I’ve seen a lot of posts lately regarding point Sochan experiment and I wanted to try to explain both sides of the argument and explain why there is a fundamental difference in opinion. At the end of the day, we are all Spurs fans here. We all want what is best for the team. We just have different ideas about what it is best for the team. Let’s not antagonize the other side for having a differing opinion about what’s best for the team since both sides have valid arguments.
Arguments in Favor of Point Sochan:
Letting Jeremy work on his ball handling and passing will make him a well-rounded player. Jeremy was never meant to be a full-time starting PG on a championship-caliber team, but his experiences this year as the starting PG will help him develop into a Draymond Green-like player, which will be very useful for the Spurs in the future when they will hopefully contend for a title. I realize the experiment looks bad right now, but Sochan is only 20 years old and just 7 games into learning PG for the first time. It will be ugly at first, and that’s ok because the Spurs are not currently in win-now mode.
Arguments Against Point Sochan:
Jeremy being the starting PG is stunting everyone’s development, including Jeremy himself. Putting him in this position is setting him up for failure by overwhelming with too much on his plate. That is a surefire way to ruin any young player’s development. Instead of focusing on learning to be a PG, Jeremy should be focusing on improving his off-ball skills as a wing, especially his shooting. It would also make everyone else’s life in the starting lineup more easy if they had a competent PG to set them up. Playing pick-up street ball on offense is not a good habit for a team of young players to get used to. They need to operate within a team system. In order for that to happen, they need someone who can competently initiate the team system.
TRE might be already planned to be our 2nd unit PG for the future. Let Sochan develop until we get what we want for the first unit
I don’t think very many people actually expect Sochan to be the PG of the future. I don’t
But in a year where we wouldn’t make the playoffs anyway it’s worth experimenting and developing him because the skills he will develop running PG will be valuable at whatever position he eventually plays
I believe his play making will come along alright with time. My biggest concern with Jeremy is the jump shooting. Luckily he’s very committed to improving. We can see that with how he was willing to charge his free throws.
I’ve been one of the OPs advocating for PG Sochan.
The arguments against it are totally fair, even though they are out of our control.I don’t see how complaining online is going to change anything about the outcome (apart from creating a toxic headspace mindset for the players who read us, instilling doubt and negativity) but anyway, here’s why I don’t think the downsides are worth the worry:
- I personally think Jeremy has the mental strength (he’s shown that even before his NBA draft anyway) to learn from the experience and end up being a more complete player at the end of it. Which would benefit the team long-term in many different ways. We’re talking about a decade+ of potential positive outcomes for one year of this experiment.
- I don’t think it slows the rest of the team down that much, given they play almost half of their minutes with Tre anyway. Most of them have played with True PGs in the NBA before, but Wemby. And I’m not worried for Wemby:
- Wemby’s development will be fine, and probably won’t depend on Sochan that much over a season. He’s played Pro Basketball, he’s already ahead in many ways.
AND it’s also his 6th hour of playing NBA-rule game in his lifetime.
This means just being there teaches him stuff (especially when you’re as mature, as curious, and as eager to learn as Vic).
Any minute Vic is on an NBA floor, a bench, or even in a training facility, he learns things. Vic does not need to be with a true PG to learn by himself.
He’s not going anywhere.
He also had the best NBA start since Shaq. I’m not worried for him. - If they learn how to play at the highest level playing all their starter minutes with an inexperienced PG, the league will seem easy when they get a more experienced one.
It will seem like the entire league is slow. They start the hard way, but that also means the way will seem easier in the coming decade. - Cleveland and young Lebron ended up just feeding the ball to Lebron.
Took 3 years to make the playoffs.
They got beaten up by Pop and the Spurs because their strategy was easy to predict and they didn’t have a coherent team to rely on.
Lebron left Cleveland without a ring.
He only returned because he was from there in the first place.
Wemby wouldn’t have a reason to come back. - Important note: Victor himself is a strong believer and advocate of PG Sochan. He talks about it excitingly in Tony Parker’s recent podcast.
Victor is also more mature than some of his teammates as well, and “is used for his teams to have a hard time adjusting to his uniqueness” (said it in the Pod as well). He’s a team player, and sees things long-term.
I want to believe but no one truly does. PATFO and us as fans are day dreaming of Collier, Proctor or other PGs this draft. Why force him to do this if it won’t even be his real role going forward? He can improve secondary playmaking without all this
Good thinking, i like your style. I would add however that basketball is changing and while its ugly as hell right now, pop is building towards a positionless basketball system here, and while Jeremy brings the ball up the floor often and makes the first pass, we aren’t really trying to set up a traditional offense