Knicks’ Plan For Jeremy Sochan Coming Into Focus

The New York Knicks made a seemingly minor free-agent addition with forward Jeremy Sochan, but head coach Mike Brown seems to have a real plan for him.

After languishing on the bench for most of the season with the San Antonio Spurs, Sochan is in the Big Apple and faces a legitimate opportunity for playing time with the Knicks. After starting about 81% of games over his first three seasons in San Antonio, Sochan has yet to start a game in the 2025-26, while being active for only 28 of 54 contests. But Brown indicated to reporters this week that he's planning on giving Sochan "an opportunity" in the Knicks' game-to-game rotation, potentially at the expense of promising rookie Mohamed Diawara, whose average playing time jumped to about 20 minutes in five games before the All-Star Break.

Ask Brown, and the difference between Sochan and Diawara right now is experience.

"[Sochan] knows the league and the league knows him," Brown said, per James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. "He knows the officials and vice versa. At the end of the day, I’m going to play who I think is best for us.”

Even in his limited playing time this season for the Spurs, Sochan averaged a steal, 0.5 blocks and 7.4 rebounds per 36 minutes, solid numbers for a wing off the bench. But his overall shooting has dropped by 60 percentage points (.535 to .475), and he's never been a good 3-point shooter (25.7% this season), so his dropoff on offense ostensibly made him too one-dimensional and he became expendable.

The Knicks have been filling out their depth across the floor going back to the trade deadline, most notably with trade acquisition Jose Alvarado at point guard. He, Sochan, and potentially even G League addition T.J. Warren should all have chances to contribute at the NBA level for a top-heavy team that needed to beef up the rest of the roster, especially considering that the Knicks simply feel closer to contending for a berth in the NBA Finals than they have in years.