It's the lessons learned from the bottom Jeremy Sochan hopes to take to the top
When Donovan Mitchell crossed up the Spurs rookie and sent him sliding to the floor, all the 19-year-old could do was laugh it off and get ready for next time.
Jeremy Sochan could only sit on his butt and smile as he watched Donovan Mitchell’s 3-pointer fall through the net late in the second quarter on Monday night. Just a second earlier, the Spurs rookie had slid his feet into position to cut off a right-handed drive from the Cavs’ All-Star, but with one nudge and a nasty step-back, Mitchell sent Sochan stumbling and sliding across the floor before knocking down three of his 41 points on the evening.
Just a day in the life of a 19-year-old being asked to guard the best in the world every time he steps on the court.
Except, that type of lowlight has hardly been a common occurrence for Sochan. Despite the experience gap, no other Spur has been tasked with guarding the opposing team’s first and second options more often than he has this season, per BBall Index, and for the most part he’s done so admirably.
For the most part.
Players like LeBron James, Jerami Grant, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaren Jackson Jr. — guys who are difficult to defend but whose tendencies are relatively predictable — have struggled to score against Sochan. In fact, those four in particular have combined to shoot just 12-for-38 from the floor (31.5 percent) when he’s been their primary defender, per Second Spectrum tracking data.
But on the flip side, Luka Doncic and Kawhi Leonard have roasted Sochan this season, combining to shoot 17-for-22 (77.3 percent) against him and providing invaluable lessons along the way. These dudes have tricks players coming into the league have never seen before, and there is nobody on the Spurs’ practice court who can replicate the craftiness and cleverness of Doncic or the precise and clinical nature with which Leonard operates.
“It gets busy up there in my head sometimes,” Sochan said with a grin at a recent shootaround. “It’s been an experience, for sure. They’re all great players.”
But a cluttered brain is normal for young players. There is a lot of critical information pouring in on a daily basis even without having to consider the five or six or seven different decisions a Doncic or Leonard can force a defender to make with each passing second they’re guarded. But the good ones remember. They file these moments away in preparation for the next time. And the time after that, and the time after that. At the very least, they certainly don’t forget.
“My first matchup was Lou Williams after I didn’t play for 40 games. My second matchup was Steve Blake, who gave me 20 [points]. In my second start, I saw Steph Curry who gave us 40, and I saw John Wall the next game in 2015 when he was still in Washington,” now-former Spur Josh Richardson said before the start of the Rodeo Road Trip. “You just have to be ready for whatever. It’s just tendencies. You try to keep them away from stuff they like to do, stuff that you know.”
The one-on-one battles are only part of the defensive equation, though. A long, strong, athletic player with fluid hips, a high motor and the intelligence to boot, Sochan left Baylor as a highly regarded on-ball defender and solid disruptor in passing lanes and near the rim. But while his ability to guard in isolated space has translated to the next level, his off-ball awareness and screen navigation have dragged behind at time. He’s come flying in for the periodic weak-side block or mucked things up with deflections in tight spaces, but overall, Sochan (like the rest of this Spurs team, frankly) has struggled with off-ball assignments and defending around screening actions.
Whether they’re shooting off the catch or attacking closeouts, spot-up scorers have posted an alarming 1.4 points per possession against the rookie this season, per Synergy data. Players coming off screens away from the ball or flowing into dribble-handoffs have caused major issues as well, scoring 1.29 and 1.38 points per possession, respectively, with Sochan as the primary mark. When packaged together these numbers fall well inside the 10th percentile league-wide in terms of efficiency allowed, a difficult ranking to stomach during what’s been an unpalatable season in general.
But much of this is a reflection of his youth and inexperience rather than an indictment of his basketball I.Q. From time to time he’ll get caught watching the ball and losing his man drifting along the perimeter or cutting to the basket, but for the most part his lapses are born out of aggression.
Sochan has often found himself overhelping when opposing players attack his teammates off the dribble, or getting sucked in as weakside defender and surrendering open shots from the perimeter. He’ll frequently try to jump screening actions in an effort to cut off his assignment, but savvy opponents know to quickly adjust and cut away from the pick, leaving Sochan stranded.
Still, this is stuff you live with for now. He’s a rookie who’s learning the consequences of his actions, which he’ll never understand if he doesn’t do some pressure testing.
“He’ll make some glaring mistakes, he’ll lose his man in the corner or get back-doored, and that sort of thing,” Gregg Popovich said. “But veterans do that, too. So we’re thrilled with his progress.”
A lot of the fixes are simple, too. Or at least they should be eventually. While San Antonio has suffered from a talent deficit most nights, much of what’s plagued it on the defensive end has been a lack of solid communication — particularly when it comes to those aforementioned screening actions. Assignments have to be voiced loudly on every possession so defenders know their responsibilities at all times, something Spurs players and coaches say has been lacking all season.
Without the access to certain premium data sites that’s offered to legacy media outlets, I can’t tell you exactly how often the Spurs have botched their pick-and-roll coverages, or failed to rotate properly when they’ve doubled or helped, or how many times they’ve been killed on switches. But off the top of this independent newsletter writer’s head, I can tell you it’s happened a whole lot. And unless communication improves, those issues aren’t going away anytime soon.
Talking on defense is a critical part of the game we’re all taught at an early age, but the layperson would probably be surprised how often messages are jumbled when inexperienced teams are trying to learn how to play on a string together at the highest level of the sport.
“I think miscommunication (is the problem), and sometimes I think we just lose focus. I don’t know if that’s because we’re young or not bothered, but sometimes we need to focus more and be locked in,” Sochan said. “It’s just communication. We have to understand each other and take criticism. That’s the only way.”
But this is all just part of the process. Despite the obvious problem areas that have been on display, Sochan projects to be a very impactful defender at the NBA level. Individual responsibilities will become more defined as the Spurs continue to both develop and add talent in the coming years, and ideally, Sochan and his teammates won’t constantly be forced to cover up for one another’s mistakes as the rebuild moves along. Just as skill sets take time to hone, so does building trust and chemistry.
Split-second decision-making during high-leverage situations is vital to defensive success in the NBA’s postseason pressure cooker, but it’s during these lean years when players form the habits that go a long way in taking the thinking process out of the equation. All the preparation beforehand is what allows them to simply read and react, and the Spurs are providing Sochan with as many chances to learn from his mistakes as any rookie could possibly expect.
“It’s been thrilling to watch this guy. He’s been fearless, he’s just learning what the hell’s going on out there, he’s only seen these guys on TV, and we have him go guard them all the time,” Popovich said. “He seems to — not seems to, he does rise to the challenge, he wants to do it and see how he can perform. So to have somebody who has that kind of courage and that kind of grunt is pleasing for a coach.”
Every NBA player is going to get crossed up and put on their butt at some point along the way, and Sochan took his licking with a grin and a nod, knowing there would be many more opportunities to make the play he was trying to make. Next time, he’ll be ready for that little crossover shove.
“I think you’re always learning stuff they do” Sochan said recently of his encounters with the stars. “You realize sometimes you could’ve been more aggressive, or maybe you could’ve met them at a spot, and it’s definitely something you remember.
“It’s been fun.”