From Shams:
Free agent forward Jeremy Sochan plans to sign with the New York Knicks after he clears waivers, his agent Deirunas Visockas of Gersh Sports told ESPN on Thursday.
Sochan, who was released by the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, had 10 interested suitors and landed on the Knicks as his new team. His deal with the Knicks, who had been looking for wing depth before the trade deadline, is for the remainder of the season.
The 6-foot-8 Sochan, 22, provides the Knicks with a young, athletic wing with size and versatility. He averaged 10.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 25.3 minutes per game across 212 games for the Spurs in four-plus seasons.
The ninth pick in the 2022 NBA draft, he was a two-time Rising Stars participant as a rookie and sophomore. Sochan, who provided lockdown defense when called upon, had fallen out of San Antonio’s rotation due in part to the emergence of rookie forward Carter Bryant, who was drafted No. 14 in 2025.
You almost never get a 23-year-old former top ten pick on the buyout market, so I’m all for it.
But, of course, 23-year-old former top ten picks are rarely on the buyout market, and, well, you know. But, again, very low risk, possible big reward!
Nice to see the Knicks be a good enough destination that a much-desired buyout option chose them!
58 replies on “ESPN: Agent: Jeremy Sochan to sign with Knicks after clearing waivers”
Happy We Signed a Buyout Guy Who Was in the 88th Percentile of DEPM Last Season Day to all who celebrate
He didn’t sign here to sit on the bench . It will be interesting to see how many minutes he gets and what lineups he plays in..
Sochan was a viable NBA player (not good, but acceptable) as a recently as last season, so if you want to give our forwards some minutes off here and there he’s interesting. At least with him and Mo we have some promising young guys which is hard to do with a team like this
1 Brunson, Alvarado, Kolek
2 Hart, Deuce, Clarkson
3 Bridges, Shamet
4 OG, Sochan, Diawarra
5 KAT, Mitch, Hukporti
That’s kind of impressive. It does move Hukporti into an undesirable spot if Mitch can’t play, but at this point we’re kind of all in on Mitch’s health anyway, aren’t we?
Sochan has thus far suffered from being impressively good at a large number of things by non-NBA standards and not good enough at any particular thing by NBA standards. He’s the wrong kind of tweener, in other words.
The question is whether in a limited role he can be switchable and a passable rim protector on defense, and really hammer typical “big” skills on offense and on the glass, because I don’t think we brought him in to try to turn him into a triple double machine.
At a minimum, he should be better than Precious Achiuwa in the Precious Achiuwa role.
Sochan apparently is a good POA defender, which could be useful to have with Deuce being out and Alvarado being our only option in that spot for now.
Boy, really trying to like this because I root for the Knicks.
We beat Philly by 49 with OG and Deuce out. It was one of the more fun games I’ve watched, with everyone contributing. When OG and Deuce come back minutes will be scarce, and now Sochan.
At least we’ll have fun guessing what hair color he’s going to have each day…
I guess if he takes all of Clarkson’s minutes I’ll be okay with it.
Reposting in new thread:
Sochan has played 41% of his minutes at C this year and last year… not that the Spurs have a good track record playing him at appropriate positions.
I’m fine with Huk as a 3rd string C, he’s currently 18th in Actual DEPM this season. There’s a lot of noise, but given his defensive track record in Australia I’m willing to buy it. Don’t ask about his OEPM. Let’s not talk about that.
We do need some PF/big wing depth, and Sochan can credibly do that and play C. He wasn’t nearly as bad in 1300 minutes last year.
Not many great C options on waivers anyhow.
Don’t forget Dadiet who inside sources tell me has greatly improved his water fetching and towel fluffing skills.
So..we have 4 Josh Hart intangibles-y guys on the team now. The vibes better damn immaculate in that locker room. So that means KAT better quit pouting about his role and continue to work. At the same time though- the guys need to make a concerted effort to feed him too. I like Sochan with this group. I wonder though- is it too late to usurp Diawara? That’s going to be an interesting watch. They both are good at the same things, except I trust Diawara’s shot more.
Oh the 2nd half of the season is gonna be fun!
So what is up with OG’s tater tots?
I’ve been assuming it was mostly against big POAs. Would be cool if he could guard smalls. Maybe this is the wing stop we’ve been waiting for?
OG has lost a toenail, so he’s out however long that takes to heal up
I don’t know his game much, but he can’t be worse than Yabu was for us if he defend at all.
Sochan’s DRTG of 113.2 would rank him 18th in the league if he played enough minutes. So there’s that.
Not better than OG (111.9, 13th) or Kawhi (112.8, 16th), but ball park…
So he may be more watchable than Clarkson…
Eye test only, Sochan just feels like a perfect guy to guard Cade and Tatum for 12-15 minutes while relieving OG. Alvie and Deuce are just too small. They’re both perfect for Maxey types.
Can someone share data how efficient Cade and Tatum are when being guarded by Sochan?
Still can’t believe Leon flipped Yabu’s salary into Sochan and Alvie.
really seems like more than anything else the FO identified point of attack defense as a major priority, leading to trading for Alvarado and now picking up Sochan. Sochan looks great guarding the ball, which could mean that in some spots you could have something like Sochan, Hart, Mikal, OG, Mitch type lineups when you need a defensive stop. Against teams like Boston, whose offense seems to be completely based on finding a mismatch, that could be great.
I read that in 23-24 Pop had him playing PG. lmao He may not be a shooter, but I have a feelng his development was not handled very well. I assume he just lost his spot in the rotation this year. He probably needed a change badly. If he can guard multiple positions effectively he’ll be playable on this team, but to be honest, if comes down to a choice I’d rather develop Diawara unless he starts failing.
Maybe our shooting coach can help him.
alvarado and sochan is about the best you could possibly hope for from consignment. ph level continues to dip, which seems like a good thing.
That’s some damn good GM’ing right there
Seems a bit long for something so simple. None of my patients were ever disabled that long.
And we didn’t even give up the WAS picks! I figured that was likely par for getting one of them.
I don’t mind giving OG three weeks off.
Sochan is interesting. I am always up to watch his type of player. Not expecting much but good work by Leon I think make these deals.
ESPN (https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47909248/source-jazz-jaren-jackson-jr-season-ending-surgery):
Utah Jazz forward Jaren Jackson Jr. will have surgery to remove a growth in his left knee, the team announced Thursday.
Jackson, a two-time All-Star acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies in a blockbuster deal at the trade deadline, will miss the remainder of the season, sources told ESPN. He is expected to be cleared well in advance of training camp, sources said.
The growth — a pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) — was discovered in an MRI during a physical after he was traded to the Jazz from the Grizzlies on Feb. 3.
Uh huh.
Tank-itis strikes again!!!
Funny about JJJ since he got 23 points for the Jazz…….last night. He seemed…….ummmmmmm…….OK.
Seems like a pretty specific diagnosis to be gaming the system. They’re non-cancerous tumors growing on the connective tissues of joints like knees. Probably very painful and only likely to get worse if not removed.
He was terrible as a PG but he can handle the ball well for a guy his size
Jericho with 17/11 last night in 36 minutes is…….impressive?
POA defense against ballhandling wings is Sochan’s best attribute. He moves his feet really well and he’s a strong guy. Highly switchable. Also excels at blowing up pick and rolls.
He’s a legit defender, but was redundant on a San Antonio club that’s an outstanding defensive team that doesn’t shoot very well.
I’m glad we’ll finally have a guy who’s extremely talented at taunting opposing players!
I present my evidence for Leon Rose as the JR Smith of Team Presidents, and suggest that his last few moves look like they might be start of a new hot streak:
Bad Leon (Jun 2021 > Jun 2022)
– Incinerates Jalen Johnson
– signs Evan Fournier
– extends Rose, Burks, and Noel
– signs Kemba Walker
– Cam Reddish trade
– trades the 11th pick
– acquires Jalen Duren to give to Pistons to dump Kemba Walker
Good Leon (July 2022 > Jan 2024):
– signs Brunson
– signs Hartenstein
– Hart trade
– signs Donte
– OG trade
– Deuce extension
Bad Leon (Feb 2024 > Jul 2025)
– Bojan trade
– Bridges trade
– 2024 draft
– KAT trade
– signs Clarkson
– signs Yabu
Good Leon (Jun 2025 > today)
– fires Thibs
– drafts Mo
– signs Landry
– Alvarado trade
– signs Sochan
Maybe but he hasn’t worked with our shooting coach yet. And looking at Hart, Kolek and Diawara…maybe that coach is legit and can help him?
Never been a fan but I also am irrationally full of hate towards people who wear the Spurs uniform. We’ll see!
Alvarado was a GREAT pickup. I don’t expect much here and would rather see Diawara continue to get playing time.
Me, too, brother. Me, too.
Wish they would just change their name to the Tanks and lean into it.
Cade Cunningham vs. Jeremy Sochan
Metric vs. Jeremy Sochan vs. Rest of League
2PFG% ~41.2% 51.9%
3PFG% ~26.5% 33.0%
FG% ~38.0% 46.2%
He won’t be getting DNPs against Cade…Guaraaanteeeed!
Found this post on Posting and Toasting from a Spurs fan. Thought it was worth quoting. It is quite long, fyi.
And a follow up post from another Spurs fan.
Sochan is a 28.7% 3pt shooter on 487 career shots. I have no idea how that guy parsed his numbers into a better shooter than advertised. He is not good from the corners or when left wide open. I mean, maybe he’s a 31% shooter instead of a 29% shooter… yay.
My impression has always been that Spurs fans hype him up because he didn’t look bad next to their players when they sucked. It’s insane to think he could be a starter on a non-tanking team. Even calling him a rotation player is a big stretch as a non-shooting, non-center player on anything except a tanking team like the Spurs pre-Wemby.
Whayall, Jeremy’s 2P% went from .519 and then .492 to .590 and then .594. Which I guess is improvement, even if it still sucks.
His three-point shooting showed no such trend. Ghastly his rookie year, to very bad in years 2 and 3, and then ghastly this year again (.247).
Raven, that’s interesting about the mock draft. Mores Johnson Jr. does sound good. I hadn’t read that far down.
Note: sorry for the late reply, but for me it’s just morning now and I’m catching up on the posts that appeared during my night.
On another note, if there is one theme to the recent moves it’s that Leon is trying to improve our defense. Way to go Leon
Well I was on the record pretty early on as Sochan-curious, and that was at $5.7M of cap space, so feel free to blame me if things don’t work out.
In his best season Sochan managed a 104 eFG+ and 102 TS+ to go along with the stout defense and boxscore stuffery. That’s a decent player even with the crummy 3pt shooting. At this point you have to be very skeptical that he’s ever gonna be able to shoot from the perimeter, so you probably can’t play him in lineups with Mitch, but as a backup forward playing alongside KAT he might have some utility for us.
This guy makes some good points, in particular about his PnR defense.
It this “price” it is an absolute free roll, so why not roll the dice? As close to zero downside as humanly possible.
My thing is, Sochan looks like he can be in an NBA game without the opposing team shitting all over him on one end or the other…unlike McCullar, Huk, Dadiet, and to a lesser but still significant degree, Kolek and Mo. He’s a very good defender and rebounder, and a more than decent passer in the correct “connector” role. I view him as both a cheap flyer at 22 years old, and a minutes-eater against tough big guards and wings. Ausar can’t shoot a lick and he’s a very effective starter, and Jeremy doesn’t have to be at that level to be a defensive minutes-eater. He’s got some really good role models on this team, particularly Josh Hart…and maybe he can be a role model for Mo, who has many moments of being off-balance in ways that mitigate his length and hurt his effectiveness.
I believe that there is still an opportunity to cut him or someone else and still have enough money left to sign someone in late March, e.g. cut one of Clarkson or Sochan to create a roster spot and use the remaining money under the second to fill that spot. That’s just an emergency option that probably won’t be entertained, but it’s good to know that there is still a tiny window of flexibility.
The starting lineup is going to have its hands full trying to score against Alvarado, Shamet, Sochan, Diawara and Mitch in practice drills.
There’s limited upside for us too, right? If this guy’s good I don’t think we can offer him anything more than a raise off his minimum salary this summer unless we somehow break up the team to access the TPMLE. So he’s just a rental, no?
Brunson, Shamet, Hart, Deuce, Shamet, Clarkson, and Alvarado are all in some way undersized for their position. OG is not particularly big for a PF and Mikal is not particularly big for a SF. Thankfully, all of our C’s are good size.
Diawara and Sochan provide some needed length. In effect, we swapped out a bench “big” in Yabu for Alvarado and Sochan and the opportunity to develop Mo. In other words, we solved our backup change-of-pace guard problem and we kinda got bigger!
I don’t think we have any rights to Sochan, so this is very much a ‘what can he do today’ play. If we do keep him, it’s because he didn’t do anything worth keeping.
Other than his shooting, I think Sochan looks a lot more polished defending and handling the ball compared to Diawara. If Diawara’s shooting falls off, Sochan will probably be a better choice off the bench.
“So he’s just a rental, no?”
The term “rental” might apply, but that is not how the word is traditionally used to describe a signing. It’s more about giving up assets to trade for a player on the walk year of a larger deal who can go UFA at seasons end. For example, Kawhi was a rental for Toronto. I would think that all post-deadline minimum deals in the buyout market when there are no “buy” options are rentals in a sense.
Alvarado
Shamet
Mikal
Sochan
KAT
Might be a fun lineup to throw out there.
Utah fined $500,000 and Indy $100,000. Nice work, Silver.
If Sochan is priced out of non-Bird Rights, the signing went horribly right
Nikola Topic makes his NBA debut tonight.
“Jalen Brunson leads the league (for the third straight season) in time of possession at 7.8 minutes per game. But his average seconds per touch (5.18) and dribbles per touch (4.82) are down from last season (6.06 and 6.04).”
I think it’s wild that he took six shots in 30 minutes (no foul shots) yesterday and we won by 49. Just sayin’.
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