SAN ANTONIO — Fresh off a Hall of Fame induction and heading into his 28th year at the helm of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich faces a fascinating choice: Who should start at point guard as the Wemby Era begins?
Everyone in the basketball world knows that star rookie Victor Wembanyama is set to start his NBA career in the Alamo City, but the starting lineup around him was up for debate and speculation all summer. Fundamentally, it's a question of stability versus growth potential—a traditional approach versus a more modern one.
Both sides have their merits, and Spurs fans seem to be fairly divided.
Only one man will decide who takes the floor when the Mavericks come to town on opening night Oct. 25. Guessing what Pop may do is often a fool's errand, and telling him what to do is more foolish still. But on Media Day this year, he actually solicited suggestions. He also said if Manu Ginobili can come off the bench, anyone can.
So let's put ourselves in the coach's shoes, examine the question and the context, and see what conclusions we reach.
The 7'3" Wemby will start, and it appears clear that Zach Collins will as well to give the rookie a teammate in the frontcourt who can guard the opposing center, space to the 3-point arc and act as... shall we say, a mediator in any on-court disputes that may arise.
That leaves three open spots in the starting lineup for four guys who were in there last season: Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Tre Jones and Jeremy Sochan.
Vassell missed a large chunk of last season due to a knee injury. This summer he got healthy, added muscle to improve his durability and downhill attacking, and reportedly emerged as an off-court leader on this young team. And, oh yeah: The 23-year-old just signed a five-year contract extension reportedly worth $135 million. The sharpshooting wing may currently be the best player on the team, and he will almost certainly start.
Keldon Johnson has been floated by some as a possible sixth man. The perimeter shooting was a struggle in the second half of last year, and he gravitated more toward pressuring the rim. He has a ton of value attacking off the catch, and said that he just wants to do whatever the team needs. He would bring energy and scoring punch off the bench, and came into training camp with a renewed focus on the defensive end. His playmaking has also looked a bit tighter in limited preseason action.
However, all the things that would make Keldon a quality sixth man would also make him a quality starter. Plus, he's the longest-tenured Spur, and we know how Pop values that corporate knowledge. Would he really want to bench the old head of the young core, an emotional leader on the team, the guy who led the squad with 22 points per game last season?
If it's not Johnson, the two guys most likely to wind up leading the second unit are the two guys who provide the most fundamentally different approaches to the point guard position: Tre Jones and Jeremy Sochan.
Let's start with Jones, who is without question the best traditional point guard on the roster. He runs the offense with a degree of poise and control that belies his youth, takes care of the ball, and sets up his teammates with craft and cunning and hustle. He hit a groove to close last season, notching a pair of triple-doubles in the last few games. He led the team with 6.6 assists per game last season to just 1.6 turnovers, running more pick and rolls per game (5.5) than any other Spur.
He's listed at just 6'1", but the former second-round pick is a scrappy defender. The weakest point in his game is 3-point shooting, which is still a work in progress. He just signed a two-year deal reportedly worth $19 million. If the plan is to run with a traditional point guard, he's your man.
But what if we think outside the box a bit and consider Jeremy Sochan there? Pop is.
When Jones was injured for a few games last year, the 6'8" pest Sochan was tasked with matching up against the likes of Steph Curry and Damian Lillard. The ninth pick in 2022, he started 53 of the 56 games he played. This preseason, Popovich has experimented with his second-year stud starting at the 1. He's a switchable defender who is currently at his best cutting off the ball offensively, but the playmaking ability and fluidity at his size is intriguing. It's not polished or reliable yet, but Pop clearly believes it's worth exploring.
"He can play 1 through 4, and depending on circumstances, who we're playing, injuries and that sort of thing, I can see him going to the 5 position and us playing small. He's that kind of... he's like a utility infielder in baseball, they still have that? The sky is the limit for him," Popovich said on Media Day. "He's so competitive, he handles the ball, he's one of our best passers, what is he 6'8"? Something like that. He can find people. He's really gonna be important in creating pace for us, that up-tempo style that we did so much better last year. He's gonna be very, very fun to watch."
Asked about the possibility of playing point guard, Sochan also seemed open to and excited about the idea.
"I think I would be comfortable. I think it would be an experiment, and there's gonna be days where it looks beautiful, and there's gonna be days where it's like, 'Aaaah, I don't know about that,'" he said with a laugh. "But at the end of the day I have a growth mindset, and I feel like it's a position that I can help the team. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun if that happens, and we'll see."
In Sochan's first preseason game he had 10 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, a steal and a turnover. The next time out he had 13 points, 4 steals, no assists and 3 turnovers. Like he said: mixed results.
The case for Tre Jones as a starter is straightforward. He's the best true point guard on the roster, he will provide stable playmaking that should help set up Wemby and everyone else, and that would allow Sochan to pressure the defense more as an off-ball mover and secondary playmaker which is the offensive skill he's currently the best at. It's the safest option and the most traditional.
But is it better for the Spurs to go the safe route when they find themselves in an extraordinary situation? San Antonio has the best basketball prospect of the last 20 years, a 7'3" guard who will completely change the way this team plays on both ends of the floor.
They also have a bunch of recent first-round picks with good size on the wing and some ability to create offense. If there was ever a time to throw conventional basketball wisdom out the window and try something different, it's probably right now.
The case for Sochan as the starting point guard is complicated and nuanced. It requires hope, creativity, risk tolerance and positionless basketball. But if you can stomach the risk, and if it works out, the possibilities are scary for other teams.
If Sochan starts at point over Jones, that doesn't mean he's going to play the position the way Jones would. In fact, it means the team would embrace a collective approach to creating offense. Nobody would be the point guard, and everybody would be the point guard. Primary playmaking opportunities wouldn't be concentrated with one guy, they would be distributed more evenly. This would be more chaotic and less predictable, but maybe this is exactly the kind of team that would thrive in chaos. If there's a bit too much chaos for their own good, Jones comes in off the bench to get things under control.
Who would initiate most of the offense? That probably depends on who has the best matchup and who has the hot hand on any given night. If that's how you want to play as a team, your point guard's off-ball fit becomes a lot more important. Sochan is still working on his jumper, but his size and athleticism allows him to impact the game as a screener, a cutter, and a lurker in the dunker spot. That will allow him to stay on the floor even as he works on developing into a true point guard.
The most important element of Sochan at the 1 might actually be on the defensive end of the floor. His long arms and quick feet make him a true disruptor at the point of attack. If he's defending a little guy in the pick and roll and has to switch onto a center, that's not a mismatch in the paint. Jones is a solid positional defender, but will obviously struggle against big men. A lineup of Sochan, Vassell, Johnson, Wembanyama and Collins can theoretically switch almost everything.
So what will Gregg Popovich do? The first three preseason games gave us some clues.
Sochan rested the first and started at point for the next two. Jones started at point in the first game, came off the bench in the second, and rested the third. Did Pop do that just to gauge how Sochan looked starting at the 1 without Jones on the floor, or did he do it because that's the plan moving forward?
On Wednesday night we got a more definitive answer. With everyone healthy and available, Popovich went with Sochan, Vassell, Johnson, Wembanyama and Collins.
The early returns were quite promising. In the first five minutes they built a 17-1 lead with stifling defense and 12 quick points for Devin Vassell. He knocked down a triple on a handoff from Collins, then dribbled into one, then a third in a row off a feed from Keldon in transition. His fourth bucket was a beautiful give-and-go with Wemby that illustrates the versatility of the lineup.
San Antonio held a 32-13 lead after a quarter, maintained a big lead throughout, and won 117-103.
After the game Pop was asked if this was his starting five for the next game as well.
"Yeah, I mean, they better play well or we're in trouble," he said. "Those are the big guys. They're tall, they're big, they're gonna start, and they're getting used to each other."