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The San Antonio Spurs‘ offseason was centered around the addition of rookie Victor Wembanyama, who they selected with the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The 19-year-old has been hyped up more than any rookie since LeBron James in 2003, but he’s not the only player on the team.
San Antonio re-signed Tre Jones, who will likely start at the point guard spot, and Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson are two solid youngsters as well. Then there’s Jeremy Sochan, who just wrapped up his rookie year with the Spurs. According to Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report, Sochan is the “weakest link” in the Spurs starting lineup.
Bailey didn’t have many bad things to say about Sochan, but he ranks last as he’s the least developed of the Spurs’ starters (outside of Wembanyama, who clearly has superstar potential).
“This lineup may have the most question marks of any in the exercise. The oldest players of the bunch are Jones and Johnson, both of whom are 23. Sochan is 20, and incoming rookie Wembanyama is 19.
“We already know a little bit about what Johnson and Vassell can do as scorers, so really any of the other three could be fair game here.
“Though he’s already shown potential as a multipositional defender who can distribute a little, we’ll go with Sochan.
“Even though he appears to have the potential to be a solid B to B-plus in plenty of areas of the game, he’s clearly not as far along as Jones as a playmaker, and Wembanyama’s impact on defense could be massive as early as Game 1,” Bailey wrote.
The one questionable factor from this is Bailey does not list Zach Collins in the starting lineup despite Gregg Popovich naming him the starting center at the end of this past year.
If he were in the lineup, Collins might be the weakest link, but without accounting for that, this makes sense.
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