San Antonio Spurs' Growing Pains Not Solely Jeremy Sochan's Fault

The San Antonio Spurs are frustrating fans with the point guard experiment, but in a rebuild, that's to be expected.

As the San Antonio Spurs continue to lose, fans are becoming more and more irate. The Spurs are currently riding a 12-game losing streak after losing to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, and the Silver and Black faithful are growing tired.

Rebuilding is not done by finding a generational prospect. It’s done by building around him. Unfortunately, many Spurs fans assumed that the arrival of Victor Wembanyama would immediately propel the Spurs to former glory. Believe me, I wish that were the case, but that’s not how things work.

Just a personal note from me to you, reader: I grew up and live in the metro Detroit area. The local teams have been in the rebuilding process for many years, in one case, decades. This constant state of rebuilding has taught Michiganders patience.

Victor Wembanyama takes the court in City Edition gear / © Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

Comparable teams like the Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder are just now seeing success after rebuilding for four-plus seasons. Instant success just doesn’t happen.

That being said, I am hoping that the Spurs emerge sooner rather than later. With the youngest roster in the league, the Spurs are throwing things to the wall and seeing what sticks.

Devonte’ Graham has been relegated to the last man on the bench, Tre Jones is the sixth man, and Jeremy Sochan is running point guard.

The “blame everything on Sochan” trope is mostly valid, but it’s getting tired. Should he be playing point guard? Not on a winning team, but the Spurs are not a winning team. The Spurs are throwing him into the fire so to speak and hoping that a solid shooter who can play on-ball emerges, to be utilized sparingly next season.

So-called armchair GMs have taken to social media to tell Gregg Popovich and the organization how to run their lineups. Shockingly, this hasn’t worked. Pleasantly, the Spurs seem to be fully behind Sochan. Keldon Johnson praised him earlier in the season for making the difficult transition, and Tre Jones has also voiced support.

Jones’ support should mean a lot. After all, he was sent to the bench in favor of the experimental Sochan test, but he hasn’t missed a beat.

“He’s getting a lot more comfortable at the point guard position. It’s definitely a little bit of a learning curve for him, he’s never played that position so it’s not going to be an easy adjustment of transition, but he’s doing a great job,” Jones said. “When he needs help he comes and asks and everyone’s all ears and trying to help and everything. He’s going to continue to develop and improve with every single day and we’ve seen that so far.”

It would seem that pride has not gotten in Sochan’s way, which is refreshing to see from a 20-year-old lottery pick.

Hearing that Sochan is embracing that he needs help is also nice to know. There have been several plays where Sochan simply does not look like a point guard, including a damning missed read in the most recent loss.

Wemby goes WAY UP TOP for the lob! 😲

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— NBA (@NBA) November 27, 2023

Instead of dumping the ball to Wembanyama for an easy dunk, he found Jones on the perimeter. Jones–not a shooter–instead made the now-tricky pass to Wemby for the highlight jam.

The irony is not lost on me.

That play was almost undoubtedly talked about in the locker room post-game, but Sochan has seemed receptive to feedback. 

“Just to be willing to learn and not stubborn about it, I feel like that’s a big key,” Jones said about Sochan. “For him to have that shows his maturity in that area and he’ll just continue to learn.”

Nevertheless, fans continue to urge the Spurs to start a traditional point guard to pair with Wembanyama. However, basketball is a team sport. The presumptive starting lineup next season will be Point Guard TBD/Devin Vassell/Sochan/Wembanyama/Center TBD. Jones and Zach Collins might fill in, but realistically it will be rookies or free agents filling the void spots.

Jeremy Sochan and Gregg Popovich / © Zachary BonDurant, USA TODAY

If the Spurs do start a rookie point guard next season, having someone familiar with the role in the starting five alongside him will be incredibly important. Asking a rookie guard to help lead a team to the playoffs is wildly unrealistic, but putting him in a lineup with Sochan will make it much more manageable.

Jones has already foreshadowed what a possible Sochan/rookie guard relationship would look like by describing his on-court experience with Sochan.

“When we’re on the court together we share the duties and do what we can, just continue to help each other as much as possible,” Jones said.

This year is all about seeing what the Spurs have. Next season will be about finding success and building a competitive roster, but building takes time. San Antonians and fans everywhere need to realize that this roster will not be competitive until the 2025-26 season.

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Take it from this Michigander. Rebuilding sucks. I’m a lifelong Spurs fan, and we were all spoiled by the dynasty we had. Luckily, the Spurs have the talent to propel a rebuild, but even a rushed rebuild is a multi-year process.