The hot new name on the buyout market is Jeremy Sochan, a recent Top-10 pick waived on Wednesday by the San Antonio Spurs. Signing Sochan would be the ultimate boneheaded move by the Toronto Raptors, a mistake they must avoid at all costs.
At first glance, the Raptors going after Sochan is the exact kind of move they would normally make. They have a love affair with former Spurs bigs, from their blind devotion to Jakob Poeltl to signing Sandro Mamukelashvili this past summer. The "Mamu" deal has worked out, while the Poeltl deal keeps getting worse and worse.
Toronto also loves long, toolsy forwards who can defend multiple positions and handle the ball. Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, Jonathan Mogbo and Collin Murray-Boyles all fit the bill from the current roster, and the list of former draft picks under that heading are spotted all around the league, from Pascal Siakam to OG Anunoby.
Taking a flier on Sochan would seem like a low-risk upside play. He was the No. 9 pick in the NBA Draft less than four years ago; perhaps they could unlock his potential in a new situation and pick up a talented forward for nothing?
Fat chance.
Jeremy Sochan is washed up already
For starters, the reason that the Spurs moved on from Sochan was that his complete and utter lack of shooting and scoring ability made him unplayable. The 6'8" forward is a career 28.7 percent 3-point shooter and is down to 25.7 percent this year. His free-throw shooting isn't hiding a budding shooter, either, as he is hitting just 68.8 percent from the stripe.
Perhaps he is an interior force? That's a negative, Ghost Rider. Sochan is hitting a career-best 59.4 percent inside the arc, but taking only 6.4 attempts per 36-minutes from inside. Essentially, if he's wide open or in transition he can score, but he isn't able to create shots for himself -- nor others, as his assist percentage has taken a nosedive as well.
Sochan remains a solid defender, but he isn't a game-wrecking force on that end. The resulting player is long, a good defender, a terrible offensive player, and an anchor to the bottom in terms of spacing. If shooters have perimeter gravity, Sochan's magnetic field is flipped, actively pushing defenders away from him and toward his teammates.
Now, the idea of buying low on a player is that they will play better than they have at a previous start. But the ways that Sochan has struggled look like a terrible fit on this Raptors team. If he couldn't find a way to make an offensive impact with Victor Wembanyama and Harrison Barnes next to him, two of the league's best shooters at their positions, how will he possibly find a way to survive next to Jakob Poeltl, Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram?
Sochan would be a terrible fit on the Raptors
Before, we noted that Sochan fits Toronto's "type" for players they would target. The problem is that now the roster is packed with them! The Raptors desperately need players who are plus shooters at their positions to help open up space for the likes of Barnes and Murray-Boyles. There is no space for Sochan to play alongside the team's other stars.
If Sochan were miraculously to salvage his career and become a better two-way player in Toronto, he would be stuck behind multiple other players who do what he does better. The best version of Sochan is a non-shooting playmaking forward who handles the ball on offense to dime up shooters moving off-ball; think Draymond Green's role in Golden State.
Everyone on the Raptors right now needs the ball! That's the problem. And if the best-case scenario for a player is that they are useless for your team, why in the world would you sign them?
The Raptors are always looking for an upgrade. Jeremy Sochan's name will come up. But they must avoid the temptation to sign him -- a move that would gum up the spacing, cost them a roster spot, and ultimately result in nothing but pain.
Don't sign Jeremy Sochan. There is no possible way it ends well, Toronto.