Heading into the season, the San Antonio Spurs decided to roll with an interesting starting five that included Jeremy Sochan running the point guard position. The second-year forward had never played the position before, but the move was done in an effort to keep the team’s best guys on the floor at all times.
Sochan struggled with the role, even stating his discomfort at the position. He’s always been a forward, and being the team’s full-time point guard was a huge adjustment for him. And with the team losing 17 straight games, it was clear that the experiment wasn’t going well.
Now, it seems to be over. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Spurs are moving on from Sochan as the full-time point guard and instead plan to use him as one of a group of ball-handlers moving forward.
“Jeremy Sochan is making the transition from being San Antonio’s full-time point guard to one of the ballhandlers in the Spurs’ rotation moving forward,” Charania wrote.
“On Friday against the Bulls, coach Gregg Popovich started Malaki Branham and Devin Vassell to play more on the ball, with No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama shifting from power forward to center in the starting lineup. The Spurs had experimented with Sochan playing as the sole point guard, providing him a pathway to develop his playmaking and ballhandling skills. San Antonio is in the midst of a 16-game losing streak and hasn’t won since beating Phoenix on Nov. 2.”
Sochan will still be an important part of the Spurs’ rotation, but the days of him controlling the offense as the point guard seem to be over.
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