach and Sochan is the latest high-ceiling draft pick they’ve added to fill a specific role. — Schiffer
Summary
As you can see, Sochan’s strengths list is much longer than the weaknesses list. I’m very high on Sochan’s game and would be willing to bet on him pretty high on draft night. If Sochan shoots, the ceiling is through the roof. Because of his disruptiveness, size and quickness, he has a real chance to be an All-Defense-caliber guy. He can handle and be versatile on offense, and it feels like he’s just scratching the surface of what his long-term potential is on that end. The NBA covets guys who are 6-foot-9 with this kind of defensive upside, and the 2022 playoffs showed how important versatile defenders are in today’s league. If you buy into Sochan’s potential to shoot at all, there are some potential star outcomes here that could make him a worthwhile investment. — Vecenie
Related Reading
Latest draft coverage: 2022 NBA Draft live tracker, results
Moore: What Jeremy Sochan brings to the San Antonio Spurs: ‘His passion is contagious’
Schiffer and Tucker: Moms taught Banchero, Ivey, Sochan and Washington the game. Now they’re top NBA Draft prospects
(Photo of Adam Silver and Jeremy Sochan: Brad Penner / USA Today)
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