SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Spurs' Jeremy Sochan is a defensive stalwart, a hustler on the court, and can score near the basket, but his perimeter shooting is still a work in progress.
Sochan has not been a consistent perimeter threat since entering the NBA.
He shot 45% from the field in his rookie campaign and 43% in his sophomore season. From the three-point line, he went from 25% from the three-point line in his rookie year to 31% last season.
Now in his third year, he acknowledges that his work on his outside shooting remains a focus.
"It's something I'm working on," he said. "It's not going to be perfect every day."
It's still early in the new season, and the sample size is small, but there are some signs that Sochan's outside shot is tracking in the right direction.
In a win over Houston on Saturday night, he shot 8-for-14 from the field while hitting 1-of-2 free throw shots. Most of his shots came from at the rim, but he connected on two midrange shots.
Against Dallas to start the season, Sochan connected on 6-of-11 shots (55%) and made 1-of-2 three-pointers in the road loss. Again, most of the shots made were near the rim.
He calls his early returns on his outside shot work "good" and praises the team shooting coach, Jimmy Baron, who is helping him change his form and improve his shooting mechanics.
Sochan even has gone away from the one-handed free-throw shooting form this season.
But with spacing a premium in today's NBA and adding a new facet to his offensive cache, Sochan stresses that he is constantly working on it.
It is safe to say no one is expecting him to become the next coming of Stephen Curry and rack up three-point shooting contests at the All-Star break.
However, should he get a consistent outside shot to fall, combined with his defensive skills, his game would open up tremendously, individually and for the team's success, and he would become a significant complementary two-way player to pair with Victor Wembanyama for the future.
"But you know I am confident with it, and I am going to keep going," he said.