San Antonio Spurs Season Awards: Jeremy Sochan Prevents Victor Wembanyama From Sweep

The 2023-24 season is all but over for the San Antonio Spurs, and Jeremy Sochan took home some in-house hardware.

Apr 9, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) / Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

The 2023-24 season is all but over for the San Antonio Spurs, who only have two games left. With matchups scheduled against the Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons, the Spurs have shut down the best players on their roster and have cemented a bottom-five finish in the NBA this year.

With 80 games to look back on, the Spurs' end-of-season awards are pretty clear. MVP goes to Victor Wembanyama, as does Rookie of the Year. He is all but a lock to win the league's ROTY, and his historically dominant defensive season has him in contention for the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award, so easily wins the in-house DPOTY.

Apr 7, 2024; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts in the / Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

Sixth-man honors likely go to Keldon Johnson, who led the Spurs' bench with 15 points per game off the bench. Wembanyama can't win that award, as he started 70 games. Clutch Player of the Year is a bit of a toss-up, as none of the Spurs were very clutch this season, but Wembanyama's clutch blocks on both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Chet Holmgren give him clear access to the superlative "Clucth Plays of the Year."

Bleacher Report gave Wembanyama the team's MVP but gave the caveat that each player can only win one award, so they refrained from naming a Spurs' DPOTY. It was Wemby's for the taking, of course, but arbitrary rules must be followed! They have the Most Improved Player award to Jeremy Sochan. League-wide, he is not in the running, and Tyrese Maxey is expected to bring home that hardware, but it begs an interesting question: is Sochan the MIP?

There is a case to give Wembanyama Sochan's award, writes BR's Grant Hughes. "Throw in Most Improved if you simply compare where Wemby was in October to where he is now." However, based on the (often painful) gains Sochan made this season, there is no one ahead of him for MIP in San Antonio.

Sochan ended his rookie season last year averaging 11 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shot only 24.6 percent from beyond the arc. He was also a defensive maestro, which has become his calling card, and the future looked bright for the rookie from Baylor.

This season, he started the year as the Spurs' point guard and facilitator. The results were messy, as the Spurs lost 18 straight games, but the trust the organization put in him was well-founded. He ended this season averaging 11.6 points, 3.4 assists, 6.4 rebounds, and shot 30.8 percent from behind the arc.

Those improvements are small across the board, but the blueprint for Sochan to grow into a do-all player like Draymond Green or Dennis Rodman is clear. He will never be a volume scorer, but that's what Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, and a soon-to-be-drafted lottery pick are for. Sochan's job is to guard the opponent's best player, which he has done, and create for himself off-ball while doing the dirty work that star players usually refrain from. He's scrappy, he hustles, and he's a no-nonsense player who is also full of nonsense(?). If you watch a single Spurs game next season, you'll understand what that means.

Mar 29, 2024; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forwards Victor Wembanyama (1) and Jeremy Sochan (10) hug / Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA has become a scorers league, but players in the trenches create wins for their teams. Klay Thompson recently praised Green for his role in the Golden State Warriors' dynasty, saying, "Without [Green], the whole thing would never have worked. It unlocked a whole new way of positionless style of basketball."

Sochan is emerging as the prototypical Swiss Army knife player, and if he continues to develop, NBA fans will quickly see why he has already endeared himself in San Antonio.