Porous free throw shooting bedeviled San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan early in his NBA career, but one major change to routine may have helped solve at least some of those issues.
In his rookie season in 2022-23, Sochan started out the season shooting well under 50 percent from the free throw line. As a result, he made a very risky change to his routine, especially for a rookie. In December of that season, Sochan decided to shoot his free throws one-handed. Sure, it got some laughs and odd looks on social media, and while some may have scoffed at the idea of that being a long-term fix, the numbers say otherwise.
Sochan has seen significant improvement since making the change
Sochan would finish his rookie season shooting 69.8 percent from the free throw line, a major improvement from where he started. He would then shoot 77.1 percent from the line the following season, and 69.6 percent last year.
Sochan recently commented on his significant routine change.
“It's been a long process. It's not always going to be perfect, but a couple of things that we've been working on is my wrist placement, elbow, how I raise the ball, how I catch the ball, footwork. So, there's been a lot of different things,” Sochan said, per Hector Ledesma of Clutch Points. “But, I think I'm in a good place. Yeah, I'm super excited to show that to you.”
The Spurs enter this season looking to return to the playoffs, and Sochan figures to be a key component of that. The team has been on the rise for the last couple of seasons, and appear ready to finally make a run towards the postseason.