Spurs' Jeremy Sochan Talks Transition to PG: Sometimes 'It's Like, 'F--k This S--t'
Jeremy Sochan's transition from power forward to point guard this season has been a bit of a mess—and he knows it.
"It is the first time I have ever played point guard in my life," Sochan said, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN. "I am doing it. I am making a transition like this in the NBA, which is rare. You don't see a lot of people going from power forward to point guard.
"There have been moments where it's like, 'Yo, I don't want to.' It's like, 'f--k this s--t.' I'm going to be honest. There have been moments where there isn't confidence. But there are moments of being confident and just working. Knowing the trust I have from the coaches and players, it helps."
The Spurs, a team that's decidedly less interested in winning basketball games than developing their young talent, has thrown Sochan into a full-time point guard role as Gregg Popovich toys with a big lineup. Popovich called Sochan his "official 2023-24 experiment."
A 2022 lottery pick out of Baylor, Sochan played power forward his rookie season and showed open-court ball-handling skills and a strong IQ as a passer. That was enough for Popovich to abandon the traditional point guard role and hand things over to Sochan, which has been more of a miss than a hit so far in 2023-24.
Sochan is averaging 10.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game as the Spurs sit 3-10. The team defense has not created the havoc Popovich wanted with long arms all over the perimeter, and the offense has sorely missed traditional playmaking. San Antonio has understandably looked like a more functional offensive unit with Tre Jones manning the point off the bench.
Of course, the Spurs are not playing for this year. They're trying to build a cohesive team around Victor Wembanyama, and Sochan's time at point guard this season will force him into being a better ball handler and passer moving forward.
San Antonio will eventually have to acquire a traditional guard to man the offense, but for now, Popovich appears to enjoy stretching his young players to their limits and hoping it pays dividends down the road.
