'It's kinda like watching Manu': For the Spurs, Jeremy Sochan's surge has been a sight to behold

San Antonio's rising star has flashed more and more of his game with each passing day, and he's only just begun to tap into the potential he possesses.

Photo courtesy of Bally Sports Southwest

Jeremy Sochan was a bit of a draft-day enigma for many observers and decision-makers. Defense was his calling card, hustle plays were a given, and flashes of playmaking ability along with some interior-scoring chops were sprinkled into his repertoire, but the outside shooting presented a cloudy outlook. The concerns were the shot would never fully come along, and that he didn’t excel enough in any one offensive area during his single season at Baylor to make up for the lack of range. Which, to be clear, were all fair questions to ask.

But those who propped up Sochan prior to draft night saw him as a ball of clay. They saw the basketball I.Q. and internal makeup of a player who could be molded into almost any shape or form, with a skill set that could take him in a number of different directions. So when the Spurs drafted him, immediately threw him in the fire on opening night, and continued to increase his workload as the season progressed, their mission became clearer by the week: Give this guy all he can handle, and let’s really get a look at what’s under the hood.

Now, we’re all watching it unfold together. The team obviously has a chance to gauge his internal development on a daily basis, but even Gregg Popovich is regularly amused by the cheeky rookie. Every day is an adventure with Sochan, and San Antonio is just along for the ride.

“He’s wild. He’s doing whatever he wants and I just love watching him. It’s kinda like watching Manu when we first got him — I have no idea what he’s gonna do,” Pop chuckled before Monday’s game against Washington. “He does a little bit of everything. He's really a competitive young man with a lot of skills that are just not honed and perfected ... but he's hungry, and he wants to be really good.”

At a surface level it’s easy to latch on to the obvious areas of growth, like the fact he’s shooting 77.2 percent as a one-handed free-throw shooter over his last 20 games as opposed to 42.9 percent as a two-handed normie through the first two months of the season. Or how ‘bout the fact he’s shot 36.2 percent from the 3-point line during that same 20-game span, as opposed to 18.4 percent prior to it? And while being a threat to score from more than 12 feet from the basket might be the most critical area of his development — one that, if improved enough, will make life easier in practically every other department — it’s the different ways he’s been utilized offensively that have given us glimpses of the untapped potential he possesses.

Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Suns and Monday’s affair with the Washington Wizards featured only the most recent examples of Sochan’s exponential growth this season. Not only was the perimeter shooting on display — he went 4-for-9 from deep and was 7-for-8 from the line during those two games — but the Spurs went to him repeatedly as an offensive initiator with Josh Richardson out and Blake Wesley getting limited court time.

Sochan scored a solid 1.11 points per possession on a season-high nine scoring chances out of the pick-and-roll against the Suns, per Synergy data. On top of that, he created a season-high four scoring opportunities out of the post, where he generated 1.5 points per possession. Against the Wizards he got off to a blistering start with 15 points in the first quarter, mixing in an array of pull-up jumpers, cuts to the basket, an alley-oop dunk and a 3-pointer for good measure. But foul trouble and Washington’s shift to a zone defense brought him and the rest of the Spurs’ offense to a screeching halt in the second quarter, and they were never able to fully recover.

As the season has moved along, both Sochan and San Antonio have continued to tap into elements of his game we’d only previously seen in tiny bits and pieces. And as a result, the confidence in what he’s capable of doing on the floor has skyrocketed.

“It seems like he likes to have the ball in his hands. I hear him calling for it on the court all the time and wanting to initiate plays and see the floor and see where he can score, see where he can get his teammates involved,” Zach Collins said. “And it’s tough too, when you’re handling the ball like that, when guys are playing so low on him. That can make it hard to get in the paint and make plays because they’re just waiting for you, but he seems to find a way to use his body really well.”

And that last part of the equation may be what makes all the difference, as a consistent jump shot would open the door to an entirely new world offensively. But since that aspect of his game has yet to become a true threat, finding ways to eat up the space defenders have allowed him on the perimeter has been a puzzle he’s started to piece together.

Much as they do with his running buddy Keldon Johnson, the Spurs like to find Sochan on the move before he even touches the ball. Sometimes it’s scripted, and many times it isn’t. Very few things are when it comes to this guy’s style of play. But regardless of how it all develops, the idea remains the same: Give Sochan a chance to attack defenses before they can load up in his face.

And he’s able to do a lot of that on his own, whether that’s by running in transition, flashing to the gaps in the middle of the floor in halfcourt sets, operating from the elbow out of various “Horns” sets, cutting to the basket off the ball, or lingering in the dunker spot along the baseline so he can sneak behind the back line and make himself available to teammates who are putting pressure on the basket. But being the beneficiary of others’ offense is just a portion of the pie chart. In order to maximize his skill set, on-ball effectiveness will be critical, and San Antonio is doing what it can to put him in good positions to develop that area of his game.

As previously mentioned, the pick-and-roll has become more and more of a weapon for Sochan. Given his inconsistency from the perimeter, defenders will often go under the screen and force the long shot, but he’s done well taking advantage of the extra space and working into his comfort zones for pull-up jumpers — something he’s fairly effective doing, relatively speaking. Sochan has actually been better shooting off the dribble (.891 ppp, 40.7 percent) than from a stand-still (.794 ppp, 28.7 percent) because, he says, he feels more in rhythm while on the move. And recently his ability to get by defenders, shake loose and create room for the shot has been on full display.

To assist him even further, Spurs screeners have added little wrinkles to clear even more space for him. Rather than run to the ball and set a stationary pick, San Antonio bigs have begun to utilize what essentially become ghost screens — forcing the defense’s hand early, peeling off at the last second, and dragging Sochan’s man deep into the paint when they decide to immediately go under. This gives him acres of room to dribble into soft spots where he’d otherwise likely be cut off once he turned the corner, either by the man going under the pick or the big defender switching.

But over the last week or so, coinciding with Sochan’s hot-shooting stretch, teams have started to tighten up their pick-and-roll coverage on the Spurs’ rookie.

“One thing is he’s not afraid to shoot the ball when he’s open and he’s in rhythm. And once he becomes more consistent with that and everybody knows, they’re gonna start playing up on him more,” Collins said. “That plays even more into his strengths because he can blow by guys, he’s strong, he’s bouncy at the rim — it’s definitely coming together for him right now.”

As defenders have begun to play up and even cut off the angle to the pick in an effort to prevent him from finding that extra space, Sochan has shown no hesitation in rejecting the screen and either attacking the basket or patiently keeping an off-balance defender on his hip until room clears for the pull-up.

Sochan’s touch around the basket is going to need to improve, but there’s plenty of evidence on the table that suggests it will. After all, everything else about his game has improved dramatically this season, so why should this be any different? He’s already shown he’s got the ability to finish, just not at a consistent rate quite yet.

But more importantly, he’s beginning to understand the nuances and intricacies of reading NBA defenses and taking what they give him, and he’s got the ball-handling and creation skills to take advantage. His pick-and-roll numbers on the year are not exactly impressive — .854 points per possession including passes is in the league’s 26th percentile — but at this rate you can safely throw out the early season stuff, as the difference between what he was then and what he’s become is night and day.

“It started around Game 20, when he started handling the ball. And he’s been doing good at it. He was shaky at first, but him just getting a lot of reps in, he’s looking a lot more comfortable. It’s a good thing to see,” fellow rookie Malaki Branham said. “It’s exciting, letting us play through mistakes, learn from it, and then next game not making the same mistakes. It’s been good, it’s just a learning process.”

And this is only the early portion of the learning curve. As Sochan becomes more proficient as a scorer out of the pick-and-roll, and if he continues to show he can take advantage of mismatches in the post, teams are going to have to send more bodies his way.

It’s a small sample size (63 possessions), but Sochan is generating .921 points per possession as a passer when defenses commit to him in the pick-and-roll, and his teammates on the receiving end are scoring at a rate of .25 points per shot over expectation, per Synergy data. To further illustrate the point, his 2.8 high-value assists (3-point assists + rim assists + free-throw assists) per 75 possessions rank in the 62nd percentile among all players, according to BBall Index, which isn’t bad for a 19-year-old who isn’t expected to be a primary distributor at this juncture.

Put simply, he’s creating great looks for other Spurs when the assist opportunities present themselves. And more importantly, when he doesn’t turn the ball over. Sochan still gets stuck in tight spaces, either by overdribbling into a crowd or trying to squeeze passes into gaps that just aren’t there. But teenagers tend to force the issue — in basketball, in life, in all aspects — so those types of struggles are to be expected, especially for a kid who’s already taken on roughly 26 percent of the team’s offensive workload whenever he’s on the court, per BBall Index.

While some of the stuff Sochan has flashed has been intoxicating, just understand the ups and downs are going to remain prevalent for such a raw player. He’s going to encounter challenges along the way he’s never before faced as he takes on a more prominent role within the offense and defenses begin to home in on his weaknesses even further. That’s just how it goes.

But to his benefit there’s basically no pressure at this point, and the Spurs have made it clear that, within reason, the training wheels are off — if they were really even there to begin. Sochan has the freedom to experience, adapt to, and experiment with everything thrown his way, and he has the full support of the coaching staff and his teammates to do so.

For all the times we’ve heard or read or written the phrase “developmental season,” this is the stuff we’re circling. This is the gold nugget beneath the murky water at the bottom of the pan, and the evidence to support the idea there’s plenty more wealth to be found ahead in the NBA Draft. Sochan and the rest of the young core represent only a part of the future, and if the front office can continue to identify and develop these types of players moving forward, things are going to be just fine around San Antonio in the years to come.

During a season jam-packed with losses amid a draining schedule, the Sochan adventure hasn’t gotten old in the slightest. Let’s be honest, he’s one of the main reasons so many people still tune in every night, and it’s easy to understand why.

As Pop mentioned, we have no idea what he’s going to do from one night to the next, and that alone is worth the price of admission.