By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-02-20 09:49:07
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
马刺的小球阵容不仅表现糟糕，还可能阻碍一位核心年轻球员的发展和贡献。
马刺再次尝试杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)的位置多功能性，让他们最近使用的无中锋阵容中，索汉承担两种完全不同的角色。有时他被要求防守大个子，有时则需要在没有后防球员帮助的情况下阻止主要的持球人。
和被要求做的任何事情一样，索汉都在努力做到最好，但他在这两个方面都很挣扎。更糟糕的是，由于他扮演着这些交替的角色，他无法专注于提高任何一个方面。
根据PBPstats.com的数据，索汉本赛季在没有中锋的情况下只打了188分钟，这个样本量太小，无法用数据得出明确的结论，但这仍然是他本赛季不到900分钟的上场时间中相当大的一部分。而且，最近他打无中锋阵容的频率也更高了。在过去的五场比赛中，索汉在没有维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)或其他大个子的情况下出战了62分钟，与文班亚马一起出战了35分钟。结果并不理想。更糟糕的是，索汉在新角色中的低效表现似乎限制了他的上场时间。自从伤愈复出以来的11场比赛中，他场均上场20分钟，有两次上场时间不到15分钟。对于一个被认为是核心的球员来说，这并不理想。
如果索汉能在新角色中学习到新技能，那么上场时间少就不是什么大问题。毕竟，如果他的投篮没有提高，他可能会被迫经常打小球中锋，所以为什么现在不让他接受挑战呢？马刺之前就尝试过控球后卫的实验，虽然还不清楚是否有所回报，但至少他们全身心地投入了。可惜，现在的情况并非如此。
看看索汉在过去几场比赛中的对位情况，就会发现他在无中锋阵容中花费了大量时间作为外线球员的主要防守者，而不是扮演中锋的典型防守角色或防守大个子通常会防守的对位者。当索汉与文班亚马一起上场时，让索汉在外线是有道理的，因为圣安东尼奥没有太多的第一道防线防守者，但是在没有中锋的情况下，马刺要求索汉去防守速度更快的球员，而且没有办法将他们引导到有帮助的地方。因此，教练组可以说并没有给索汉足够的时间去适应全职小球中锋的角色，以及随之而来的防守责任，同时还要求他做他通常做的工作，但在更糟糕的情况下，因为没有后防球员来帮助他。
如果让索汉打中锋似乎无助于他作为未来小球选择的发展，而打小球总体上对球队没有帮助，那么为什么会发生这种情况呢？除了巴锡的受伤，这是一个人员问题，轮换失衡使其更加恶化。马刺整个赛季都没有一个可靠的替补中锋。自从交易得到德章泰·穆雷(De’Aaron Fox)以来，他们一直致力于首发两名控球后卫，这加上斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)的崛起，将德文·瓦塞尔推到了前锋的位置，并减少了前锋的出场时间。凯尔登·约翰逊和朱利安·尚帕尼的出场时间减少，而索汉被推到了中锋（或无中锋阵容）的位置，以适应所有人。到目前为止，这个计划看起来并不奏效，至少在防守端是这样，自从索汉复出以来，马刺的防守排名联盟第22位，自从福克斯加盟以来一直保持在那里。
在让年轻球员打他们自然位置的同时，创造更平衡的阵容的最简单方法，就是让索汉和马刺唯一能投篮的大个子一起首发，并在第二阵容中让像查尔斯·巴锡或俾斯麦·比永博这样的更传统的中锋对阵大个子球队，而索汉则在更依赖对位情况的背景下获得小球中锋的出场时间。这样做需要将克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)放到替补席上，这可能会使更衣室里的事情变得复杂，但应该对防守有很大的帮助。索汉-文班亚马的组合，在经历了众所周知的挣扎之后，通过在进攻端改变角色，找到了如何一起取得成功的办法，并且已经战胜了对手。保罗-卡斯尔二人组应该在第二阵容中表现出色，并且不应该很难为保罗和文班亚马找到一起上场的时间，就净效率而言，这是圣安东尼奥最好的二人组。
无论马刺决定做什么，它都希望能让他们变得更好，同时也为索汉创造一个更正常的成长环境，索汉再次被要求远离自己的舒适区，而不是被允许找到自己的定位。
点击查看原文：The Spurs’ terrible center-less lineups are hurting Jeremy Sochan’s development
The Spurs’ terrible center-less lineups are hurting Jeremy Sochan’s development
The Spurs’ small-ball units are not only performing terribly but also potentially hindering the development and contributions of a core young player.
The Spurs are once again experimenting with the positional versatility of Jeremy Sochan by tasking him with two completely different roles in the center-less lineups they have been using lately. Sometimes he’s asked to guard the big man and others to stop main perimeter ball handlers without the help of a backline defender.
As with everything he’s asked to do, Sochan puts in the effort to make the most out of the situation, but he’s struggling in both areas. Worse yet, because he has these alternating roles, he’s not able to focus on improving on either.
Sochan has played just 188 minutes without a center next to him this season, according to PBPstats.com, which is too small an amount to draw definitive conclusions using stats but is still a considerable chunk of his under 900 minutes for the season. He’s been doing it more often recently, too. Over the past five games, Sochan has logged 62 minutes without Victor Wembanyama or any other big, and 35 alongside Wemby. The results have not been good. Making matters worse, Sochan’s inefficacy in his new role seems to be limiting his playing time. In the 11 games since returning from injury, he’s averaging 20 minutes a game and played under 15 minutes twice. Not ideal for a presumptive core piece.
The low minutes wouldn’t be a huge issue if Sochan was learning new skills in his new role. After all, if the shot doesn’t improve he could be forced to play small-ball center a lot, so why not throw him into the fire now? The Spurs did it with the point guard experiment and while it’s unclear if it paid off, at least they committed to it. Alas, that’s not what happening here.
A look at Sochan’s matchups in the last few games reveals that he’s spent plenty of time as the main defender on perimeter players on center-less lineups instead of playing a center’s typical defensive role or guarding the matchup that the big man would normally get. It makes sense to have Sochan in the perimeter when he shares the floor with Wembanyama since San Antonio doesn’t have many point-of-attack defenders, but with no center out there, the Spurs are asking Sochan to guard much quicker guys with no way of funneling them towards help. So the coaching staff is arguably not giving him enough reps as a full-time small-ball center, with the defensive responsibilities that come with it, while also asking him to do the job he normally does but under much worse circumstances since there’s no backline defender to help him.
If playing Sochan at center doesn’t seem to be helping his development as a future small-ball option and playing small in general doesn’t help at a team level, why has it been happening? Aside from Bassey’s injury, it’s a personnel issue made worse by rotational imbalances. The Spurs haven’t had a solid backup center all season. Since trading for De’Aaron Fox, they have committed to starting two point guards which, along with Castle’s ascent, has pushed Devin Vassell to a forward spot and taken minutes from that pool. Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie have seen their minutes decline and Sochan has been pushed to center (or center-less lineups) to accommodate everyone. So far, it looks like the plan is not working, at least on defense, where the Spurs have ranked 22nd in the league since Sochan’s return and have remained there since the Fox acquisition.
The simplest way to create more balanced lineups while playing young guys at their natural positions is to just start Sochan next to the one Spurs’ big man who can shoot and play a more traditional center like Bassey or Biyombo in the second unit against big teams while Sochan gets minutes as a small-ball center in a more matchup-dependant context. Doing so would necessitate sending Chris Paul to the bench, which could potentially complicate things in the locker room, but should massively help the defense. The Sochan-Wembanyama pairing, after well-documented struggles, figured out how to excel together mostly by switching roles on offense and has outscored opponents. The Paul-Castle duo should do well against second units, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find minutes for Paul and Wemby, San Antonio’s best duo in terms of net rating, to be on the floor together.
Whatever the Spurs decide to do, it will hopefully make them better while also resulting in a more normal developmental environment for Sochan, who has once again been asked to step far away from his comfort zone instead of being allowed to find his own identity.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock